Cornel West, finally disabused of his cluelessness of how hard it is to get presidential ballot access as an independent candidate running outside any party, and obviously having burned his Green Party bridges, has now launched a "Justice for All Party," per an announcement on his campaign website, as seen via Independent Politcal Report. Apparently, he's yet to be disabused of his cluelessness about how hard this will be.

Let me quote the opening graf:

In an effort to directly confront the suppression of voter choice and participation by legacy political parties, Independent candidate for President of the United States, Dr. Cornel West, announced the establishment of the Justice For All Party (JFA). The party will primarily be utilized as a grassroots, people-powered vehicle to secure ballot access in specific states. Additionally, JFA will grow into a larger formation that galvanizes people-powered initiatives to promote transformational change beyond the 2024 election cycle.

Really? Existing third parties of the left could use your help with that suppression, without you going off and starting another one, first.

Second, per my opening graf, this won't seriously help you get on the ballot this cycle. Starting a third Party from scratch often requires somewhere around the same number of petition signatures as an independent candidacy.

Let us continue:

JFA builds off the foundation and tradition of grassroots political parties like the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, founded under the leadership of Ella Baker, Kwame Ture, and John Hulett, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party under the leadership of Civil Rights titans like Fannie Lou Hamer and the legendary Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

All 1960s orgs; way to date yourself, Cornel. Nostalgia's fun, but bupkis in the world of actual politics. And, the MFDP was a pressure organization within the Democratic Party, anyway, kind of like today's DSA Roseys, not a third party.

Also, beyond the issue of ego, this ignores the question of "why," which really has no answer beyond Cornel West's ego.

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Sidebar: At the time I posted this last Saturday morning, West was also getting roasted on Twitter for his uncritical encomium-eulogy to Navalny.

My prayers are with the precious family of the courageous Russian political prisoner the late Alexei Navalny, just as I pray for my dear brothers Mumia Abu-Jamal, Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, Leonard Peltier, and sister Narges Mohammadi and all other political prisoners in US… pic.twitter.com/u83HSNtiAr

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) February 17, 2024

The truth, known by many others besides me, is that Navalny had a past as a alt-right white Russian nationalist and Islamophobe. He eventually worked to rebrand himself, but never did repudiate that past, to my knowledge.

Also, contra some fellow leftists, and contra whatever West is, while I have not read the details of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case as closely as Leonard Peltier's, I've read enough of it that I don't think his and his defenders' cry for justice has quite as solid of a standing.