KANYE 2020?

Chapter 10 discusses Presidential Campaigns, one of the parts the book discusses in detail is who can run. The Constitution states that you must be a natural born citizen and at least 35 years old. But are those requirements enough?

In 2015 at the Video Music Awards, Kanye West, grammy winning rapper and entrepreneur announced that he plans on running for President in 2020. Due to his sometimes controversial and provocative nature, many people didn’t take his announcement seriously. However, after the unusual election of Donald Trump in 2016, it makes many people wonder; are the standards to run and hold office too low? Low enough that we could see a Kanye West presidency?

Although I do not believe that ideologically Trump and West are the same, they do share similarities that are great points for comparison. Donald Trump and Kanye West are both, controversial celebrities, that have previously filed for bankruptcy, have been quoted for saying outlandish things and most importantly, both have money. It seems as if all of these qualities have worked in their favor many of times.

So here is why Kanye might have a shot at running a Presidential Campaign:

Being elected President doesn’t require political experience.

It’s easy to see that even presidents with Ivy League degrees and tons of political experience have made mistakes. So why did America elect Trump, who has no experience at all?

Well the common idea is that people were just tired of the norm. According to BBC’s Katy Kay, “He defies the normal metrics for success because his voters don’t so much support him for what he does as they adore him for what he’s against. Mr Trump is against the political establishment (the media, the Republican Party, political grandees like the Bushes and the Clintons) and change (which encompasses everything you had but fear you are losing) and he’s against the world (which has taken jobs and sent immigrants to take over America).” Given America’s history with corrupt government officials it’s easy to see why Trump’s campaign was appealing to many Americans.

Political parties will back whatever is popular to save face.

In this country in order to have a viable chance at the Presidency, you need to be nominated by one of the major parties as their candidate. Trump seemed like an unlikely candidate due to his obvious moral and ideological differences. However, due to extreme polarization in American Politics, many times it seems as if lawmakers will do anything just to win their elections. This is seemingly evident by the Republican party backing Donald Trump. Yes, it did take them a while to come around but as soon as Trump shaped up to be a likely candidate, many republicans hopped on board. Trump has been quoted saying things like, “grab her by the pussy”, called Rosie O’Donnel a “fat ugly slob”, called Mexican immigrants, “rapists” and told a New York Times journalist she has “a face of a dog”. Yet, Trump still received the backing of the GOP, and even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has been on record calling him “a good man”.

You don’t have to appeal to everyone, you just have to appeal to enough people to win.

Trump and Clinton were two of the least liked candidates in recent history. According to Real Clear Politics Polling, Clinton was projected to win the Presidential race. Trump’s controversial nature made many people believe he wasn’t a likely winner, even though he picked up a lot of steam during his campaign. But like I said, you don’t have to be the favored candidate to win, and because of the Electoral College you don’t even have to get the most votes.

Clinton won the popular vote by a difference of almost 3 million but still didn’t win enough votes in the electoral college to nab the presidency.

Now, I want to make it clear that I don’t actually think that Kanye West will be president or even run. I’m just questioning if the standard of which we elect our government officials is too low? If Trump could win after, having no political experience, getting on the ticket of a party who opposed him, consistently making outlandish comments, and not even getting majority of the votes, who’s to say that Kanye West couldn’t win too?

Do you think we have lowered the bar by Electing Trump?

Do we have enough standards in place to ensure that the President is really representative of American ideals?

Would raising the standards infringe upon people’s rights?

Sources Cited

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy/?utm_term=.3225718b6d96

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html

https://www.270towin.com/2016_Election/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/

http://www.presidentsusa.net/qualifications.html

http://politicalmaps.org/2016-electoral-map/

4 Responses to "KANYE 2020?"

Thomas Cody says:

March 24, 2018 at 2:35 pm

Thank you Kayla for a very thought provoking post! I agree that the election of Trump has changed the nature of politics and especially who can run for office. While I feel that while many non-conventional candidates are now able to be taken more seriously in their possible political runs, I do not think Kanye will ever be able to make serious ground as a serious candidate. While Kanye certainly has the name and the brand to elevate his platform, I just do not see the kind of electorate that would be drawn to Kayne West as a serious presidential candidate. This is especially true considering Kayne would presumably run on the Democratic side. Women I think would be turned off by his history of sexism in his music. The highly educated voters would be turned off by his lack of any sort of experience. The argument would probably be that young people and minority voters would be interested in him as he is already more popular with those demographics. However, I think the fact that both of these groups have shown such distain for Trump shows that they would be less interested in another celebrity president. All of this being said however, I would probably be less surprised if someone told me right now that Kayne West would be our next president than I would have been if someone told be three years ago that Donald Trump would be our next president.
Klein Evans says:

March 25, 2018 at 11:46 am

Kayla,

Thank you very much for this post on the legitimacy of our presidential candidates and the possibility of Kanye West running for president. I completely understand your hesitancy towards the requirements needed to become the president of the United States, but I believe that it is the nature in which our presidential elections are held and won is the real issue and what is actually changing. Since the most recent election in which Donald Trump was elected for president, I saw many different factors play into his win that did not involve actual political experience. The latest election results give this notion that elections could be headed towards more of a “popularity contest” rather than finding the best political figure to serve as our president. Trump used the fact that he was an extremely successful businessman to his advantage, provided the people with plans of affirmative action he was planning on taking, and spoke with such persuasion that so many backed him in the polls. At least for me when I think of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the last thing I think about is the political experience/involvement of our now current president Donald Trump.
Jennifer Munnings says:

March 25, 2018 at 5:26 pm

Kayla,

Thank you for your thought provoking post. I think that this is a relevant and interesting discussion on the qualifications for presidential candidates. I understand that when the constitution was being written, the idea was that anyone should be able to be a leader, however maybe their qualifications are a little too open. You need more qualifications to work at a McDonalds than to be president and I think that that is troublesome. However, who can run for presidents is dictated not simply by what is outlined in the constitution, so maybe American citizens need to have higher standards for what constitutes a legitimate candidate rather than changing the constitution and infringing on the rights of the people. I think that Americans elect candidates largely based on populist ideals and this has not always been a good thing. Getting lost in the charisma of Donald Trump has led us to have a president that believes climate change is a scam. I don’t know how one deconstructs populism or if that is even a good idea, but I think that it is something worth evaluating.
Katherine Breed says:

March 28, 2018 at 3:46 pm

Kayla,

Thank you for your post. I think you bring up an important point that many people are talking about toady. With Donald Trump being elected president I think many Americans have lost hope in American standards. The 2016 election was one of the most controversial election with the release of the Access Hollywood tape involving Trump. However, unlike Kayne West, Donald Trump was respected businessman. Although he didn’t have any political experience he was well known in the business world creating an appeal to many Americans in hopes of helping the economy. I think if Donald Trump had run against anyone else in the 2016 Presidential election he would have lost. Trump becoming president elaborated more on the publics lack of trust in Clinton, and some think that is due to the fact that she was a woman.

In the most recent election, there was no good option which caused many Americans not to vote at all. I don’t think we need to change the standards in which we elect our government officials because it’s part of what makes America. Any citizen of the United States who is 35 years old and has lived in the U.S. for 14 years can run for office. That is something that makes America what it is, trust is put in American citizens to choose who we want to represent our nation. When specifically looking at the 2016 election, one might feel the standard needed to be improved but I think from past elections Americans didn’t feel the same way they do today.

I really enjoyed your post!

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