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July 5, 2020

President Kanye?

By Andrea Widburg

Kanye West is one of the most famous people in America, and his wife, Kim Kardashian, is possibly even more famous. When it comes to name recognition, these two probably rank second only to President Trump himself. West is also an iconoclast who is willing to go his own way – such as supporting President Trump -- even if it means facing disapproval from the media world and others in entertainment. Still, it came as a surprise when, on July 4th, Kanye announced via Twitter that he is planning to run for president in 2020:

As of this writing, the tweet has over 500,000 likes and that number is rising by the second. It will probably have several million likes by the time you read this post.

Elon Musk quickly jumped on the bandwagon, telling Kanye, “You have my full support!”

Bret Weinstein, who suffered the wrath of the woke crowd at Evergreen State College, also expressed his enthusiasm:

People are always going to be excited by any shiny new object in the political realm, but it’s worth stopping and thinking about something very specific to Kanye: He’s bipolar:

Kanye West is opening up about a topic he rarely discusses — his mental health. The rapper details his struggle with bipolar disorder in the new season of David Letterman's Netflix show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction."

In a clip of the episode, which is set to drop Friday, Letterman asks West, “What is the mechanism that is malfunctioning or is taking a break in your brain, do you know?”

“I wouldn't be able to explain that as much just because, you know, I'm not a doctor,” West replied. “I can just tell you what I'm feeling at the time, and I feel a heightened connection with the universe when I'm ramping up. It is a health issue. This — it's like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you're not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse.”

West says he is under a doctor's care, that he uses alternative treatment methods, but he thinks medication may work with others with bipolar disorder.

I admire Kanye’s independence, his entrepreneurship, and his talent (not that I like his music, but still….), but I have my doubts about putting someone with bipolar disorder into the White House and placing his finger on the nuclear button. Call me stodgy, but that strikes me as a bad idea.

However, there may be much more to this than another celebrity thinking that he can copy Trump’s extraordinary leap from businessman/celebrity to hugely effective politician. Glenn Reynolds points out that, if Kanye runs, “He’ll strip black votes from Biden . . . and he knows that.”

Kanye’s sway with black voters may be especially important if, as Douglas Herz predicts, Biden’s team is working on persuading Michelle Obama to be his Veep. Everyone knows that having Michelle on the ticket means a third Obama term. Biden will step aside within minutes of his inauguration, Michelle will become a figurehead president, and Obama will again be in the driver’s seat. With Kanye on the ballot, though, even Michelle Obama might not be such a big draw.

If nothing else, 2020 promises to have the most bizarre election in American political history, for it may give us a contest between a successful president whom the media and the political class despise; a demented, racist, old political hack whom the media and political class prop up; and, as a wildcard, a successful, bipolar singer/entrepreneur and his reality-TV wife. 

Image: YouTube screengrab

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