The United States Is In Trouble - Kanye West Is Running For President

Is the United States really that much in trouble that Kanye West and - gasp! - Kim Kardashian West could actually live in the White House?

During the 2020 July 4th celebrations, Kanye announced his intentions to run for president. At this point, the rapper can't get on the ballot in several states: Indiana, Maine, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. According to Hunter Schwarz, founder of Yello, an email newsletter that examines the "visual rhetoric of politics," West hasn't officially filed his intent to run and he has not gotten a campaign committee put together. However, that does not make West's announcement any less intriguing, or troubling.

This is, of course, nowhere near the first time a celebrity has run for office. I'm reasonably certain that when Ronald Reagan, who began his career in show business (Bedtime For Bonzo, anyone?), ran for govern0r of California, people laughed, and likely laughed even harder when he announced his intention to seek the presidency. He ended up as the United States' 40th president. Jokes about the Governator abounded when Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator himself, ran for governor of California and was governor for two terms. Of course, there's also the United States' current president, one Donald J. Trump, but the daytime and nighttime pundits have already gotten the jokes cemented throughout the Donald's presidency.

Kanye West is another matter altogether. Sure, the man is a solid musician; rap is not my usual taste in music, but he's at least attempted to branch out and participate in pop music collaborations, such as he did with Rihanna and Sir Paul McCartney in "FourFiveSeconds" and has garnered a reputation as a music producer in his own right. He's also something of a businessman, having created his own fashion line and an architecture firm called Yeezy Home, per Wikipedia. He's also co-owner of the streaming service Tidal.

However, the man is not without his controversies. Perhaps none of us are, but not everyone is running for the position of United States president. At any rate, in addition to his interruption of Taylor Swift during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, he got into a Twitter feud with Wiz Khalifa, proclaimed that Bill Cosby - who is incarcerated for drugging and raping a woman - was innocent, announced that he was some $53 million in debt and was seeking someone to invest in him, and implied that 400 years of slavery sounded like a choice to him during an interview with TMZ. Granted, he does not have the record of misogynistic comments that the current president does - comments about grabbing women by the genitals, among other comments which have put Trump under fire over the years - but to be sure, the idea about West becoming president should be one that raises a few eyebrows.

I'm also somewhat concerned about Kim Kardashian West becoming First Lady. While I am not a fan of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and I do acknowledge that Kardashian West has become a successful businesswoman in her own right, I have a real problem with someone who basically became famous because she was a friend of someone famous (namely Paris Hilton) and then gained international renown due to a sex tape that was released in 2007. I don't know Kardashian West or Kanye West, and I don't wish either of them any ill will, but it speaks volumes about where America is when musicians and reality stars are starting to consider running for the nation's top job when politics has never really been something that has appeared to be in their respective wheelhouses.

Granted, it did not appear that politics was in Trump's view, either, but here we are. These are strange times, made even stranger by the fact that we are living in a global pandemic and a world that has been thrown even more starkly into a time of reflection about the role of police and the violence that we see in the realm of law enforcement, particularly in North America. However, West has a reputation for shooting off his mouth in much the same way that Trump does - that is, seemingly without context or much consideration - and that can lead to dangerous times for the United States on the political front.

Some have argued that West's tweet that he was going to run for president is merely a method of removing votes for Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's candidate. Others have said this is a way for Kanye West to promote his next album. Regardless of the motivation, the American people would do best to think long and hard before voting either for a man some have dubbed the Apprentice president or for a Grammy-winning rap artist. I realize times are hard in the United States right now, but I'm sure they can do better than Kanye West or Donald Trump.