Kanye West’s move to run for presidentship is a bit late but stranger things have happened in the US’ electoral politics

The end of the first week of July in a US presidential election year is a bit late in the process to announce a bid to become its President. But rapper Kanye West, famous in many parts of the world for being the husband of reality television star Kim Kardashian, thinks he can still win. In the US’ democratic duopoly, both political parties have by now firmed up their candidates — incumbent Donald Trump for the Republicans and former Vice President Joseph Biden for the Democrats. Even Trump’s insurgent campaign for presidency in 2016 began a year before the election. July is late even to mount a bid to get elected as a Senator or Member of Congress in the US. Maybe for a candidate with brand recognition value like Kanye, it might have been possible had one of the major political parties backed him. But that is unlikely as all resources, financial and logistical, have already been committed. May be Kanye stands a chance if a candidate drops out but that, too, is impossible.

In all likelihood, Kanye will contest as an independent — and that brings us to another crazy of “American Democracy” where the candidate with the fewer votes can actually win. Since every of America’s 50 States and other territories have their own set of rules regarding independents, it is impossible for independent candidates, even those running as spoilers, to get their names on the ballot. For a country that extols the virtues of democracy, “American Democracy” is pretty undemocratic and highly capitalistic. While strange things have happened in the US — after all nobody is in their right minds other than those tracking the nether regions of the Internet expected Trump to win in 2016 — it might be too much for Kanye even with the power of the Kardashian clan on Instagram. Of course, Kanye could be doing all this to promote his new album but then again, Trump began his campaign to get a new reality show on network television. Instead, we got a reality show from the West Wing.

Kanye West’s move to run for presidentship is a bit late but stranger things have happened in the US’ electoral politics

The end of the first week of July in a US presidential election year is a bit late in the process to announce a bid to become its President. But rapper Kanye West, famous in many parts of the world for being the husband of reality television star Kim Kardashian, thinks he can still win. In the US’ democratic duopoly, both political parties have by now firmed up their candidates — incumbent Donald Trump for the Republicans and former Vice President Joseph Biden for the Democrats. Even Trump’s insurgent campaign for presidency in 2016 began a year before the election. July is late even to mount a bid to get elected as a Senator or Member of Congress in the US. Maybe for a candidate with brand recognition value like Kanye, it might have been possible had one of the major political parties backed him. But that is unlikely as all resources, financial and logistical, have already been committed. May be Kanye stands a chance if a candidate drops out but that, too, is impossible.

In all likelihood, Kanye will contest as an independent — and that brings us to another crazy of “American Democracy” where the candidate with the fewer votes can actually win. Since every of America’s 50 States and other territories have their own set of rules regarding independents, it is impossible for independent candidates, even those running as spoilers, to get their names on the ballot. For a country that extols the virtues of democracy, “American Democracy” is pretty undemocratic and highly capitalistic. While strange things have happened in the US — after all nobody is in their right minds other than those tracking the nether regions of the Internet expected Trump to win in 2016 — it might be too much for Kanye even with the power of the Kardashian clan on Instagram. Of course, Kanye could be doing all this to promote his new album but then again, Trump began his campaign to get a new reality show on network television. Instead, we got a reality show from the West Wing.