The Transformation of Kanye West

Happy Election Day!  While voters in four states will head to the polls today to select governors and/or state legislators, I have only discussed the elections in three of them because I consider it a safe bet that the Democrats will hold onto both houses of the New Jersey legislature.  President Trump has done his best to ensure that Republicans will win the gubernatorial races in Kentucky and Mississippi by holding rallies in those states; where he enjoys very high approval ratings.  Vice President Mike Pence headed to Virginia in an effort to help Republicans prevent Democrats from achieving their fantasy of a “trifecta” in the Old Dominion; which will likely lead to the barbaric “Repeal Act” becoming law. 

Five years from today, the 2024 Presidential Election will take place.  While less than a year remains between now and the 2020 Presidential Election, it’s never too early to start thinking about 2024. I’ve thought a lot about 2024 and what I hope to have achieved in terms of my personal and professional life.  By the time the 60^th quadrennial presidential election rolls around, I hope to have achieved the American dream by securing a full-time job, purchasing a house, and marrying a conservative, beautiful, sarcastic, and loving woman.  I feel pretty pessimistic about meeting the last two goals by the time the 2020 Presidential Election rolls around but I feel more confident about achieving the first goal; which will likely open the door to fulfilling my goal of achieving the other aspects of the American dream.

Enough about me.  Let’s focus on the election. As I have said before, in terms of politicians, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis looks like the obvious frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. That seems truer than ever now that a Quinnipiac poll has pegged DeSantis’s approval at 72 percent.  If his numbers remain that high, he should have no trouble winning re-election in 2022 and winning two terms as the governor of the nation’s third largest state (and second largest swing state) would make him an extremely desirable candidate; since it looks like winning Florida will serve as an important prerequisite for any Republican hoping to win the White House in the near future.

Unfortunately, DeSantis’s approval ratings right now will mean nothing in 2022; just like President George H.W. Bush’s approval rating of 89 percent in 1991 did little to help him in the 1992 presidential election, which he lost to Bill Clinton.  His approval numbers had dropped quite a bit from the 90 percent high he enjoyed the previous year.  The same thing could end up happening to DeSantis and a loss in Florida, especially a big one, could diminish DeSantis’s attractiveness as a presidential candidate.

If DeSantis wins re-election, he should not have any trouble winning the Republican nomination; assuming he wants it.  However, the strong possibility exists that despite DeSantis’s impressive resume, the American people may still elect to choose an outsider in 2024.  After all, President Trump’s tenure in the Swamp certainly has not made the career politicians in Washington any more popular.  If anything, it should make them less popular. Permanent Washington has revealed itself as a group of conniving snakes all too eager to undermine the results of a democratic election in order to hold onto power and more concerned about their own bottom line than the needs of their constituents.

While the idea of a Donald Trump Jr. presidential bid may excite some of the President’s fan base, a presidential run by another household name in the entertainment industry seems more likely at this point.  Rapper Kanye West probably rubbed a lot of conservatives the wrong way in his earlier years. For starters, West declared that then-President George W. Bush did not like black people during an appearance at a Hurricane Katrina relief concert in 2005.  West sunk even lower the following year when he mocked Jesus Christ by appearing on the cover of “Rolling Stone” with thorns on his head and blood dripping down his face accompanied by the headline “Passion of the Kanye.”  His career as a rapper probably did not help his reputation among conservatives. After all, many conservatives and religious Americans, including my late grandmother, would probably refer to rap as “filthy.” For the record, I cannot name a single Kanye West song off the top of my head; I hardly consider myself a rap conossieur.  However, West has appeared to chart a new course by releasing a gospel album entitled “Jesus is King.”

Over the past 18 months or so, West has definitely worked to convince conservatives across America that he deserves their respect.  At the very least, he has demonstrated a willingness to hold the Democratic Party accountable for their failure to improve the lives of African-Americans.  During an interview with Radio host Big Boy last month, West accused the Democrats of bribing the African-American community to vote for them with food stamps and accused the party of decreasing the quality of life by “taking the fathers out of the home” and “making us abort our children.”

The release of West’s gospel album appears to coincide with his resurgence of faith.  When discussing the “cancel culture” in his conversation with Big Boy, West expressed his fear that the same people “will be soon to take Jesus out of school” and “will be soon to remove Jesus, period, from America, which is the bible belt.” West predicted that “those people will be so mad.”  Perhaps West does not realize it but the left took Jesus out of school long before the term “cancel culture” first entered the American mainstream and the radical left, buoyed by institutions such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU, continues to work religiously to “remove Jesus, period, from America.” More than 50 years ago, The Supreme Court ruled school prayer unconstitutional in Engel v. Vitale. Since then, the left has worked judiciously to remove any reference to God from public schools and prevent religious groups from hosting after-school activities.

West also described himself as an instrument of God working “in service of Christ” to “help spread the Gospel.” According to West, his religious faith has become such a big part of his life that “there were times when I was asking people not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album.” During a recent episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” West told his wife, Hillary supporter Kim Kardashian West, that “you are my wife and it affects me when pictures are too sexy. I just went through this transition…from being a rapper, like looking at all these girls and looking at my wife and ‘oh, my girl needs to be just like the other girls; showing her body off and showing this, showing that and I didn’t realize that that was affecting like my soul and my spirit as someone that’s married, in love, and the father of like now…about to be four kids.” It looks like marriage and fatherhood has really changed his perspective on things. No wonder liberals want to make it as hard as possible for people to get married.

The “Rolling Stone” issue featuring West mocking Jesus Christ that should have caused the stomach of every Christian in the United States of America to turn included an article about West talking about his addiction to pornography.  13 years later, it seems like a renewed faith in the man he once mocked has caused him to overcome his addiction; describing pornography as “not okay.” West seems eager to share his newfound admiration for Jesus Christ with the American people; he has held “Sunday services” all across the country to “hold gospel services and perform songs from his new album.”

In addition to experiencing a religious conversion, West seems to have embraced at least some aspects of the America First agenda that serves as the cornerstone of President Trump’s agenda and philosophy. During his visit to the Oval Office to meet with President Trump last year, West stressed the need to “bring jobs in America,” admitting that America’s “best export is entertainment and ideas” while adding a critical point that echoes the rhetoric used by President Trump on the campaign trail: “when we make everything in China and not in America, then we’re cheating on our country.”  West made the argument that “we’re putting people in the position to have to do illegal things to end up in the cheapest factory ever, the prison system.” While West’s appearance in the Oval Office definitely gave conservatives plenty to smile about, his support for the release of gangster Larry Hoover should have caused concern; even among the Republicans who supported the First Step Act that has mixed reviews among the most prominent voices in the conservative movement.  Last year, The Daily Mail published an article suggesting that West might not see eye-to-eye with President Trump’s America First immigration policies. Vanity Fair reported that his wife Kim “educated” him on the President’s immigration policies. While Kim encouraged and supported President Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, she voted for Hillary Clinton and has a more cosmopolitan worldview in line with what most of Hollywood subscribes to.  Failure to embrace an America First immigration policy would torpedo West’s aspirations for the White House.

Like President Trump and just about every other Republican politician in the United States of America, West will have liberal family members whispering in his ear; pleading with him to take a more progressive position on certain issues. If West wants to become President and have a successful administration, he must resist pleas from his ex-stepfather-in-law Bruce to impose a left-wing social agenda on the country. If his appearance in the Oval Office last year serves as any guide, West has not hesitated to distance himself from Bruce Jenner, who now identifies as Caitlyn; talking about how he was “married to a family, that you know…there’s not a lot of male energy.”

West still has a long way to go if he wants to transform himself into a viable presidential candidate and the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024.  Regardless of whether or not he decides to pursue a political career, his actions over the past year or so have definitely indicated that West has the potential to become an unlikely figure head in the conservative movement.  In the past, I have described the “Kanye effect” as a possible increase in the Republican share of the African-American vote.  Besides Florida, this has not really panned out yet.  However, the term “Kanye effect” may actually come to mean something else. Fox News reported that in the wake of the release of “Jesus is King,” searches for “Jesus” and “What do Christians believe?” have increased. Fox News also reported that over 1,000 people attended his most recent “Sunday service” in Louisiana. If West decides not to run for President, he should definitely continue his effort to create a spiritual revival in the United States; which badly needs one.