Prof. Cornel West, as much of a staple at Mark Ridley-Thomas rallies as his unique manner of presentation, could have been standing over a steaming stove last night at the state senator’s almost frantic campaign headquarters.
Five days before Tuesday’s election for the County Board of Supervisors seat that Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is vacating, Prof. West and a bevy of speakers conveyed an emergency urgency about getting out the vote.
The frequently controversial Princeton academic was roaring passionately, urging a vote for his fellow scholar as if the senator were 20 points behind.
Reliable polling data remains scarce and the increasingly bitter personal attacks between Sen. Ridley Thomas and his rival, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, accelerate as the walk-up vote nears.
No Barriers to Finishing Message
Flamboyantly pitching his flaming exhortations to the roof of Sen. Ridley-Thomas’s (D-Culver City) campaign headquarters, Prof. West stirred the pot as if the house were on fire and he wasn’t going to leave until the dish was entirely ready.
In his finest preacher emulation, shouting as much as he was speaking, he reached deep down into his powerful lungs, stirring the most resistant emotions of every person on the block.
With all the force he could muster, Prof. West invoked black poverty, healthcare and the panorama of problems particularly plaguing the black community as reasons for voting for Mr. Ridley-Thomas to continue a career that has spanned the City Council, the state Assembly and the state Senate.
A Word from the Sponsor
Forty minutes after the program started, the star of the evening, Sen. Ridley-Thomas, strode to the microphone, unannounced, as the applause built to a crashing crescendo.
The senator, who nay be the finest orator among Los Angeles politicians, turned the tables slightly by introducing his friend of 28 years, whom he referred to his “my confidante.”
All of the estimated 275 guests who overflowed the main room of the airy, high-ceiling headquarters knew what was coming.
Prof. West did not disappoint.
Dressed all in black, suit, vest, dark necktie, either a scarf or a nifty wraparound on his neck, thickly bearded chin setting off his familiar horn-rimmed glasses, topped off by a shock-shaped Afro of majorly proportions, he was all style as he stepped to the podium to appreciative applause.
Opening with an exaggerated, syllable-stretching Southern drawl that always is a crowd-pleaser, Prof. West said:
“I love my dear brother.
“We are not just talking about a politician. We are talking about a human being, talking about a father, talking about a husband, talking about a Ph.D in ethics.
“I come here from New Jersey not just to give a political endorsement, I come to give an existential affirmation.
