As the singers Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar performed during the Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Aug. 30, I didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary to occur. But everything changed when rapper Kanye West stepped onto the stage. I couldn’t help but cringe in anticipation of him saying or doing something ridiculous.
I wasn’t disappointed. As soon as his mouth lips formed the words “I have decided in 2020 to run for president of the United States,” I felt tempted to dive for my laptop and book an immediate flight to Canada.
My seething anger at his announcement made me question all presidential elections. After all, this a presidential election determining the future of America, not some Homecoming court election.
Even West himself once sang in his song “Power”: “No one man can have all that power.” The same applies to West. He’s unqualified to wield presidential power, considering his penchant for drugs and alcohol as well as his tendency to let his emotions affect his actions.
This criticism does not, however, negate his deep and complex contributions to society. His stance on self-confidence is always clear in lyrics such as “believe in your flyness and conquer your shyness.” Of course, if there is one thing that we know, it is that Kanye truly and unconditionally loves Kanye, and lacks respect for basically anything else.
His iconic interruption of Taylor Swift’s award speech in the 2009 VMAs is a perfect example: He grabbed Swift’s microphone from her, and announced that he thought Beyoncé should have won her award, although he did politely assure Swift, “Imma let you finish.” Various legendary retellings of the incident have occurred, but at the moment, all I can imagine is West interrupting the president of Iran to say: “Yo, Ali, imma let you finish, but the United States has one of the best nuclear programs in the world.” That wouldn’t be great for foreign policy.
West’s inability to filter his thoughts and actions could throw the U.S. into the center of international conflicts and form rifts with other nations. I’d bet that West could even do the impossible — beat Donald Trump at making the most ridiculous statements humankind has ever witnessed. Judging by his past statements, calling George Bush racist and comparing himself to a war veteran, the self-proclaimed musical “scholar” has a penchant for the outrageous and radical.
Additionally, if West were elected, Kim Kardashian would become the First Lady. This unfortunate marriage between American government and reality TV would even further warp the media’s portrayal of politics and might lead to unfortunate leaks of classified information. Historically, the most engaged that the Kardashians have been with politics was Kim describing President Obama as “very firm about the change” and saying that it was “like his motto.”
Clearly, this is the kind of insightful political commentary that the United States needs. Imagine the White House becoming a reality show with Kim Kardashian as the First Lady, Khloe Kardashian as the Secretary of State, and Caitlyn Jenner as the vice president. While I would watch it, just for entertainment purposes, it wouldn’t bode well for the country itself.
Most importantly, West is unqualified for the presidency because he is unable to comprehend and analyze complex problems. He constantly complains about controversial topics like abortion, while never finding solutions to them. One wonders if he could even find a country like North Korea on a map, much less navigate the difficult negotiations with that benighted country.
When West continued to speak of his future presidential bid during the VMAs, I tried to imagine what a new life in Canada might be like. Contemplating a Donald Trump presidency is bad enough; a West presidency could even be worse. Kanye is stuck in orbit around himself, and has no time to run a country, but as he once said, “[He] wouldn’t change by the change, or the game, or the fame, when he came, in the game, [he] made his own name.