Kanye West is 'Stepping out on Faith' for a more Religious America

“America. What is America’s destiny? What is best for our nation, our people? What is just – true justice?” asks 2020 presidential candidate Kanye West in his latest campaign video. West shared the video to Twitter on Monday night with the caption, “we stepping out on faith.” The overall message of the video is to convey West’s belief that what America needs is to restore faith in God. It also highlights West’s general lack of knowledge in basic U.S politics. 

West’s entire campaign is running on the misuse and misunderstanding the term “freedom of religion.”On his campaign site, you’ll see that his number one goal is to “restore faith and revive our constitutional commitment to freedom of religion and the free exercise of one’s faith, demonstrated by restoring prayer in the classroom including spiritual foundations.” What West appears to misunderstand is that “prayer in the classroom” is a direct antithesis to the freedom of religion. The U.S was founded on the separation of Church and state, the idea of total religious freedom. Having prayer in public schools negates this notion all together.

He misuses freedom of religion again in his video stating, “We as a people will revive our nation’s commitment to faith, to what our constitution calls free exercise of religion, including of course, prayer.” The concept of freedom of religion, which seems to be lost on Kanye, is that we as a people do not have to submit to any particular religion or no religion. Throughout the video, West is encouraging that all Americans follow faith but that is literally oxymoronic towards his goal of “freedom of religion.” West is also a practicing Christian, which is the U.S’s most commonly practiced religion. People’s right to practice Christianity is in no way under attack. 

“Through prayer, faith can be restored,” West continues. “We as a people are called to a greater purpose than ourselves. We are not only a beacon to the world, but we should be servants to each other. To encourage each other. To help each other. To lift up each other… We have to act on faith with the sure knowledge that we are pursuing the right goals and doing the right thing. We will build a stronger country by building stronger families.” 

While his speaking is strong and broad vision is clear, West did not outline a singular policy or legislation change. In the video, it looks like he’s reading off a teleprompter that has all of his late-night ramblings written out. We can, however, base his political leanings off of his social media posts. Based upon his Twitter account, we know that Kanye is pro-life, pro-religion, and for a brief time, very pro-Trump.

Kanye West is not fit to be president and he knows that. While he isn’t running with malice to split votes, he clearly does not understand the effect this election cycle has on everyday, average-income Americans.