Kanye West needs to know where he belongs

Never failing to surprise, rapper Kanye West has another larger-than-life announcement: he is running for president in 2020. His declaration came at the very end of an anti-award show rant at MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMA) on Aug. 30.

At a time when frustration with Donald Trump has become a daily topic, I cannot imagine what a West campaign would look like. There is no need for another reality star to convince us that he can run this country better than anyone else. This bravado grows from the unbridled celebrity glorification by American society.

West needs to know where he belongs. Yes, he is beloved as a musician. As a pop culture icon, he has succeeded on levels that few others have reached. Technology legend Elon Musk wrote about West in Time’s 100 Most Influential People list under the Titan category for 2015. Musk, with admiration, wrote about West’s tenacity and boundary breaking exploits. Even though the rapper is very accomplished, his talents don’t translate into the skill-set needed to be a leader of the free world.

He is often abrasive and arrogant; in the past, he has posed as Jesus for the cover of Rolling Stone, claimed AIDS is a man-made disease and was hated on an international level for the infamous Taylor Swift VMA incident—when he ran on stage, took Swift’s acceptance speech time and said Beyoncé should’ve won the award in 2009.

West will always speak his mind, a quality that no politician should ever possess; there is a difference between outspoken and brash (just look at Trump).

Also, there is no universe in which Kim Kardashian, his wife, can be the first lady. The transition from porn star to presidential figure is a story that America cannot entertain. She literally is not respectable enough to be a first lady.

Conservatives throw hissy fits when Michelle Obama or her children wear dresses that are too short (GOP staffer Elizabeth Lauten described the girls’ clothes as bar attire) —can you imagine the global reaction to whatever Kim and the Kardashian clan might wear to politically significant events?

As much as I hate to criticize women for their clothing choices, it is one that must be considered when choosing people to physically and ideologically represent America.

Although pop culture and politics are two worlds that often collide, this level of role reversal would be crossing the line.  Donald Trump, Waka Flocka, Cynthia McKinney, Deez Nuts; how much more ridiculous will presidential candidates get? By running for president, West will make politics look like even more of a game—a joke, really—than it already is.