"The Green Party-Cornel West link-up promised to be a fusion of the largely white environmental movement and the social justice activism of West, author of the foundational tome Race Matters."

"And for Joe Biden and Democrats, the pairing could have quickly turned into a nightmare, forcing him to protect his left flank from an organized Green Party running a demi-celebrity with decades of progressive bona fides. But to hear West tell it, any cords holding this relationship together had frayed beyond repair."

From the long article "It’s Not Me, It’s You: Cornel West’s Messy Breakup/The presidential candidate’s last-minute decision to ghost the Green Party is just the latest rift within the perennially squabbling American left" (Politico).

"Race Matters" — paid link — is not a "tome." It was only 105 pages long as originally published in 1994 — 159 pages if you buy the version available today. I paid the hardcover book price — $15 — for the slim volume — $31 in today's money. Here's Wikipedia's discussion including the a quick summary of reviews that appeared in the NYT — "ferocious moral vision and astute intellect" — and The Washington Post — "moving... profound... exhilarating" — which must have influenced my decision to buy the book. And here's that negative review in Commentary, which says his discussion of the relationship between blacks and Jews is "deeply flawed, evasive, and less than honest."

Back to that long Politico article. We're told that West analyzed the pros and cons of leaving the Green Party:

Cons: ballot access headaches; continued questions about his seriousness as a political figure; the destruction of a potentially mutually beneficial coalition.

Pros: getting to set your own agenda; removing yourself from some of the intractable and unserious elements of the party; crucially, for West, no more need to kiss any ass. 

“The moment of transition became clear, given the internal dynamics of the Green Party,” West said. “The procedures and requirements for debate, you have to go to various Green Party events in a variety of different states. … I said, ‘Oh my God, this is a lot of energy and time and effort.’” 

Ha ha. The whole running-for-President thing is a lot of energy and time and effort. If you didn't like all the dull procedures and events when you were in the Party, how can you run a serious campaign without any party structure?

“[The Green Party] has had a whole host of different campaigns,” West said. “It’s still very difficult to see the ways in which the movement has flowed from the campaign. … Young people have not been that tied to the Greens at all. Black people have not been that tied to the Greens at all. Brown people, trade union people, they haven’t been that tied to the Greens at all.”

West thinks the Greens can’t take him where he wants to go. The Greens think West is throwing away movement politics and blowing up his own campaign to boot. With some remove, it’s easy to see the split as the latest example of the narcissism of small differences that’s plagued segments of the modern left in recent years. (Think of liberals attacking Bernie Sanders for his support of American aid to Ukraine, or DSA-backed politicians condemning fringe DSA members supporting the actions of Hamas this week.)