Cornel West: Cold-hearted Republican Party tied to oligarchs

Public intellectual and Princeton professor Cornel West said Tuesday on MSNBC that the Republican Party was "mean, coldhearted and tied to oligarchs," but Democrats were "spineless" and unwilling to fight them.

"Looks like Barack Obama is going to have some spine, but it could be a two-step," he said. "It could be a speech for progressives, then move back to the center."

"The top 10 percent got 100 percent of income growth," West later added. "That's pathological. You can't sustain a democracy when you have that kind of wealth inequality. You just can't... The greed is running amok. Somebody has to be honest and tell the truth. The problem is the Democratic Party is still too tied to big money."

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