--- description: The activist on why he couldn't vote for Barack Obama in 2012 title: Hear Cornel West on Obama: ‘A Drone Presidency’ image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [politics](/tag/politics/) ## politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hear Cornel West on Obama: 'A Drone Presidency' ## Video: Hear Cornel West on Obama: ‘A Drone Presidency’ [Watch (HLS stream): Hear Cornel West on Obama: ‘A Drone Presidency’](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aWv34iEW.m3u8) (0:42)  _Published 2014-10-06. In an interview with Time for 10 Questions, Cornel West says he didn’t even vote in 2012. “I couldn’t vote for a war criminal,” he said_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 6, 2014 4:49 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 6, 2014 4:49 PM CUT In an [interview](http://time.com/3455639/10-questions-with-cornel-west/ "undefined") with Time for 10 Questions, Cornel West says he didn’t even vote in 2012\. “I couldn’t vote for a war criminal,” he said, calling President Obama’s administration “a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national surveillance presidency, that violates rights and liberties.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/"},"headline":"Hear Cornel West on Obama: 'A Drone Presidency'","datePublished":"2014-10-06T16:49:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:36:40.953Z","description":"The activist on why he couldn't vote for Barack Obama in 2012","url":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/","name":"Hear Cornel West on Obama: 'A Drone Presidency'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Hear Cornel West on Obama: ‘A Drone Presidency’","description":"In an interview with Time for 10 Questions, Cornel West says he didn’t even vote in 2012. “I couldn’t vote for a war criminal,” he said","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aWv34iEW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-06T14:10:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aWv34iEW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/","duration":"PT42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```