Let the record show that Charles Barkley doesn’t hold any punches when it comes to political conversations… not even when it includes one of his former employers.
The great thing about the “Round Mound of Rebound” is that he’s never been on one side or the other. Even though the former basketball star and current sports personality has voiced his support for the Democratic party in the past, he’s really for one thing and one thing only: Common sense.
Chuck is a no nonsense type of guy, and he’s voiced that on any and every platform he’s been a part of. When he sat down with Smerconish recently, it didn’t take long for him to start ripping into the whole idea of politics:
“I’m so fed up with the entire political system. Well, you have to be a Democrat, Republicans, conservative, liberal. Uh, now you got to be a socialist. I mean, it’s silliness out here. I’m an independent person. I got my own brain. The problem is people are brainwashed.
They’re like, ‘I’m gonna be a Democrat. I’m gonna be a Republican.’ Right. All you have to do is sway three to five percent of the people with something they’re passionate about or against, and that’s how you win elections. I don’t agree with everything Democrats or Republicans do. Why would I just say I’m a Democrat? Everybody should be an independent. I mean, that makes zero sense.”
It’s that kind of view on the political world that has even made Barkley considering running for office. Would it be crazy for “Sir Charles” to be the President of the United States? Yes. But would he do his best to knock some sense into each and every politician in America? I really do think so.
Why do I feel strongly about that? Because just seconds after Barkley made that point, he called out a network that rather recently trusted him to lead a primetime talk show. In a flow-of-consciousness rant, Charles went straight from criticizing politics to condemning CNN:
“One of the reasons I hate CNN now, and I work with CNN. I try to support, but I’m sitting there watching the night shows. They have two Republicans on. Two Democrats. They scream at each other for an hour, and I’m like, ‘That’s an hour of my life I can’t get back.’
Because the Republican’s gonna say everything the Democrats do is wrong. The Democrat’s gonna say everything the Republicans do is wrong. What’s bad about it is, they’re all successful people. I want to help poor people. They make you pick a team based on race, education. Man, this is just rich people against poor people.”
Barkley went on to say that the vicious cycle of politics is just rich people making poor people turn against one another, and suggested the world would be a much better place without the whole mess of the political world… and evidently CNN.
You can hear Chuck rip into politics – and CNN – and lay out some legitimately in the video below:
