I agree and I am disappointed by how many people here don't understand that meme magic is real, and also that Nick is clearly maneuvering under God's guidance. Nick's fandom Ye started roughly around the same time as him becoming a serious Christian, then a serious commentator.
Here's my take on the situation: At this moment in time, we have a situation where the table is being shaken up and people might be able to play a new game. This confuses people, because everybody has learned to play under the rules of the old game. Seeing Ye as a "serious politician" in the sense of the old game, would mean "plays by established rules, doesn't offend the veto players, doesn't mess with conventions too much". The error lies in first of all assuming that the old game really existed as a static entity, which it didn't.
The left/progressives/globohomo understand that you can constantly manipulate the rules if you go about it with enough chutzpah and conviction, which they did. They got comedians into office, they got politicians to do comedy shows, they just recently managed to have a certified retard with aphasia to win an election.
Well, we now have a hyperactive negro superstar promoting open debate about faith, morals and the JQ carry those topics into the realm of media that is normally frequented by completely apolitical people, that is, negroes and young people. He is accompanied by an eccentric loudmouth virgin politics nerd who has a very loyal following of comparably eccentric, yet smart and engaged young people. The US now has a demented and corrupt president who can't help but make inadequate remarks at every turn, before that another hyperactive celebrity who responded to allegations of a sex affair by calling the woman in question "horseface" on twitter.
Long story short, going on about what is and isn't a good move is just an anxious waste of time, since clearly politics is less about convincing people of any measure of objective competence and more about inspiring loyalty, which both Nick and Ye have been very good at in different ways, through many ups and downs.
Do you objectively disagree with them? Then criticize them on that ground. But the never-ending "that's a bad move, now he'll look crazy" is a tired canard that needs to be put to bed. It has no use, since we are already getting shaken up in the inner whirls of the Kali Yuga, metaphorically speaking. From now on, whatever you think "makes sense" strategically will have to take a backseat to the one and only question "whom am I loyal to".
On optics: Optics in the Fuentes sense was about people not getting the wrong idea, not about giving in to people screeching about whether you can say something or not. Nick has never cared about that, that is not what optics means. Ye cannot really be called a Nazi in common perception, so he's got leeway. Also, he's got A LOT of negroes to speak about what's happening, and they ARE a monolithic vote.
Ye saying "I love Hitler" does not make people go "oof, neonazi" it makes them look up the video and find out what he said. He's a big enough fish do accomplish that.
en.wikipedia.org
odysee.com
