Andrew Yang and the Forward Party

I wouldn’t personally vote for him. But I also think he did well. I do like him as a candidate, he’s bringing something different. Hope to see him shake things up for the Democrats.

But I have a feeling the media will do him like Ron Paul. They didn’t even ask him more than 2 questions all night.

Yeah, this is a shame since apparently the night before Cory Booker was considered to have done well because he kept chiming in on other candidates question. I guess NBC was trying to learn from the first night

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Does Andrew Yang speak Chinese? He should start speaking in Chinese to counter the Spanish lol.

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Yang doesn’t speak any Chinese.

I’ve liked Yang from the outset and…probably would vote for him though I sincerely disagree with several of his major plans. However, I know of these plans because he has actually published and discussed them, unlike other candidates.

I listened to him on Sam Harris then Rogan read his book then listened to him on Shapiro and, honestly, it took me to the end of the Harris episode before I was even halfway on-board with the UBI idea and it took me reading his book to really get behind it. I’ve had numerous discussions (face-to-face) with people about it and it isn’t something you can toss out like “REPARATIONS FOR TRANSGENDER NATIVE AMERICAN JEWS” and have people support. Watching him have 45 second to nail it when the moderator had a final retort already planned was painful.

Yang did get some attention from not getting attention. Paul Krugman did a thread about why Yang’s an idiot as well, which has to mean that somebody really dislikes him.

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I actually just listened to some of his explanation of UBI…I have to say. It makes some sense when he explains it. But idk, seems crazy and it’s a big risk to put the theory into real life.

Oh, I entirely agree.

I think if we eliminated nearly every form of welfare and rolled things out in the form of a UBI, it would be even better. (Yang wants to let people decide - if you get more than $1k of regular welfare, you can opt out of the UBI.)

I think the primary danger is the gov’t screwing it up but like Yang said (on Harris, I believe), the only thing the gov’t really does well is send regular checks out to people.

Politics could really get in the way.

  1. What happens when candidates promise $2k instead of $1k and then the next person raises it to $3k. Would we vote against a person who wants to raise our earnings so much? Would this make campaigns look like what democrats are currently doing?

  2. IF it doesn’t work, it’s here to stay. Nobody is going to take away such a huge entitlement program.

  3. Without immigration being figured out, it would further incentivize illegal immigration. You saw proposals last night to decriminalize illegal border crossings and to provide free gov’t health care to all illegals currently in the country. Toss in $12k per year for every person over 18 in your household and I predict a lot of people would be willing to take the chance to get into the country.

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He speaks a little, and his comprehension isn’t too bad, as can be seen in this interview. His Chinese is probably better than Booker’s Spanish, in any case.

Yang is just much more of a policy guy than a natural politician, which doesn’t play well in a TV debate. But honestly, I think he came away looking better than most of the other candidates.

I was thinking of that clip when I said he didn’t speak any. Perhaps ‘any’ isn’t the correct phrasing - his comprehension is indeed fairly good though.

Probably. Nobody really looked good and I suppose it would be natural to look at the few people who either didn’t look bad (Mayor Pete) or who didn’t speak that much (Yang) and want to hear more.

I think if we could do this, I would seriously consider getting on board.

Yes, you make a good point. I mean Democrats are already doing this now so it’s already an issue.

Maybe other countries would like to experiment with this? I know one experiment didn’t improve employment, but it’s just one and other variables could be tweaked.

I think the Democrats are going to lose because of this issue. What they’re saying is just insane.

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Yang to me seemed like a stable person who’s rational. But maybe others like the emotional appeals better. He looked…not crazy.

I was pleasantly surprised by Mayor Pete’s performance. He came across as one of the few adults in the room, and seemed for the most part reasonable and well-spoken.

I was put off by the rudeness of some of the other candidates, like Swalwell going after Biden’s age and Kamala trying to smear him as a racist. The attacks just seemed petty and gratuitous. It almost seemed like they were trying to take a page from Trump’s playbook, but they just don’t have the humor and timing necessary to pull it off.

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I would like to see states try it. Alaska sort of does it with their oil money. A few smaller populations (a town in Canada) have done it to apparent good effect. I am very in favor of states rights and don’t really want to see things done on a national scale until it’s been beta-tested for a few years. Legalization of marijuana is a good example.

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I was just about to mention this. They seem like they’re trying to be trump to beat trump. But they don’t have the charisma or humor to do it. It feels like an attack and not a witty joke.

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This was also my main takeaway from the debates. There’s no way they can beat Trump by putting forward radical ideas that most Americans don’t support. The eventual candidate will swing to the center for the general election, but all those soundbites will still be there and the Republican campaign will make sure they’re replayed mercilessly.

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We’ve always seen candidates pander to their base in primaries then move back towards the center for the general election. Hillary is perhaps the only candidate in recent years who hasn’t done so and who probably became more partisan as the campaign progressed. However, now we have YouTube and social media and what they say in debates won’t disappear. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say the Russians have gotten to both the DNC and MSNBC to generate an environment in which as many clips for attack ads to be used by Republicans for the next few years is produced.

Did they do polling on the ideas they’re bringing? Democrats are usually pretty good and go with what ideas their base can get behind. What is this??? I’ve never heard of such radical ideas in main stream politics. Never! What are they doing?

Yes. Hillary tried this and it was embarrassing for her.

You know how you look at Kawhi Leonard and think that he is the perfect player for the modern game? That’s sort of how I see Trump. Nobody the democrats put on stage is going to be able to be in a debate with him and come out looking good.

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This is the problem with the left imo. They have to go more radical to beat their side to win the party ticket. But they get so far from the middle they just can’t go back against the other side. Trump looks like a centralists when they are bringing up democratic socialism and decriminalizing illegal crossings.

I don’t think the Democrat candidate will come from the pool of 20+ who were in the debate. Or, probably more accurate to say that I don’t think any of the 20+ can win the general election. If Democrats want to win, then someone new will have to emerge (M Obama?).

I feel a little sorry for young Americans. The American press has abandoned one of its key duties to the electorate, educating them. The media is laser-focused on clickbait just for its financial survival these days, no financial incentive to help voters understand how socialism will be rejected by voters 40 and older. Many young Americas are going to be so shocked in November 2020.

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I thought you were going to bring up Hillary or Oprah for a second there. :grin: