Andrew Yang updates

Politics & Elections
#1

Andrew Yang was a 2020 Presidential candidate.

Since he left the race, he’s been a commentator on CNN, founded Humanity Forward and hosts a podcast called Yang Speaks. His guests on that podcast have been both interesting and varied. Some of them were his biggest supporters, but some were critics.

In recent days, he’s been staying in Georgia to help with the senatorial race.

On Dec. 21, 2020, in this video, he notes that he was in talks with the Biden campaign, but those didn’t seem to go anywhere, so he told the Biden campaign to continue their search for someone.

Yang has filed papers to run for mayor of NYC. He’s been seen filming a commercials for running for mayor. As far as I know, he hasn’t announced it yet.

The Hill has announced [youtube] a couple times that he leads the polls of the NYC mayoral candidates.

The Yang Gang seems torn about whether a mayoral run will work toward the advantage of the issues they’re trying to push through which are largely UBI and human centered capitalism. If Yang runs for mayor, he’ll probably have to skip the 2024 Presidential race. That would mean waiting until 2028. But some people say that the issues could be tested on NYC.

We’ll see what happens to his political future.

#2

I think it’s safe to assume that all serious Democratic challengers will be skipping the 2024 election. Maybe someone like Tulsi Gabbard will run, or the usual gadflies like Roque De La Fuente. But probably not anyone serious. If a serious candidate is running that likely means things have gone really bad, and the Republican candidate is going to be at a huge advantage in that situation.

#3

Biden has hinted in a couple places that he intended to be a one term President. Are you saying that the nominee will be Harris?

#4

Where?

#5

I personally hope that Yang stays close to the administration in an advisory capacity, but at a more senior level as opposed to being a token on some committee. I confess that I sometimes regarded his candidacy itself as a bit gimmicky, but Yang clearly has a head for what’s ailing the country and I’d like to sit Yang, Robert Reich, and Paul Krugman in a room together and see if they can’t hammer out some prescriptions on how to fix the economy so that we have policies that angle for more of a working class vision of capitalism.

#6

Excellent idea. Much better than challenging Biden or Harris in 2024.

#7

I think that, ultimately, the key to stopping all this madness will be the successful implementation of a very aggressively (but intelligent and not completely off-the-rails) progressive economic and social agenda. The people who are anxious about a changing America are the ones who are fueling the insurrectionist energy. We won’t cure them all but enough of them have to see that a) their brown neighbor’s or even their white neighbor’s gains aren’t necessarily their losses; and b) the government is capable of delivering something good to them, and it’s in their best interests to live in a culture that is as cooperative as it is competitive. That - and dealing with climate change - are the issues of our time, and we’ve got maybe one or two more election cycles left to demonstrate that we’re capable of overcoming these challenges, or it could well be hundreds of years of darkness that follows.

#8
#9

Personally, I think one term would be smart for the Democratic Party. But I’m not putting a lot of weight in a NY Post article from over a year ago that doesn’t have any named sources.

#10

Ha! I don’t think that will happen. Krugman has been attacking Yang’s theories on automation for the entire campaign. Yang challenged Krugman to a debate. Krugman disagrees with both automation and UBI. Krugman was one of Yang’s most vocal critics, often coming out of nowhere to criticize something on Twitter. But he didn’t stay long enough to really explain why he disagreed.

sigh. OK, how about a year old Politico article by Ryan Lizza, quoting but not naming Biden’s aides. This was back when Biden was deciding to run. Once his hat was in the ring, it wouldn’t be wise for him to limit his chances by broadcasting that.

#11

Thank you - that is a much better article. I still think that going a whole year not publicly mentioning it is fairly telling from Biden, but it’s definitely not outside the realm of possibility. And certainly meets your original statement of “Biden has hinted”. I appreciate it.

#12

Again an excellent response. I just wish there was a way to accomplish it. 50 D senators won’t cut it. I think it would take somewhere in the low 60s to get anything done. Even if somehow the Mitt Romneys, Lisa Murkowskis, and Joe Manchins can be convinced to sign on to the agenda, it wouldn’t be enough. For anything that ambitious to pass the senate, we would probably have to be bringing on board the senators like John Cornyn and Pat Toomey.

#13

And that’s precisely why it would be productive to get the two of them in a room and see what they could hammer out. Intelligent, rational people putting forth reasoned arguments for why they hold differing positions? There was a time when we took it for granted that that’s what politics was about.

#14

Andrew Yang officially announced his run for mayor of NYC.

As expected, Yang will run on basic income for NYC. But it will only be $2K per year and will be needs based.

Yang revealed that he was in talks with the Biden administration when Yang decided that NYC needed him more.

Some of Yang’s competitors in the mayoral race have also adopted the basic income platform.

Congressman Ritchie Torres will serve as Yang’s campaign co-chair. I’m assuming that Zach Graumann will also be heading Yang’s campaign.

U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres (D NY-15) endorses Andrew Yang for Mayor; will serve as Yang’s campaign co-chair

Beto O’Rourke wishes him luck.

At this point, I’m personally disappointed by this turn of events. The $2K /yr won’t really be a model for UBI so that doesn’t advance that cause. NYC politics looks to be even uglier than US politics because the smear articles are already coming in. (Maybe in US politics, they just couldn’t be bothered.) The rest of the country needs a lot of help. I’m wondering if anything he does in NYC will translate into the bigger picture. Of course, those who said he needs experience will get that if he wins. If he loses, he’s not any further ahead if he wants to run for President again. He’s always been a surprise, so I’ll keep the faith.

#15

Well, I’m not a member of the yang gang and he does need some political experience but this just seems like a bad idea. $2k per years works out to $38/week. Even to most destitute won’t find that to be much help so it seems like a worthless test of UBI. While there seems to be a lot of politics in NYC it doesn’t seem like it helps his political career much since the jump from mayor to even senator is a long one. At best, if he wins, he’ll have to serve the mayoral term and then another as congressman/senator/governor before he’ll have anything to really add to his resume. Cabinet secretary seems much more valuable.

#16

Haven’t we learned what a bad idea it is to put people with zero political experience in charge? And I’m not referring solely to Trump.

Politics is a profession, like any other. I don’t want a tech mogul operating on my heart no matter how much money he has.

#17

I don’t think trump is a useful barometer of if a businessman could succeed as president. He was a failure in business too. Non politicians have been good presidents like Ike.

As for Yang lots of non politicians have become mayor or congressmen or senators and been successful so I don’t see how you anti business person complaint has anything to do with him. Unless you think you have to be a political junky your entire life like Biden to be anything political.

#18

NYC Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang tests positive for Covid.

#19
#20

I have no say in the matter but I’d like to see Maya Wiley win this race. Probably won’t happen.