Andrew Yang was an advisor on entrepreneurship to the Obama administration, he announced his candidacy last summer, on a platform of universal basic income, rebranded the ‘Freedom Dividend’ along with free universal healthcare and free college tuition. He’s also put his money where his mouth is by providing a family $1000 a month out of his own pocket.
I invite all of you to check out his interview with Joe Rogan on youtube, it clocked up over a million views in 2 days, alot of the comments are along the lines of ‘was skeptical at first, but he has my vote’
I like his platform alot because he seems to have done proper research into the economic problems of the US, plus if he’s president, it’ll legitimize a different approach to tackling the economic malaise we’re in at the moment and that might influence my country to take the same approach, so this differentiates him from not just being an ‘Oppose Trump’ Candidate. Plus, first Asian-American as president, that’d be amazing.
Fascinating candidacy. Unfortunately, he’ll probably be the Martin O’Malley of 2020, someone who would be a good candidate in his own right but stands no chance against the Bidens, Warrens, Kamalas, Bernies and Betos.
I had not heard of him at all until last weekend when the news was showing head-shots of all the field of Dem candidates that have thrown their hats into the ring, after the Warren and Klobuchar announcements. I am willing to look into him a little further to see what he is all about (as with any of the candidates). My prime criteria for who I will get behind, tho, is which one has the best chance of unseating Trump. Policy positions come a distant second.
We really have no idea how UBI will work in the real world. It’s a very interesting and perhaps useful idea but it’s mostly theoretical right now and I’m not super impressed with a guy pushing the Overton window to include that as a serious platform plank.
I was not taking him at all seriously, but I have listened to the nigh-two-hour conversation with Joe Rogan, and he’s an interesting guy with some pretty big ideas. He might be a good advisor or cabinet secretary, anyway.
There are always a bunch of crackpots with crazy ideas and no chance of winning in any party’s presidential primary. That’s nothing new. What made the Republican races “clown cars” for the past two cycles was that the clowns all actually led in the polls at one point or another, and in 2016, one of the clowns even managed to win.
I see Andrew Yang is another Bernie Sanders or Ross Perot candidate. One would be foolish to lay down a bet on him, but he could turn out to be an issues-driven candidate that people talk about, and he might be able to surprise people.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if what he’s talking about really can capture anyone’s imagination at present. I push back a bit on CarnalK’s charge that he’s completely in Overton Window territory, because he’s talking about issues that are inevitably going to be confronting us in the not-too-distant future. However, I’d agree that its’ an easier pull to get people to talk about something like Medicare-for-All of $15 minimum wages because it’s closer to becoming a reality.