America’s Independents Are Now The largestGroup of voters
Fewer people called themselves Republicans after George Bush’s presidency. People referred to themselves as Democrats less after Obama’s election.
Which independents will vote?
Andrew Yang hopes his supporters will vote in favor of him.
You can find my Latest videoFormer Democrat explains his decision to start a new party called the Forward Party.
“Our country is polarized and getting worse all the time … seeing each other as mortal enemies … I’m committed to doing everything I can to help change it.”
He’s written a book about that, “Forward.”
Yang, in comparison to many politicians is quite refreshing. He is opposed to censoring others for their opinions. “Saturday Night Live” fired a comedian after he called Yang a “Jew Chink.” Yang tells me, “I didn’t think that was right … he’s a comedian. It’s his job to push boundaries.”
Yang says other things presidential candidates don’t say, like: “Running for president requires traits that make you a terrible leader. You make false promises (and) regularly claim powers you do not have.”
For example, worker retraining is cited by him. Governments keep funding expensive job training – the federal government alone has 43 retraining programs, but they almost never work. Many promise computer-coding jobs, but Yang points out, “If you actually go to a town that had the plant close, you find no one working as a coder. … People walk out with valueless certificates and no job.”
Yang’s attempt to help the people through a universal income basic, could be even more disastrous.
Yang would give $1,000 per month to every adult. The United States is in financial trouble and Yang would simply give every adult $1,000 per month.
Yang’s UBI would not replace existing welfare programs (Charles Murray proposed), so that a user of drugs could just get $1,000 and then apply for additional handouts. He would encourage lazy people not to get up in the morning. When I was younger, people like me.
I say to Yang, “I wouldn’t have overcome my stuttering and worked as hard as I did if I had free money. Not having it … drove me.”
“I’m a data guy,” he replies, claiming more people would start businesses. “If you have that fallback, it makes you more likely to take a risk.”
But at what price? We already see the effect of government’s reckless stimulus programs: Inflation is at its highest level in over 40 years. Yang’s UBI will give away four-times as many every year.
The automatic filing of tax returns is a better proposal by the Forward Party.
“We waste so much time figuring out our taxes,” Yang complains. “It’s stupid.”
True. Some countries send you only a refund or bill. While you have the right to dispute the results of your tax return, you may file taxes in under a minute if you do not.
The reason the USA does not have automatic filing, says Yang, is because “Intuit is making too much money off TurboTax. It lobbied (actually, H&R Block and others lobbied, too) and said, no, no, no! (You) can’t do it automatically!”
Yang also says sensible things, which Democratic politicians seldom say. He was opposed to defunding police forces, which activists shouted at in the heat of anti-police anger last year. He held firm to his beliefs.
Yang owns businesses and doesn’t make anti-capitalist statements.
He is a normal politician, but he does not act like one often. He praised Harris and Biden at the Democratic National Convention. “You’re just sucking up!” I tell him.
“I was willing to do or say whatever I thought would help get Trump out,” Yang replies.
Why?
“Trump was erratic,” says Yang, “not leading in a positive direction.”
Yang, with his new party, is a blessing. It’s a positive thing to have more options. Yang is decent and brings new ideas to the table.
Many of Yang’s ideas, unfortunately, are not good.
He calls climate change an “existential threat.” He wants every gun owner to re-register every five years. Although he wants assault weapons to be banned, he can’t identify them. He supports government-funded journalism.
We agreed on one point at the conclusion of our interview:
“We can see very clearly the way our country is going,” Yang concludes. “We deserve better than this.”
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