Andrew Yang: Still a dumbass

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/28/politics/andrew-yang-forward-party-whitman-jolly/index.html

Quick refresher, what sort of platform did Andrew Yang run on in 2020?

So the Dems instead pick a guy that's so moderate he supports basically none of these left-leaning ideas, and now Yang is claiming that same party is "catering to the fringes" and a more "moderate" alternative is needed.

I think this is another ruse by the GOP like Perot and Tea Party.

All I can say to Andrew Yang is good luck, nobody knows who you are.

Yup, if 2020 Yang was starting a new party sincerely he'd be creating a left-leaning one to push the policies with higher approval ratings than the centrist Dems that refuse to implement them. This is just a scam to siphon off part of the Dem vote much like Kanye 2020 was.

The whole "we're not going to have positions or a platform" thing seems like it would make this party ripe for what happened to the Reform Party.

After Perot was out of the picture, the Reform Party became the target of two completely dissimilar outside groups -- the right-wing fascists, led by Pat Buchanan, and the Transcendental Meditation flakes, led by John Hagelin -- who had no ties to the party, but realized that if they could take control of its loose apparatus, they could briefly inherit the ballot-access status that Perot had gotten. A party with no real identity is an easy target for that kind of thing.

I've said this before, but I truly wish the Democratic party was as awesome and left wing as some of these people claim they are.

If Andrew Yang REALLY wants to help people he should just stay out of politics altogether.

And that's just one reason I did not vote for Andrew Yang.

Amen. Do charity work.

This seems like a close enough thread topic that it isn’t worth making a new one.

For all the reasons discussed a national third party is not possible with FPP.

HOWEVER it is possible that in deep red or blue states or districts where there is no chance a D or an R could win that some kind of local center right or center left alternative could emerge.

Utah’s Senate race will be an interesting test case. There Evan McMullin, a life long Republican but with morals so left the Republican Party after Trump took over is running as a moderate conservative Independent against Trumpist incumbent Mike Lee.

The Utah Democratic Party recognizing that they don’t have a shot in hell and that the our democracy needs less Trumpists pulled their nominee and told their folks to support McMullin.

The most recent poll has him within 5 points of Lee (36-41) which while only one poll is really something considering in 2016 Lee won 68-27.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/utah/

I’m not sure how replicable it is but in places where the Democratic and Republican brands are irredeemably tarnished (whether by actions or propaganda) it could be worth a try.

Be interested to see how the Senate would run if no caucus had a majority but only a plurality with a couple of independents not caucusing with either party (as McMullin has pledged).

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-pr...-wont-caucus-either-party-wins-utah-rcna37076

I'm continually amazed at how people don't realize what got the Republican party to move farther right. The Tea Party idiots (or rather their wealthy backers) found districts where there was basically no Democratic candidate in a long time, and the incumbent Republican was sort of a generic person who was little known (so not a Mitch McConnell, more like a Mike Crapo) and ran someone to the right of him in the primary. Given that people who vote in primaries tend to be more plugged into things like the party platform, often as not, they're going to vote for the challenger who can paint himself as a "real" Republican, and not a "RINO" like the incumbent. Once the general rolls around, folks just vote for whoever has an 'R' next to their name (assuming that there's even a challenger) and the righty is in office. As this happens in larger numbers, the party as a whole, begins to shift to the right.

Had the party not done this, then you'd have almost certainly seen a split in the GOP, with the Tea Partiers forming a significant bloc in Congress. They'd almost certainly vote with the Republicans most of the time, but if the Dems made an effort to make changes to the voting laws so that it'd be easier for third parties to participate, then the Tea Partiers undoubtedly would side with them.

Lest one thinks that this is only something that could work with Republicans, I'll remind you that this is exactly how AOC made it into Congress. If the Green Party or the various DSA Parties were to adopt this, and have their candidates run as Democrats in safe districts, then leave the DNC once enough of them made it to Congress, we'd have an actual left-leaning party with some power in the US. I don't see that happening any time soon, however.

Haven’t read it yet but Politico Magazine did a deep dive on McMullin:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/29/evan-mcmullin-trump-poi-00047807

Yang wants a party with the Dems' center-left platform, but without the woke nonsense and the branding baggage that Dems suffer in Middle America. It won't happen, but it's a laudable goal.

Yang wants to put a bandaid on an open, festering, gushing wound. He’s no help.

Then he listens to way too much right wing propaganda and has no idea how a major party functions.

Fail all around. Reason he is 3-0 in electoral politics.

woke nonsense (n): actually giving a shit about people and their rights.

Or at the very least not immediately throwing them under the bus when Republicans try to use them as a wedge issue.

Greens aren't anywhere near that though.

Not only have do they have no US Senators or members of the US House of Representatives, they have no State Senators or State Representatives. There's more than 7300 of those.

There is 1 Green Party mayor in the entire country.

They are a virtual non-entity in politics, with a few county commissioners and school board members, almost all on the West Coast.

America needs a third party to find a middle way between the polarized extremes of, on the one hand, overthrowing elections by violence and, on the other hand, not overthrowing elections by violence.

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1553808175874408448?s=21&t=FQNk58s9TuVu93nFpt7AIA

Note the author. George W’s speechwriter. Guess no one is immune from the woke disease.

There is some irony in the guy who came up with the term ‘Axis of Evil’ is against overthrowing governments by violence*.

*And yes, I realize not all governments are the same, just saying it’s humorous. Don’t @ me.

@Ancalagon

I can kind of see the appeal. There are certain state and local Democratic Parties that are just so paternalistic and/or regulatorily captured. The question is, are they going to do the legwork in 2023 local elections (probably too late for 2022) or is this just prep for someone’s vanity run in 2024?

Bothering with the fashionable veneer of caring long enough to assert superior moral virtue over people you dislike, anyway.

Actually, "woke" is about removing the idea of superiority over people others dislike.

No, it's about manufacturing outrage and oppression for social currency.

No it’s more like virtue signaling to everyone about how much of a great person you are because you scold those who don’t use proper pronouns and calling people who disagree with you a Nazi. It’s pretty much just Dicky.

Just because you are stupid enough to believe this, does not mean it's true. My statement is correct.

Oh it’s very true, you’re just blinded by partisanship to not be able to see it.

Partisanship? I am not a Democrat. I am a leftist. I do vote Democrat more often than not because their candidates more often than not run on the side of issues in which I also side.

You, on the other hand, insist you are not Republican, but refuse to state why you vote Republican.

I voted for Ron Paul in 2012! Because I thought he was a better candidate with better policies than Romney or Obama.

which specific policies?