Andrew Yang on How to Avoid 'Civil War 2.0'

Substack ^ | 10 Nov, 2021 | Bari Weiss

[MtnClimber]

The case for ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and third parties. Plus: Dave Chappelle, cryptocurrency, Critical Race Theory, the metaverse, Elon Musk, and more.

Andrew Yang is the most upbeat politician I have ever met. I am also fairly convinced he is a masochist.

First, he decided to run for president of the United States. He lost. Then he decided to run to become mayor of New York City. He lost again. A normal person might consider a career shift.

Not Yang. In October he announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party and embarking on another herculean task: the formation of a new third party called Forward. (His new book has the same name.)

I sat down with Andrew last week and asked him to convince me why a third party was a good idea. And also: why he thinks Democrats just lost in Virginia; whether the outrage about critical race theory is justified; the brouhaha over Dave Chappelle; why he thinks Mark Cuban would be a great presidential candidate; and much more.

Agree with him or disagree with him about the efficacy of third parties, or his signature issues (ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and universal basic income), what’s clear about Andrew Yang is that he is actually trying to fix things.

I loved talking to Andrew. You can listen to our whole conversation here, or read the some of the highlights from our conversation below:

[Flavious_Maximus]

This third party will be banned in blue states.

In the same way that Pennsylvania prevented the Green party candidate during the 2020 election (but they allowed the Libertarian Party candidate because it helped steal votes from Trump).

[lodi90]

The end point isn’t a third party. Instead it is to reject the Dem-GOP duopoly that just recently disenfranchised us all and wake up a sleeping electorate. Once the Uniparty’s strangle hold is broken you will have a 4th party, etc. It’s our only hope to save our American Heritage. We will never MAGA with the GOP. The GOP have proven these past few years that they prefer American Marxism to a patriotic government based on our Constitution.

[central_va]

We are in a cold civil war now. When will it go hot?

[Made In The USA]

What problem are proponents of RCV seeking to solve?

I could see RCV being used to gather voter opinions (e.g. “Please rank the following public works projects you feel are most important”). But when voting for someone to lead (mayor, governor), a judge, a representative, etc - it’s not a popularity contest. It is, or should be at least, a choice gathered on an assessment of competencies, experience, values, effectiveness and trust.

[Drew68]

The Pilgrims tried a variety of that, until the first winter killed off half of them.

Hell, we don't even need to look that far back. We started giving people free money back in 2020, Covid stimulus payments, and look where we are now. Fast food places are shortening their business hours because they don't have enough employees. Businesses all over the country are closing. Help wanted signs are everywhere and still nobody is showing up.

[Dead Corpse]

Nothing can stop CWII. Not any more. 20 years ago, maybe...

That time has past.

[GOPJ]

Some of his ideas are interesting but there’s way too much Marxism mixed it...

[x]

Ranked choice voting benefits activists who know all about minor parties and can work the angles and disadvantages those who know what they want and are straightforward about it. It means longer periods of vote counting and calculation and more opportunities for corruption and fraud. It does have an appeal to people who think there’s some simple, magical solution to the problems of government.

[GOPJ]

This was in the comments section at the end of the Yang piece and it didn’t have the smooth focus grouped scanned by some ‘intelligence group feel of Yang’s piece.. More like a reasonable ‘now’ plan:

Alan G
19 hr ago

Want to avoid civil war 2.0? MSM (especially CNN, NYT , MSNBC) need to be totally honest about their misleading and dishonest reporting of the past 5 years .

Can start with

1- Dossier and Trump collusion

2- call out Adam Shiff and other Dems for knowingly misleading the public

3- stop misrepresenting the Georgia Voting law - fine if they disagree but it is not Jim Crow 2.0

4 - Call out the dishonest handling of Hunter Biden story

5- stop saying CRT is not taught in schools. Of course the theory is not taught to kids but that is not relevant. What is relevant is that schools have already implemented many of its principals

6- give accurate context to the “good people on both sides “ comment - and tell people how Trump clarified it a minute after he said it. No doubt a dumb comment but he was not calling neo-nazi very fine people . Barry , you are great but this applies to you too 🤗🤗

7- Lies and misinformation around Kavanaugh and Covington kids.

7 - cover the Rittinghouse truthfully

He probably broke a gun law (due to his age) but anyone watching the trial can see it was self defense . CNN not showing relevant clips

8 - apologize for calling riots peaceful protest

There is sooo much . But media , senior Dem’s lack of leadership due to fear of squad is playing a major role in the divide . Time to call them out .

And there is so much more

[Radix]

Why would any rational thinking person want to avoid Civil War 2.0?

[Carl Vehse]

No “ranked choice voting”!!!

Citizens should demand a full voting right which would allow a voter to cast either a positive or negative vote for a single candidate for a given office. The candidate with the most positive (or least negative) vote total wins.

With a full voting right, a voter could cast his ballot without a moral dilemma even when the choices for a given office were only between evil doers, which is becoming more of a trend nowadays.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I actually read Yang’s platform when he ran for President. Somewhat like Chinese communism.

[RinaseaofDs]

Forward, as in Progressive?

These people are geniuses. Just ask them.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Open primaries are bad, too.

That’s how Bush League Republicans like Flimsey Grahamnesty keep getting re-elected despite being Assistant Democrats.

[delchiante]

I would think it’s closer to 1775..

And the new Red Coats are wearing White Coats

[Paperpusher]

We are in a cold civil war now. When will it go hot?

We are not in a cold civil war. We are in a warm Communist revolution. Likely to be hot before the end of Biden’s term.

[L,TOWM]

OK, so you get a true believer do gooder to play Kerensky with his Menshaviks while Lenin and Stalin are getting their Bolshevik power play together... sounds like a plan.

All of the dammed dems think they are voting for Holland and Sweden. None of ‘em seem to grasp that Northern European Tribal Collectivism can’t work in a multi-cultural competitive society where 80% of the folks walking around have an axe to grind with 80% of the folks walking around...

[Phoenix8]

I didn’t say I wanted either. I’m just picking the lessor of 2 evils.

[L,TOWM]

I would have figured that since you are on this site, you are smart enough to get that I wasn’t going after YOU specifically, but merely pointing out that the “nice commie” really never stays that way for too long...

And yeah... things really felt hopeful and optimistic in Czarist Russia that had Kerensky and an elected Parliament running it for 5 months...

[Hiddigeigei]

Maybe Yang, a true Marxist, realizes that the billionaires that control the Democrat Party want a fascist totalitarian state and consider the Marxist communists as simply useful idiots.