So, I wrote a bit ago about how I felt about the presidential candidates and the race so far. My views haven't changed much, outside of one aspect. I like Andrew Yang a lot more than I did a few weeks ago. I listened to him on Joe Rogan and other podcasts, and he hit it out of the park. I mean, this guy is almost me in terms of politics. A bit of an exaggeration, but pretty close. I mean, he speaks about the issues like I do, sees the world like I do, and advocates for solutions like I do. There are some areas of disagreement, he's slightly more pro capitalism than I am (while recognizing a need for systemic change), and I will vehemently disagree with the nuances of a handful of his policies (for example, his plan to fund UBI, which I already covered), but other than that he strongly aligns with my highest priorities. Universal basic income, universal healthcare, a need to fix our system and bring it into the 21st century, realizing jobs aren't the answer any more, etc.
However, at the same time, he's sometimes very cringey. He seemingly keeps downplaying that there's a $1 trillion hole in his UBI plan and that what he's peddling in terms of funding is basically left wing reaganomics. To be fair, people like AOC are doing the same thing with the green new deal, and that frustrates me too. It's like Yang and others want to give us these expansive programs but are too cowardly to raise taxes and make the sacrifices needed to make them work. Which is a shame, the taxes are a total paper tiger for most Americans; they seem way more intimidating than they actually are and most Americans would be better off in net even if they think they wouldn't be. I really wish Yang would be more honest with the numbers and push the details hard to explain to people how they work so they would be better off. We lefties can't come off like Santa Claus, trying to fund something for nothing and racking up the debt in the process. That's a way to destroy our credibility and hand the ideological football back to small government conservatives who scream about the debt all the time.
Yang also has other ideas I don't like. He has a policy in which he would give us a "news and information ombudsman" to crack down "fake news" and alleged Russian trolls. I'm against this because, watching the democrats for the last 2 years, the idea of them having anything remotely close to a "ministry of truth" in which they regulate the press and users on social media scares the crap out of me. It comes off as a way to suppress dissent within the democratic party (and as you can tell, I'm a VERY vocal dissenter) and I'm concerned that these powers could, quite frankly, be abused. To be fair it does seem more oriented toward 'corporate offenders", but such an idea still scares the crap out of me in theory. Maybe it won't be as bad as what I'm thinking, but I don't want to set a precedent.
He also has ideas that sound almost conservative in nature. One idea is to sunset old laws by measuring laws according to certain goals and repealing them if they don't meet those goals. The problem I have with this is, well, our system is corrupt. While I get the spirit of what he's going for here, in practice I'm afraid this policy will heavily favor laws corporations lobby for and sunset laws that said corporations claim "hurt jobs" or something like that, which would apply to virtually every labor law if a simplistic understanding of econ 101 is to be believed. I mean, hey, we just lost the whole fair labor standards act and OSHA, but at least I can carry ice cream in my back pocket again. Yay America! Again it's possible that I'm being hyperbolic and that the parameters for repealing laws would be a lot more stringent, but I don't want to risk it. He also wants to cut the size of the federal work force, which, could interfere with the productivity of important agencies, or at least put a lot more stress on federal workers than currently exists.
Now, it's possible I'm blowing many of these flaws out of proportion, but I could see some harm done with these ideas. I don't think Yang means harm; I think these policies exist because he's not a politician and doesn't necessarily understand how these ideas can be abused, but they are concerning.
On the bright side, Yang also has many many innovative ideas that would make up for these poor policies. He wants to do things like eliminate first past the post and implement ranked choice voting. He wants to eliminate corruption, get money out of politics, and give people money they can use specifically to donate to politicians in hopes that it will drown out corporate money. For every bad idea this guy has, he has three good ones. He also seems to understand the need to fundamentally change how our economy works and make it work for the people. And honestly, it's possible I misunderstand his policies or am blowing their flaws out of proportion. So he's a solid candidate.
At the same time, I still feel a draw toward Bernie Sanders. Bernie is...Bernie. And I love Bernie. He's dusting off his 2016 platform, making some adjustments, and advocating for the same things he always does. He has a more socialist bend to his politics. He sees the core problem as the rich screwing over the little guy, which isn't inaccurate, and proposes a wide array of solutions like a $15 minimum wage, green new deal, medicare for all, and free college. I closely aligned with him in 2016, and I still love and respect the guy a lot. Moreover, he seemed to fine tune his numbers for his plans. For example, in 2016 Sanders got a lot of criticism for his medicare for all funding numbers. This time around, as I recently analyzed, his numbers some to come out perfectly according to the metrics he puts forward. He is a much more pragmatic candidate, while I see Yang as having some issues with his platform due to his lack of experience. Don't get me wrong, Yang is very smart for someone who hasn't run for office before, but his naivete and inexperience on policy shows sometimes. Sanders is much more experienced and has a much better ideal of what he's doing.
Another advantage Sanders has is electability. Sanders, I believe, can win the primary this time around. As a matter of fact I would give him the highest shot right now based on this. He already has a strong loyal base of support that seems to be growing since he announced. He consistently scores second in polls with Biden leading, and honestly, I think Biden is a lot like Clinton in the sense that if he ran, between his personality and politics, he would alienate people, and his support would split among different candidates given the more crowded 2020 field. I could see his supporters splitting among Beto o Rourke, and Amy Klobuchar, and Kamala Harris, giving Bernie a win. Yang...I can't see him winning the primary. I could see him winning the general as his message is heavily geared toward the areas of the country the democrats lost in 2016, and he also seems to be making inroads with some Trump supporters for what I see, but he would need to get out of the primary first. It's gonna be tough enough for Sanders to win with the progressive base united behind him. If we just splinter off and support Yang and Tulsi Gabbard and the like, it could cost Sanders the primary, giving us a moderate like Biden or Harris.
While I would take someone who has somewhat cringey policies at times but is far more closely aligned with my views over someone who isnt really aligned with my views and pragmatic (the justification for my Stein vote over Clinton), Sanders is relatively close to my views compared to most other candidates. While Clinton arguably represented, say, a 50% match with my views weighted by priority, and Stein represented say a 70% match, Sanders represents like an 85-90% match and Yang more like a 90-95% match. It might be worth voting my heart against someone I feel like I disagree with 50% of the time but it isn't worth it over someone I might only disagree with 10% of the time. If Sanders has a better chance to win, it may not be the time to protest vote or play around with unelectable candidates. We need to focus on who can win and implement some sort of vision close to my own. That said, based on the sheer pragmatism of his ideas and the fact that I believe he can win the primary while I'm not sure Yang can, Bernie might actually be the better candidate to support. While I would greatly miss UBI as a central policy in the next democratic administration, I would not be particularly unhappy with Sanders and his ideas. He's still moving us in the right direction and we could always revisit the issue in 2028.
Honestly, at this point, I am just undecided. I guess for now I will root for both. I keep fluctuating between the two. One day I feel like an Andrew Yang guy, the next a Bernie guy. I guess I will need to wait until next year and see how the field develops to see what I should do. I do at least want to see Andrew Yang get into the democratic debates. It might influence the field and for all we know Sanders might integrate some sort of UBI into his platform if it's popular. Who knows. I will say that barring some major development or some other candidate better than them both entering the race, those two are the ones I'm keeping my eye on most and have the most support for at the moment. There are some other decent candidates out there, but right now I have to say I like these two most.
No comments:
Post a Comment