So, I plan on doing more "understanding the times" oriented analyses of society as I feel like these are really good foundational articles that really summarize what motivates me and my perspective and serve as a lot of back end worldview building that is necessary to make my perspective come more into focus for me. BUT, I have a more pressing matter to discuss. Andrew Yang just did something big with his forward party, and...I have to discuss it.
I'm going to be blunt. I'm NOT a fan of this move, and this might mean me breaking with his movement out right. Hence the urgency with which I discuss this.
So, Andrew Yang merged the Forward Party with two other groups pushing for ranked choice voting. The first is the "Renew America Movement", which is a movement of conservatives, and the second is the "Serve America Movement", which is more bipartisan in nature.
They're pushing this as a new "centrist party", continuing the centrist framing of the original forward party. It seems to be a good financial move for the forward movement, which seems to be why they're doing it, but here's the problem, I feel like Yang is selling out to make this happen.
The reason I got on board with Yang was because his brand of politics largely reflects my own. His original 2020 platform based on UBI, Medicare for all, and human centered capitalism, is exactly what we need, and is eerily similar to my own core pitch in terms of political ideology. My original platform post my deconversion from christianity in 2012 evolved into UBI, Medicare for all, and free college. And my philosophy was based on the secular humanist ideology that I laid out in the previous article. Essentially, I decided that the economy is made for people, not people for the economy, and that work is a means to an end, not an end in itself. As such, we should implement the above policies, make work more voluntary, and allow people to have greater work life balance when they do work. This, in practice, ended up being eerily similar to Yang's human centered capitalism, although that had less of an anti work bend. Still, I aint splitting hairs. You support my vision, I am going to be a die hard supporter.
And here's the thing, you guys know I hate the democrats and the republicans. A third party movement that takes that core vision and expands it into political reform is just going to be a major win for me. Again, aligns with my politics, and makes me a die hard supporter.
But what Yang seems to be doing now, with this move, is abandoning his original platform. His new platform has no mention of UBI, or even any policies of note at all. It seems to be this ultimate big tent for pushing for political reform, but with abandoning the existing political platform.
Here's the thing. The reason I support political reform is my policies can't win in the current political climate. The republicans are hostile to any form of redistribution of wealth as per the fundamentalist christian and conservative worldviews. I feel like Understanding the Times did a good job explaining how the right sees things, and I don't feel like that vision has fundamentally changed since I first read it in 2005, or it was first published in the 90s. And the democrats...well...their vision seems to be a combination of a moderate version of the conservative/christian worldview, combined with postmodernism. In the 90s, the democrats abandoned their labor focus and basically ceded the ideological war to the conservatives, essentially becoming a moderate version of the same thing. But the real difference was the cultural flair. The GOP was a very united bloc of white christians with conservative attitudes toward the world, and the left were...left to somehow make a working coalition out of the rest of America. Which led to an extreme multiracial coalition that seemed held together by a post modernist view of the world that serves as a dog whistle in society for better or for worse, with some people LIKING it, and others being REPELLED by it. And filling in the gaps is just, a moderate version of the same conservative ideology.
We need change. I have this secular humanist worldview that morphed into "human centered capitalism", and I want a better world. But...the current political divisions are very much against that better world coming into being. Because the dominant worldviews and demographic forces are very harmful and keep driving us toward disaster, as the right gets more extreme and the left keeps abandoning its values to make any political gains.
And now I feel like Yang is doing the same thing. UBI is gone off of his forward party's platform. It's GONE. Human centered capitalism is GONE. It's like they never existed. So, let's look at what seems to be replacing it:
The three forward priorities are the following:
Ranked choice voting
Nonpartisan primaries
Independent Redistricting Commissions
And don't get me wrong, I support all three of these things. But Yang's BEEN supporting these things, AND much of his original vision. He just abandoned the rest of his vision in favor of this.
And it's not in his "core principles" either. We discussed his "core principles" before. But this is what's left now:
- Free People: Revitalize a culture that celebrates difference and individual choice, rejects hate, and removes barriers so that each of us can rise to our full potential.
- Thriving Communities: Reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy and open society where everyone can live a good life and is safe in the places where we learn, work, and live.
- Vibrant Democracy: Reform our republic to give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future.
Again, not much I oppose here. But, again, what initially drew me to Yang is now GONE.
And let's not forget these other principles mentioned:
- Diverse Thinking Isn't Just Welcome, It's Required
The Forward Party will welcome new ideas and fearless conversations around the issues of the day. We won’t silence debate or refuse to adapt to the modern world. - Bottom-Up, Not Top Down
The Forward Party will empower leaders to find solutions that work in their communities. We won’t dictate a rigid, top down policy platform and expect it to work for all Americans. - No Purity Tests
The Forward Party will create a political home for everyone willing to set aside the partisan extremes and find practical ways to make this country better. We won’t be checking IDs to see if people are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents. - More Listening, Less Talking
The Forward Party will ask you what we can do for your community. We will not ask what your community can do for us. - Work Together, Not Against
The Forward Party will strive for collaborative solutions, make sure they work, and try something else if they don’t. We won’t ignore problems so that we can use them to drive wedges between Americans; nothing gets done when opposing views are treated like enemy positions. - Grace and Tolerance
The Forward Party will approach each other with grace and tolerance, finding ways to pick people back up rather than knock them down. We won’t cancel people or cast them out of the party for not falling in line.
Let's go over this a little more:
1) Diverse thinking isn't always bad. Parties are coalitions and I understand to maintain a coalition there has to be some give and take. I support not silencing debate. As you guys know I am a major supporter of free speech, even to my political enemies.
2) I have no real preference either way here, but if anything I generally am a top down kind of guy.
3) No, we need a uniting ideology that keeps the party together. The fact that so many people disagree with the existing uniting ideologies between the republicans and democrats is why there is need for a third party in the first place. But, we do need something that brings people together, and this weird mealy mouthed "no purity tests" thing is alienating. UBI, M4A, and Human centered capitalism, the founding principles of Yang's 2020 platform, SHOULD BE PURITY TESTS. Even if we allow diversity and concede ground on other issues and allow diversity to flow.
4) Nice sentiment, you can do UBI and human centered capitalism for us.
5) Sure. I support Yang's depolarization efforts on the culture war for example. I don't support treating fellow Americans like enemies. Both the extreme Christian worldview of the right and the postmodernist one of the left are creating a very unhealthy political environment. We do need to remember that people are people. But dangerous ideas are still dangerous and should be treated as such. We should demonize positions, but not people.
6) Grace and tolerance was part of their old platform. And I initially was skeptical toward it but became supportive over time as I realized that the culture war does create too much demonization of other, and harmful, false worldviews on both sides are the problem. I was going to do more understanding the times articles on this fact.
HOWEVER, if you can't at least have some basic principles to guide the party by like UBI and human centered capitalism, it's a mealy mouthed gesture of meaningless. You stand for nothing. And no one should support you.
Honestly, this merger might have just killed everything I loved about the forward party. It is still possible that information will come out proving that I am wrong. I would like Yang to clarify his positions on these issues, but honestly, I'm not happy with this shift, and they might be losing me as a supporter. I support my own vision above anything else. I'm willing to work with others to be flexible and get it done, but I'm not going to sell out.
This comes off as selling out. This is why Yang gets called a grifter by the left. And while I've been watching left wing reactions come in today, with many of them extreme hostile and caustic to everything Yang stands and has stood for (with TYT, for example, taking pot shots at UBI as a concept, repeating claims that it would destroy welfare, claiming no one supports it, and that people want to work and have purpose and they want to be rewarded for their purpose (so...jobism)), to some extent, I have to say they have a point. Yang dropping medicare for all over time has raised eyebrows among progressives and made him think he was never really a supporter of the idea in the first place and he was just in it for the money and book sales. And abandoning UBI is just going to make those claims resurface. And honestly, I have to wonder...are they right? I kind of think so.
HOnestly, I dont want "centrism". I mean, sure, on some things I do, on some issues in Yang's op ed the centrism seemed appealing to me. I do want a middle ground on gun control between the second amendment absolutism and wanting to confiscate guns. I do want a middle ground between the green new deal and climate change denial. On abortion, well, I'm far left there, but if not for the far right, I wouldn't be opposed to banning third trimester ELECTIVE abortions.
BUT, I won't compromise on UBI. I won't compromise past a public option on healthcare. I support human centered capitalism. And without those things, I just feel like I lost 80% of my reason for supporting this movement in the first place.
I will wait to see what more comes out before formally cutting ties with this movement. If Yang could offer a convincing clarifying statement, like he did in the past on issues I had with his original forward party, I would be fine with continuing to support him. But if he's selling out to go all in on a platformless party centered around only electoral reform and nothing else, with much of the support coming from conservatives fundamentally against my vision for America...I'm done. I just am.
I left the republicans in 2012. I left the democrats in 2016. I will leave forward too if it no longer stands for anything. It seems to be a way of life at this point.
I guess I'm back to political homelessness.
No comments:
Post a Comment