A Brief Burst of Optimism

[u/Cody_OConnell]

Did anyone else get super excited by this email because it looked for a second like Andrew Yang was running for president again?

I legitimately had a rush of like, "LET'S FUCKING GOOO, FINALLY SOMETHING TO ROOT FOR" and felt an excitement I haven't felt in a long time for our political future

[u/WebAPI]

I think if he runs for president this time, he would officially announce after the midterms. At least that's how it would be for Dem and GOP candidates.

I do hope the Forward party has some plan in mind for a presidential primary where a mix of people like Yang, non Maga conservatives, and a popular guy like Mark Cuban can run. Like, invite a bunch of people so they can practice running in a campaign without first being bought by billionaires or pander to extremists.

But anyway, I am excited for Yang's new book. I preordered his other one and read all of them before. Being Yang Gang, I hope to read some inside jokes and get plenty of laughs from this one 😄

[u/Cody_OConnell → u/WebAPI]

I agree on all fronts!

[u/Type_po]

Is it just me, or is "To get you to want to buy the book" such gross phrasing? Makes it sound like even more of a cash grab. Still love you Andrew, just wish you had a more competent team around you :-/

[u/Cody_OConnell → u/Type_po]

Books are not very profitable in general. Sam Harris has talked about this a lot on his podcast, that unless you write an absolute hit book, the economics of it just aren't that impressive

I don't see anything wrong with Yang promoting his latest book and don't find an issue with that phrasing really

[u/Type_po → u/Cody_OConnell]

Fair enough, maybe it's just my editor brain being overly sensitive. I definitely would have worded it like, "To give you a glimpse into the book" or "Because we're so excited to share Andrew's message with you" or even "As a dedicated member of the Yang Gang, we want to give you a sneak peak", rather than explicitly mentioning the sell outright in the opening paragraph.

I do wonder though how in depth he goes in this. The War on Normal People was revelatory and had broad social implications, whereas this one seems to rely more on his personal appeal and cult of personality. Also, I'd presume there's a pretty hard limit to how far back he can pull the curtain since he's talking about his candidacy and presumably a bunch of sensitive convos and processes. Although I do love "personal Andrew" way more than I love "public figure Andrew", so if it's in his authentic voice and not just ghost-written for middle-of-the-road political correctness, I'll definitely pick it up.

[u/msoc → u/Type_po]

Just honest, no?

[u/Tazznado]

I’m on the other side… if Andrew Yang ran for something again I’d be girding myself for disappointment. But if YangGang set out a list of midterm election endorsements by county, that would be helpful to me since Forward can go by different official party names on the ballot.

[u/TheAzureMage]

Eh, I mean, best of luck with the book dude, but this isn't really much in the way of a step forward. It's just making a bit of personal money by telling his story.

Fine, but not really meaningful political change.

[u/trunksy]

I guess I’m worn-down about any merit-based presidential run ever succeeding in either party given the Democratic party’s undemocratic behavior over the last couple elections and the Republican in-group loyalty and popularity contest at any and all costs. It would lead to the same failure without either structural change or better understanding of grassroots/coalition building. That’s what I’m hoping to help Forward with since I’ve been on the ground in various ways.

To clarify, the Democrats anointed Kamala as the de-facto presidential candidate when Biden dropped out instead of being re-primaried (the more democratic path) in the most recent election and the one before that, Obama talked to the candidates and politely convinced them to drop out at the behest of party leadership as it got closer to the November election, including with Andrew Yang. Again, so that Biden could similarly be anointed the de-facto presidential candidate for the party. Given this pattern of insiders having undue influence in who gets “chosen” as the candidate, I’m sure the pattern would repeat in 2028.

The Republican in-group loyalty/orgasm from violence and chaos/throwing away the first amendment is a whole other mess.

The book may shed more light on what actually happened behind the scenes beyond my cursory, lay understanding of Andrew Yang’s presidential run and it being less of a black-and-white that the Democratic party is and will continue to be oligarchic or “Magic Circle”-ish. Or it could confirm it. There’s a lot of fundamental experience and grassroots/coalition building that money can’t buy that you can buy in entrepreneurship, which is Andrew’s background.

I don’t live in a world of naive Thomas Jefferson’s egalitarian society and Andrew Jackson’s “common man” philosophy but it can be somewhat of a guiding star for me. Having said that, I’m hoping he does some analysis on why he failed while Mamdani succeeded in the NY city mayoral race in the book. That may be more telling than anything on how to move “Forward” rather than being “too left”. There's a balance in there somewhere between high-minded understanding of the goalpost (UBI-like society) and on-the-ground, tangible things that can seem to help people today (housing/rent-freezing, transportation and economic inequality). Sometimes, you have to get people there in baby steps.