Politicians need to be able to lead, and Kamala Harris is a better leader than Andrew Yang. Yang has far more in common with Jeffrey Sachs or Henry Kissinger than he does with Franklin Roosevelt or Jimmy Carter. He's a back-room guy who stands in front of podiums when it's the most useful thing to do but I think he'd rather make other people implement his ideas than slog through the mud himself. Dude is a calibrated triangulator. He plays the game the most advantageous way his skills and liabilities will let him. Being Democratic-adjacent is more useful at the moment than being a Democrat. That's probably why he has such a bone to pick with disability. he's absolutely right - it's a 100% ghastly system. I've read like five books in the past two months that point out the current US penal system is basically slavery under another name but disability? It's a shitty misapplicaiton of deinstitutionalization. If it worked the way it was supposed to it'd basically be AFLAC but instead it's a "congratulations you spent two years in court you never have to work again but you also get to be three meals from homeless for the rest of your life." Something like 60% of Biden's stimulus plan was gonna be paid for by enforcing tax law. That's how fucked up the system is. "I like your current system but - and here me out here - what if we didn't leave eighty percent of our earnings on the table?" And I mean, the reason nobody in this country gave a fuck about the Panama Papers is from a tax haven standpoint, the only thing that beats Nevada and Delaware are like Nauru and Sealand. I'm sure he was, too. But he's not ex-McKinsey, he toes the party line grudgingly and he actually wants to rock the boat. Uncle Joe is too busy cleaning up the Rec Room from the mess that last guy left after his bender to try something new, so Yang is out there attempting to stay relevant. I'm down.Really disappointed Uncle Joe didn't give him an impactful job like Labor or Treasury.
Then he hit the stage. Flub. I love the guy, but he’s not the most charismatic politician. I don’t agree with all of his policies but I like that he’s changing the conversation from the same bullshit football items. Yang will run, siphon some votes and build a coalition only to jump behind the dem at the last minute. Maybe on their ticket? Who knows…. Is it already Silly Season? Dude is a calibrated triangulator. He plays the game the most advantageous way his skills and liabilities will let him.
spot on. I was a very early supporter of Yang, pre presidential debates. Working hard to get him on that stage via donations etc.
American politics will be perpetual until grievance ceases to be identity. I almost convinced a neighbor to get vaccinated day before yesterday. He's a good guy. Heart of gold. Works hard. Loves his mother. Dad died of COVID. So did his aunt. But he "ain't getting the shot." In the course of the discussion we touched on - Removing Robert E. Lee's statue - Drug abuse - Homelessness - Gay marriage - Guns - Reconstruction - Biblical slavery He wasn't going to give up his unvaccinated status because it would break up his Burger King Commemorative MAGA Cup set. A larval theory As we slowly, cautiously, delicately honor and accept the heritage of ethnicities and cultures other than whiteness in the United States, those without an ethnicity or culture other than whiteness are seeing their ethnicity and culture compared for the first time. And they are being told tales that do not jive with their politely scrubbed and polished inherited knowledge. And this is heresy, this is sacrilege, this is an assault on their well-being. Did some Ancestry.com deep-diving recently. I'm 1/4 Belorussian Jew, 1/16th Belgian scam artist, 11/16ths slave-owning plantation WASP. Seen the slave rolls. I have an ancestor that owned nothing but children. I have another that owned slaves so far back he owned them in New York. Now - I hate my family. They're terrible people. So I can go "lol well of course we picked up the hoe as soon as we were forced to put down the whip." I can observe that having our assets turned into citizens provided some serious downward pressure on our mobility, which is about as pure as justice comes. But if I was proud of where I was from? Yer goddamn right I'd triangulate a way to find the bright side of owning five children. When your political alignment shifts from "what I believe" to "who I am" your political spectrum includes populism and fascism. And since well before 1776, "who I am" in American politics has included the belief that some people aren't really people. We've been able to tamp it down from time to time, but I can tell my buddy - who was 120 lbs overweight, then was 80lbs overweight, then his heroin addict brother got out of prison last week after four years so he is now 88 lbs overweight - believes he's going to beat COVID where I didn't. He used to see me jogging every morning and when I told him that I straight up can't anymore because of COVID, his whole rationalization was there to see - "it may have killed my dad, it may have killed my aunt, it may have almost killed two of my buddies, but it didn't kill my brother therefore I'll be fine because I'm better than this guy." Yang tries to build a coalition of beliefs. Biden and Harris won because as a country, more people identified with them than anybody else. Identity needs to be refreshed every time it's challenged. And we've got way too many people in this country who want to challenge the idea of the United States.
Ya know what... I think you have hit on the perfect thing for Yang to do with his skills, knowledge, and money: make the anti-Hertiage Foundation. Call it the Yang Center for American Policy, and be a think-tank and test bed for progressive policies, data, and analyses. Fuck... I want to WORK there. That would be brilliant.
Who said anything about Y Combinator? Venture for America is a DEI-forward, minority-empowering non-profit designed to increase entrepreneurial opportunities for underserved populations in underserved communities. The Heritage Foundation is a memo mill. YCombinator is an LLC.
Yang's Venture for America grooms people to create startup companies. Essentially the graduates of this program are supposed to go into TechStars, or Y Combinator, or some other business incubator and create the next big thing. Web 3.0, or whatever. The Heritage Foundation is a "research" institution that provides cover for the myriad of nutty conservative beliefs and pogroms, by appearing (on the surface) to do research and analysis using scientific methods (har har har), that Republicans can then quote as legitimate sources to back their goofball plans. Yeah, a memo mill, but one that shrouds its real purpose in a white lab coat bought at a second hand store. My point was that Yang could create a legitimate counterpoint to the Heritage Foundation. Not just more tech startups.
And my point is that he's really good at doing what he's good at, and really bad at doing what he's bad at, and "position papers" are not his sweet spot. Venture For America is an attempt to change the country by giving someone other than white libertarians from Yale a chance to shape capitalism. It's very much a club, much like the Heritage Foundation. Both: - Rely on networks of alumni - Work through interaction with existing businesses and "thought leaders" - Are engines for the maximization of capitalism The only reason the Heritage Foundation isn't an incubator is the Heritage Foundation has no fucking use for you if you're not already fucking rich and/or a conservative darling. The Kochs didn't need poor people, either. If you think brown people deserve a voice in the corporate discussion? You need to pay their way. The Heritage Foundation, by the way, was founded to oppose anything the Brookings Institution said.