Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, is one of the dozens of Democratic hopefuls trying to reinspire a nation that is frustrated with the current administration. His campaign’s focal point is best said by Yang himself: “If you’ve heard anything about me and my campaign, you’ve heard that someone is running for president who wants to give every American a thousand dollars a month . . . Why do we need to do it? We’ve already automated away millions of manufacturing jobs, and chances are your job can be next.”
Yang goes on to explain that his Freedom Dividend, which is the proposal that would give all adult Americans a thousand dollars a month, would be taken from what he dubs the “big winners of today’s society,” large corporations such as Amazon. He believes that the American people deserve their fair portion of a successful American industry, a stance that should be appealing to all.
Not only is Yang’s Freedom Dividend intelligent, his recognition of the automation of jobs as a threat makes him more in-tune with America’s public than the rest of the politicians on stage, who frequently squabble over details and attack each other to establish themselves as the leaders of the Democratic pack.
Unfortunately, Yang’s reluctance to squabble makes it harder to catapult his campaign to front-runner status. Yang’s refusal to debate in a debate makes him stand out in a group of Democratic candidates, but also makes me wonder whether he even has a genuine chance at being the Democratic nominee. Despite his pleasant personality, though, he will not hesitate to denounce the established. In his closing statement at the July debate, Yang delivered scintillating criticism of the modern-day election system: “Instead of talking about automation and our future, including the fact that we automated away four million manufacturing jobs, hundreds of thousands right here in Michigan, we’re up here with makeup on our faces and our rehearsed attack lines, playing roles in this reality TV show. It’s one reason why we elected a reality TV star as our president.”
He’s right.
Trump was not elected for his brash demeanor or his illicit behavior, he was elected because he was entertaining. In a world driven by clicks, Trump gets more publicity each time a new scandal comes to light, and for him, no publicity is bad publicity. For him, the more outlandish he becomes, the media will thrive off of the misbehavior, and simply make him all the more popular amongst his supporters. Despite their educated proposals and presidential qualities, I fear that candidates like Yang won’t have a chance against Trump, as perhaps they cannot match the reality TV that Trump brings.
Yang is probably my favorite candidate out of the bunch; not only are his ideas youthful, he doesn’t lower himself to joining in with the endless barrage of personal attacks on other Democratic candidates. Today, I hear the criticisms on politicians, which are often as repetitive as they are frequent: they’re deceitful, selfish, and articulate, a scary combination. But Yang feels different, in his genuine, selfless manner: I just hope he gets the chance to prove it.