Andrew Yang is trying to save America

Yang introduced new “Forward Party” to help solve divisiveness across party lines

Tyler Pugmire / Executive Editor / The USD Vista

There’s a clear dichotomy between the intentions of politicians right now and it is clearly exemplified between two different methods of attaining the support that was lost in 2020. For Donald Trump, it was announcing his new social media platform, “TRUTH,” after he was banned from nearly every platform following the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol. For Andrew Yang, it was introducing a new political party, the “Forward Party,” which claims it is neither left nor right, but “forward.” 

Yang introduced this new party in his book, “Forward: Notes on the Future of Democracy” where he goes into detail about what this new political party really stands for. 

The “VistaNotes” version of Yang’s new book would highlight “ranked-choice voting” – which was in New York City for their mayoral election. 

“Universal basic income” is Yang’s claim to fame, where he promised $1000 to every citizen if he were to win either of his previous elections.  And “human-centered Capitalism,” which Yang is a major advocate of due to the popularity of AI in many different industries. There are also notes of the importance of grace and tolerance in politics, as well as effective and modern governance which is fact-based. 

Yang makes a lot of compelling points here, many of which should honestly be more important in the face of politics than they get credit for. In relation to human-centered capitalism, I think that no one is ready for the next wave of AI to come out at any time, that could replace millions of jobs as soon as it is deemed legal. Tesla’s AutoPilot – which is still only legal with a driver behind the wheel – has serious potential to displace three million truck drivers in America in the next five to ten years, and simply, America is not ready for that. 

The ugliest thing for America to look at is the mirror; this country is riddled with many problems which are overshadowed by the drama that politicians create in order to get reelected. Since the rise of social media, politicians on both sides abuse their platforms in order to be divisive and really try to advocate for issues that they cannot solve, and this is why Yang founded the Forward Party. 

Even though social media has been in every household since around 2012, this wasn’t utilized until 2015 during Trump’s campaign. By using Twitter, Trump was able to garner attraction to himself and his ideologies, and realized that a lot of Americans had some hidden biases that they didn’t like to acknowledge because they thought they were wrong until Trump came along. For six full years of Barack Obama’s term, Fox News was upset that he wore a tan suit, one year later and the chants of “Build that wall!” crept through televisions across America. 

Yang’s party does have flaws, it’s not perfect in practice at all. It bases itself on the idea that all of America’s elections will be ranked-choice and then by having voters eliminate the two parties based on divisiveness, they will then come out on top. But even if the Forward Party doesn’t get anyone elected, it goes to show that there are fundamental issues between our politicians and that there are 98 percent of Americans, with a very loud 1 percent on either side that have created an echo chamber of divisiveness, no matter what side someone is on. 

The Forward Party is the first major indicator that people are actually trying to disrupt the current political system since its shift in the past six years. It’s necessary. Whether or not this divisiveness will continue is still up in the air, but if it can get politicians to do their job, then it will be a success. At least this politician who lost his 2020 election isn’t trying to claim that truth only comes from one side.