A New Voice for Young Democrats: Andrew Yang
Can the “Yang Gang” pull off an upset victory?
By Aidan McGahey
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
ANDREW YANG IS CAMPAIGNING as a hologram with Tupac. I know, right? As strange as it sounds, the Democratic Presidential Candidate has employed many such tactics in a bid to get his name known in a crowded field of candidates. Though lacking many of the credentials of his competitors, Yang has begun to be a force to be reckoned with by sticking with his core policy proposal of Universal Basic Income and viral marketing stunts.
Many of the characteristics of an upstart presidential campaign, be it political experience, celebrity, or billions of dollars, don’t apply to Yang. An entrepreneur from upstate New York and son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang attended Brown University where he studied political science and economics, and then Columbia University for law school. After briefly becoming a corporate lawyer, Yang turned his attention to entrepreneurship. He successfully founded a healthcare company called MMF Systems Inc, an education company called Manhattan Prep, and most recently, Venture for America, a startup that looks to create jobs in hard-hit cities like Baltimore and Detroit.
President Obama recognized Yang twice for his work, naming him a Champion of Change in 2012, and a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship in 2015.
Andrew Yang is by far one of the underdogs for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, but his small base is dedicated to his core principles of “Humanity First” capitalism.
Yang’s centerpiece policy for his campaign is Universal Basic Income (UBI), or as he calls it, the “Freedom Dividend.” The concept is simple: a $1000 for every American over the age of 18. According to Yang, “This would enable all Americans to pay their bills, educate themselves, start businesses, be more creative, stay healthy, relocate for work, spend time with their children, take care of loved ones, and have a real stake in the future.” Yang even claims that implementing UBI would potentially increase the workforce by over 4 million people, and grow the economy by $2.5 trillion.
Though Yang lacks endorsements from major party Democrats, his proposals do have a lot of support in Silicon Valley; Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg have both endorsed UBI, for example. On a broader note, figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and economist Milton Friedman have supported UBI. Even Nicholas Cage reportedly donated to his campaign.
Yang’s proposals, however, are not just limited to UBI. His campaign site boasts a large variety of specific policy proposals on over 90 separate issues, ranging from popular Democratic policies such as legalizing marijuana to LGBTQ rights, to more obscure issues such as payment for NCAA athletes and abolishing the penny.
Yang’s popularity has recently increased due to a series of viral marketing techniques that his campaign has employed, which have found particular success with young people and millennials. In recent days he has appeared on TMZ to defend his policies, debuted a song on his Instagram about legalizing marijuana, and even is beta-testing a hologram of himself to campaign for him remotely. Stunts like these have led to a loyal following by the “Yang Gang,” as his supporters have dubbed themselves.
Yang’s popularity has shot up recently due to a devoted online following promoted by hundreds of memes on Reddit and Twitter, where he has a strong following among young people. His internet virality has drawn comparisons to the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump in 2016. Even Wikileaks, which is sometimes credited with helping to bring Trump to the White House, questioned whether the President “lost the meme war” to Yang.
Most recently, Yang has solidified himself as a potential contender for the nomination by reaching the qualifications to appear in the first Democratic debates of the primary. Even though many deride his campaign as ridiculous or pandering to youth, the $1.7 million he raised in February and March from over 80,000 people speaks volumes and shows that he is a major candidate. In some polls, Yang is doing even better than more well-known figures such as New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard.
However, Yang’s campaign has come under controversy for its viral popularity. Despite consistently supporting liberal and progressive policies, Yang has attracted a small number of white nationalists to support his campaign. Yang has at times employed a cynical view of the contemporary American economic situation, due especially to outsourcing and the loss of key manufacturing jobs. However, white nationalists at times have falsely equated this message about the dire state of economics with their own dire views of the changing demographics within America. Yang has also been interviewed by Tucker Carlson, Fox and Friends, and other conservative media outlets that most Democratic candidates traditionally avoid.
Although Yang’s 90-plus policy proposals are impressive due to the sheer number of them alone, at times some of them come across as ridiculous due to the hyperbolic language he uses to describe situations, such as predicting the “robot apocalypse.” In the same earlier interview with Tucker Carlson, Yang suggested that the very notion of key economic statistics such as GDP and unemployment rates are unreliable and should not be trusted. His more obscure opinions include even taking a stand against non-religious circumcision; in an interview with the Daily Beast, Yang promised to incorporate this view into public policy if elected.
Despite Yang’s idiosyncrasies and sometimes strange proposals, he remains a dedicated champion of liberal economic policies and UBI. Yang may not yet be considered to be one of the top Democrats in the race, but he could achieve bringing UBI, once derided as a radical, impossible idea, into the mainstream political conversation.
