We Need Andrew Yang Now More Than Ever

I hope the Biden administration listens to Yang and empowers him to create transformative nationwide change.

Joe Biden made the right choice in picking Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee.

Harris brings excellent credentials to the table and will help Biden enact his bold, progressive agenda.

But in the 21st century, as Biden himself has acknowledged, a President needs a lot of help to get the job done.

Now is not the time for partisan squabbling or ego battles in the highest halls of our government.

Now is the time for our federal government to get down to business and help the American people.

Bottom line: any President needs a lot of help to run the executive branch smoothly.

But right now? As we face the prospect of a vaccine roll-out analogous to a peace settlement after a world war? As we reckon with centuries of systemic oppression driven by racism? As we see our climate threatening our stability as a country and as a civilization? As we suffer from stifling economic inequality that inhibits our collective ability to handle a public health crisis that has crippled our economy? As we start to understand the structural changes that have curtailed our economy for decades and seriously threaten our economic future?

Starting in January 2021, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to running the government.

We will need a potent mix of pragmatism and boldness that enables our government to respond emphatically to the threats we face.

One of Biden’s strongest primary challengers could help a Biden administration create transformational nationwide change that meets the urgency of the moment.

Andrew Yang understands the boldness required of our government to meet the urgency of these trying times. He is the most forward-thinking political candidate I have ever come across.

If Yang has a prominent role in the Biden administration, it would go a long way toward mitigating what I believe to Joe Biden’s biggest political downside (which I’ll get to later).

That’s why I dearly hope Andrew Yang plays a prominent role in the Biden administration.

We need forward thinkers to meet this challenge:

I’m only 25, so my knowledge of politicians is admittedly limited. Nonetheless, I have never come across a political candidate with a stronger combination of pragmatism, boldness, and dynamism than the head of the Yang Gang.

Yang will not become our next Vice President. But he has expressed an openness to helping the Biden administration however he can, and I hope his calls are answered.

“The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the rate of change in our economy where we’ve seen 10 years worth of change in 10 weeks. And so if I have an opportunity to help address some of these problems in a new administration, I would strongly consider it,” Yang has said.

I firmly believe we need either a universal basic income, a wealth tax, or both. Call me a crazy liberal (which I’m not) but piecemeal marginal tax increases or temporary stimulus measures aren’t even remotely robust enough to address the colossal economic problems we face.

COVID-19 pulled the rug under an economy that has been teetering on the brink of the Danger Zone for a half-century. Go find yourself some real research and dig into the sordid state of our economy.

Our country is an absolute fucking shitshow right now. Yes, you can shout that we’re America, that we’re exceptional, that we’re the greatest country to ever grace the Earth, that we’ve faced big challenges before and we’ll do it again.

You can say that I’m young and I’m being melodramatic. Fine.

But if you’re a Baby Boomer (or older), understand that you won’t have to deal with the shitshow for much longer.

I and my fellow millennials (plus some of you Gen Xers silently nodding) will. So I have a right to be concerned.

And as a brief tangent, your generation certainly didn’t help matters. So I have a right to be mad at you.

But that’s a different topic for another day.

Call me a pessimist. I’m not so sure people understand how bad things have gotten.

In the interest of brevity, if you still don’t believe me, I’ll direct you to umair haque’s brilliant daily writing to understand the gravity of our turmoil. Try getting through one of his masterpieces feeling nice and cheery about our present and our future.

All of this is to say we need forward thinkers in our government like Andrew Yang.

I need to see Biden’s boldness to believe it:

Joe Biden has 44 years of experience as a federal elected official: 36 years as a US Senator and eight years as Vice President.

He didn’t exactly make a name for himself as a bold, innovative thinker. He prided himself as a centrist who sought compromise and collaboration.

Last year, Biden went as far as to laud the civility of a Southern segregationist as a testament to his ability and willingness to compromise. By harkening back to the days when he could reach across the aisle with even an avowed racist, Biden was trying to advocate for a return to the good old days of bipartisanship.

Bipartisanship may have been the right approach back then.

But this is now. Our politics and our country have changed.

The ‘hope and change’ platform Biden’s former boss ran on in 2008 seems so antiquated only 12 years later. We’re long past hope and change.

The ‘hope and change’ guy recognizes that the times are a-changin’. Listen to the speech he just delivered at the Democratic National Convention. Those are not the words of a hopeful person wearing rose-colored glasses.

Obama knows better. He has eight years of deep political scars to show for it.

Now is not the time to play games. Bipartisanship has sadly given away to fierce partisanship.

Our government must reflect those changes. If Biden honestly thinks he can wave a magic wand over the halls of Congress and get them to start seeing eye-to-eye, he has another thing coming for him.

Yes, Biden has expressed a willingness to go big, as evidenced by his Build Back Better economic platform that includes a $2 trillion climate plan. Biden’s early commitment to nominate a woman as his Vice President was itself an example of him going big (even though in 2020, it’s still a big deal for a woman to be on a presidential ticket).

But we need a mix of pragmatism and boldness to go big that I don’t believe runs in Biden’s blood.

When a 77-year-old man with over four decades of governmental experience claims to adopt a completely different mindset toward governance, I need to see it to believe it.

That’s where Andrew Yang comes in.

Andrew Yang is a known quality:

With Andrew Yang, I know exactly what I’m getting.

Yang comes across like a regular dude who happens to possess a fantastic mix of intelligence and pragmatism. And unlike a certain politician who rose to prominence by touting his business acumen, Yang has a real track record of success and wasn’t born on third base with a silver spoon in his mouth.

It’s too late for Yang to become President next year. But the ideas and vision that powered his rise from relative political obscurity don’t have an expiration date.

The core element of the Yang Gang platform — a universal basic income — has never felt more appropriate or appetizing. Andrew Yang went bold before he got big.

Unlike far too many of our elected politicians, he is an independent thinker and he is not afraid to advocate for what he believes in, lobbyists and donors be damned.

Most politicians wait to go bold (or never do). They play it safe, succumbing to the pressure from those lobbyists and donors who often control their campaigns like puppets.

Yang is not beholden to special interests. He is beholden to a strong spirit of intellectual curiosity and a desire to get shit done efficiently and pragmatically. He is a problem solver, not a brown-nose.

Listen to his twice-weekly podcast (Yang Speaks) if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

He didn’t invent UBI. But it’s never been more popular than it is today. And the problem-solving approach Andrew Yang instinctually carries has never been more valuable given the litany of problems a Biden administration will face starting in January.

Biden has a very particular set of skills:

I’ll perhaps give Biden some benefit of the doubt. I believe these are unprecedented times in recent American history. We’re living through a year that combines the worst elements of 1919, 1929, 1968, and 2008. Social and racial unrest, an economic collapse, and a global pandemic have all erupted in one year from hell that we’ll never forget.

I believe no incoming President has faced a situation this grave since FDR became President in 1933. Before that, the best comparison is probably the situation Abraham Lincoln faced in 1861.

Boldness isn’t Biden’s political strong suit. That’s OK. It’s why I think people like Andrew Yang should play a prominent role in a Biden administration.

To borrow from Liam Neeson, what Biden does bring to the table is a very particular set to skills he has acquired over a very long career in public service.

Biden’s experience makes him uniquely qualified in certain ways to rise to this challenge. He’s experienced plenty of personal tragedy. He grew up with the civil rights movement, even if he wasn’t a particularly active participant in it (like Bernie Sanders). He was obviously a huge part of the governmental response to the Great Recession a decade ago.

And in between, he spent almost four decades as a prominent member of the world’s foremost deliberative body (at least in normal times): the United States Senate.

But above all, his biggest qualification for this moment is his greatest personality asset: empathy. No matter what you think of Joe Biden politically, you cannot doubt that he can relate to just about anyone and can understand what others are experiencing. Look past the affinity for aviators, Corvettes, and ice cream: the man is downright relatable and sincere.

In that sense, Biden is a direct contrast to what we have now. Empathy is what we lack most from the top. In circumstances like these, there is perhaps no more critical element of great leadership than empathy.

Americans are looking for someone who understands what they’re going through and who commits to meeting them where they are. They want someone who embodies both empathy and vulnerability.

Uncle Joe has that in spades. He ran on a promise to restore the soul of America. When he decided to run for President, he had no idea how apt that slogan would become.

If he can surround himself with pragmatic and passionate people like Andrew Yang, he will go a long way toward doing what’s needed to lead America out of hell and toward progress on our central ideals.