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Andrew Yang to launch a third party

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31–40 of 166 posts

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#31
post #6

Yang has never been my top choice, but I think he's generally a good dude. However a third party could be disastrous for the democrats, who can only just barely win elections due to the current structure of the electorate. Hopefully he will be more strategic than that, however. A third party could be really beneficial in some areas where democrats dominate everything.

The Democrats completely screwed him in 2020. Karma.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#33
post #11
post #2

Wouldn’t this be a fourth party? Edit: ah, “third party” is an expression in American politics. Learning something new every day.

I'm curious, what is the 3rd party in your scenario? I can see ways to count > 3 (before this announcement), and obviously there are the two competitive parties so that's a way to count, but it's not obvious to me how you got to exactly 3.

I'm guessing he was talking about the Libertarian Party.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#34
post #20

In related news, I will be launching my own version of the NBA, where I am excited to be the starting point guard for the #1 ranked team.

It's ironic to be mocking this Hacker News, where people every day are launching upstart ideas to take on massive incumbents.

Launching your own basketball league isn't even that ridiculous! I could see a basketball league with influencers that's more about the entertainment and characters versus skill level having a chance.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#35
I’m desperately interested but highly skeptical. A genuine center party would help, but there are many structural reasons why it’s not likely, and those would have to be addressed. There’s a great book about this titled “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop.” I highly recommend it.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#36
post #8

Didn't he get absolutely stomped in his last two runs?

He went from a virtual unknown normal dude to the last six standing the Democratic Presidental primaries, outlasting senators including Kamala Harris. And he made UBI a household idea, a major factor to lobbying for cash relief during the pandemic. He did get stomped in the mayoral run. I followed it closely and it felt as though the media had it out for him.

Is UBI a household idea? I’m trying to think of a time I’ve heard somebody bring it up outside of message boards or Twitter threads, and at least in my experience I’m coming up blank.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ranked voting would make this less of an issue, but good luck getting current politicians to support it.

The NY Democratic primary was RCV, and Yang still lost.

Regardless of whether he lost or not, RCV allows you to vote for who you really want to support without being concerned you may be wasting your vote.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#38
As soon as this becomes serious, "someone" is going to hire a botnet to spam Andrew Yang's 3rd party's hashtag on twitter and then his 3rd party will get banned. A similar thing will happen on facebook and Youtube. Without social media, there's no way for a 3rd party get truly get off the ground and influence an election. Even if you create new accounts, why should the average person trust a political party that has to constantly create new social media accounts.

None of the left leaning media will cover this and yang will be forced to air his concerns on Fox news which will immediately discredit him in the eyes of everyone who only trusts the left-leaning media.

And that's the end of Andrew Yang's 3rd party.

Whether you agree with Unity2020 or the people behind it (especially now with all the vaccine chaos) the way it got shut down was stunning to me. Even if they were actually behind some of the suspicious traffic, it just seems like such a game-able system if you have the money to spend to disrupt it.

Re: Andrew Yang to launch a third party

#39

Seems like you'd have better luck trying to capture the GOP than start another party. There is a large population of Republican voters that is not really "conservative", but just anti-Democrat. Someone who captured this base while remaining appealing to some moderates/independents would do quite well.

He wouldn’t be able to capture the GOP endorsing UBI and universal healthcare.

I think UBI and healthcare would be the least of his issues. Trump showed that social conservatism/fiscal liberalism could be a winning formula for GOP voters. I wouldn’t be surprised if some young, socially conservative candidate in 2024/2028 who is willing to cancel debt/fund stimulus/healthcare wins by a landslide.
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