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I think it's important not to confuse the goal with the action. I don't think he wants to become a politician. He wants to enact political change. These are tw

I think it's important not to confuse the goal with the action. I don't think he wants to become a politician. He wants to enact political change. These are two very different things. Saying "if he wants to enact political change, why not start as city councillor?" Well... how many democrats or republicans are pushing for change? No one who is born and raised in party lines is pushing for reform; they're doing the opposite. Yang could never push for the ideas that he wants to see changed in the US as a democrat or a republican. It just isn't possible - the system is too incumbent. I think he realized this during his NY election, which was his first real taste of political competition. I think this is the only step that he can take. This isn't a "chess move" that he's doing to brilliantly win the political arena; this is more like someone with core values believing in those core values and doing whatever it takes to push those things forward. At the end of the day, politics is not about winning or losing elections, it's about making sure what you think as important issues are heard and addressed.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> I don't think he wants to become a politician. He wants to enact political change. These are two very different things. No, they aren't. Well, one is an action, and one is the description of a person in a position to do that action (not every politician enacts political change, but everyone who enacts political change is a politician.)
- BigRedDog1669 5y ago
  Ideally they aren't different, but in practice they are.
hansel_der 5y ago
> At the end of the day, politics is not about winning or losing elections, it's about making sure what you think as important issues are heard and addressed. imo most politicians are not interested in the issues themselfs but in winning elections because that is their job.
bradfa 5y ago
What will be interesting, and telling, to watch will be who joins him. If some high profile government people join him in the Forward Party, then Yang doesn't need to be great at management or politics, he just needs to light the fire and find the kindling. There's enough other higher profile politicians across federal, state, and local politics who don't fully align with either major party today. If even just one of them publicly joins Yang, I think that'll be enough to justify the last few years of his efforts and it will encourage others to join him, too.
Traster 5y ago
>Well... how many democrats or republicans are pushing for change? No one who is born and raised in party lines is pushing for reform; they're doing the opposite. This is factually not true. Both major parties have radical wings that have both seen measures of success in the last decade or so. The Republicans have had the tea party movement, and the democrats have the progressive caucus which are likely in the middle of setting an infrastructure budget way beyond the what people previously thought was possible. Obama had a perfectly traditional route into politics and he stood directly against the wars his party had supported 5 years earlier and passed an incredibly ambitious healthcare bill. Bernie Sanders is radical in his positions, has been effective in championing them and changing the debate and he is well within the democratic party. What Yang is pushing for in terms of policy isn't that much more radical than AOC. What he is pushing for is more radical but arguable way less effective than the incremental changes that Stacey Abrams acheived. I want to be clear here, I'm not saying there's no value to what Yang is doing. But it's a dis-service to the actual political reality when people pretend like nothing gets done in traditional politics.
- spyckie2 5y ago
  Admit that demeaning results of the current parties is unfair to them. Beg to differ about comparing him to AOC. Yang's forward policies much more radical than AOC's and absolutely do not belong in the democratic party. 80% of Yang's policies is all about limiting the power of incumbency (democracy dollars, ranked choice votes, open primaries, stop DC revolving door, term limits). It hurts the party a LOT to reduce the power of incumbency; no party member with any position would actually support any of this. Comparatively, AOC's medicare for all, public safety, housing as human right, and immigration reform is super in line with democratic party issues. https://www.forwardparty.com/platform https://www.forwardparty.com/platform https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues
eli 5y ago
I think he wants to be a celebrity and he wants people to buy his book.
- captaincurrie 5y ago
  Thats too cynical. I'm sure that is apart of his calculus, but you shouldn't assume he is that one-dimensional.
- Rooster61 5y ago
  By repeatedly joining high profile political races, and repeatedly getting destroyed in them? Strange strategy there.
  - eli 5y ago
    He got to spend many millions of other people's money to run ads with his face on them, and enjoyed many millions more worth of earned media. It's not that strange. He certainly wouldn't be on HN otherwise. He has lots of real fans now, even if they aren't enough to win a presidential primary.
  - willhinsa 5y ago
    "Any publicity is good publicity."
    - jimmygrapes 5y ago
      Ironically a phrase made most famous by Donald Trump. It's going to be real interesting as politicians going forward analyze and adopt ideas often attributed to him while simultaneously trying to distance themselves from him.
- spyckie2 5y ago
  I think the policies he wants to push are ahead of the times ideas that resonate. He will be as popular as those ideas are popular, and it's his "job" to make those ideas popular. So yes, by that definition he wants to be a celebrity and he wants people to buy his book. However, if he pushes forward ideas that just don't make sense, have bad narratives or don't connect with people's sentiment, he will be quickly forgotten.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> I don't think he wants to become a politician. He wants to enact political change. These are two very different things. No, they aren't. Well, one is an action, and one is the description of a person in a position to do that action (not every politician enacts political change, but everyone who enacts political change is a politician.)

BigRedDog1669 5y ago
Ideally they aren't different, but in practice they are.

hansel_der 5y ago

> At the end of the day, politics is not about winning or losing elections, it's about making sure what you think as important issues are heard and addressed. imo most politicians are not interested in the issues themselfs but in winning elections because that is their job.

bradfa 5y ago

What will be interesting, and telling, to watch will be who joins him. If some high profile government people join him in the Forward Party, then Yang doesn't need to be great at management or politics, he just needs to light the fire and find the kindling. There's enough other higher profile politicians across federal, state, and local politics who don't fully align with either major party today. If even just one of them publicly joins Yang, I think that'll be enough to justify the last few years of his efforts and it will encourage others to join him, too.

Traster 5y ago

>Well... how many democrats or republicans are pushing for change? No one who is born and raised in party lines is pushing for reform; they're doing the opposite. This is factually not true. Both major parties have radical wings that have both seen measures of success in the last decade or so. The Republicans have had the tea party movement, and the democrats have the progressive caucus which are likely in the middle of setting an infrastructure budget way beyond the what people previously thought was possible. Obama had a perfectly traditional route into politics and he stood directly against the wars his party had supported 5 years earlier and passed an incredibly ambitious healthcare bill. Bernie Sanders is radical in his positions, has been effective in championing them and changing the debate and he is well within the democratic party. What Yang is pushing for in terms of policy isn't that much more radical than AOC. What he is pushing for is more radical but arguable way less effective than the incremental changes that Stacey Abrams acheived. I want to be clear here, I'm not saying there's no value to what Yang is doing. But it's a dis-service to the actual political reality when people pretend like nothing gets done in traditional politics.

spyckie2 5y ago
Admit that demeaning results of the current parties is unfair to them. Beg to differ about comparing him to AOC. Yang's forward policies much more radical than AOC's and absolutely do not belong in the democratic party. 80% of Yang's policies is all about limiting the power of incumbency (democracy dollars, ranked choice votes, open primaries, stop DC revolving door, term limits). It hurts the party a LOT to reduce the power of incumbency; no party member with any position would actually support any of this. Comparatively, AOC's medicare for all, public safety, housing as human right, and immigration reform is super in line with democratic party issues. https://www.forwardparty.com/platform https://www.forwardparty.com/platform https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues

eli 5y ago

I think he wants to be a celebrity and he wants people to buy his book.

captaincurrie 5y ago
Thats too cynical. I'm sure that is apart of his calculus, but you shouldn't assume he is that one-dimensional.
Rooster61 5y ago
By repeatedly joining high profile political races, and repeatedly getting destroyed in them? Strange strategy there.
- eli 5y ago
  He got to spend many millions of other people's money to run ads with his face on them, and enjoyed many millions more worth of earned media. It's not that strange. He certainly wouldn't be on HN otherwise. He has lots of real fans now, even if they aren't enough to win a presidential primary.
- willhinsa 5y ago
  "Any publicity is good publicity."
  - jimmygrapes 5y ago
    Ironically a phrase made most famous by Donald Trump. It's going to be real interesting as politicians going forward analyze and adopt ideas often attributed to him while simultaneously trying to distance themselves from him.
spyckie2 5y ago
I think the policies he wants to push are ahead of the times ideas that resonate. He will be as popular as those ideas are popular, and it's his "job" to make those ideas popular. So yes, by that definition he wants to be a celebrity and he wants people to buy his book. However, if he pushes forward ideas that just don't make sense, have bad narratives or don't connect with people's sentiment, he will be quickly forgotten.