Yang should also be pushing for ranked choice voting at all levels.
I never knocked Yang for running for Mayor, though “Mayor of NYC” is still a harder office to win than winning a gubernatorial race would be in most states.
I still think he needs to spend more time working on building a political coalition around a party platform that has some real meat to it. It kind of feels like he’s hitching everything to this Universal Basic Income idea that wouldn’t be possible to implement through executive action anyway.
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He ran for literally the most high profile mayoral position in the country. The mayor of NYC often has a high public profile nationally, because it’s the largest city in the country… Because of that, it’s effectively a political position with a lot of power and attention.
So no, that’s not quite the same thing as running for a smaller city, school board, city council, or county commission.
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I could make an argument that Richard Nixon was the last progressive President. (While acknowledging that Jimmy Carter is of course an excellent human being that we should all strive to emulate, but he did not give Keynesian economics the same place in policy that Nixon did)
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I don’t see radical leftists being effective at overthrowing the government any century soon. I don’t see them effective at organizing an effective third party any decade soon. I do see them, occasionally, rallying behind a Sanders or AOC, and helping progressives have SOME sway in actual governance. If not by electing people like that, how will government change? While I am not saying they are the end all and be all of politics, but if people can get elected like that in a couple places, they could get elected in a couple more. Ranked voting has been instituted in Maine and Alaska, and that can, and should spread. If and when that happens, third party voting would be much less fraught. Anyone who is not aware of the existential crisis of climate change should not be in office. Anyone who is not aware of the existential crisis of fascists in power should not be in office. There are of course people in the democratic party who don’t recognize those two issues as being a problem, but there are many who do. The democrat candidate has always been significantly more centrist than I want. However, in our current system, I can’t see third party voting as anything but performative. If you’re voting third party, you’re not at the table. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
ETA:
I recognize there is rot and corruption within the democrats, but what is your plan B? My plan A is for more liberals/progressives/leftists to vote, and to have a party that is significantly to the left of where they are now. The republicans doubling down on voter suppression suggests that they will be out of power if enough people vote.
If voting for democrats won’t be effective, what else will work? What would that look like? How will a Progressive non democrat party rise to be an effective voice in government?
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“Forward into the past!” – The Firesign Theater
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Indeed, Nixon was a criminal and deeply corrupt, but he did have a lot of positions that would be considered leftish by today’s standards.
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Senator Ted Kennedy said his “greatest regret” was refusing to work with Nixon on Nixon’s 1974 proposal for a universal health care plan. Nixon’s plan (which narrowly failed) had a lot of similarities to the Affordable Care Act that Obama passed decades later.
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Nixon created the EPA.
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Nixon didn’t fight against the Roe v. Wade decision and believed that there were times that access to abortion was necessary. (Yeah, a really low bar maybe but miles ahead of the Republican politicians of today)
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Nixon got the US out of the Vietnam war.
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His DOJ was also the first to go after the bratty trust fund kid who was helping his dad discriminate against black tenants. Donald Trump's Housing Discrimination Case Still Chases Him Decades Later : NPR
When people ask me why I froth when talking about Reagan, I bring up the differences between Nixon and Reagan. And Nixon was still pretty bad.
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I don’t live too far from the Nixon Birthplace & Presidential library, and a couple years ago I finally went for a visit. The man definitely belonged in jail for the crimes and abuses he committed in office, and he was also a racist who did a huge amount of damage to American politics and society at large with the Southern Strategy, yet he also managed to do a few pretty consequential good things and was a complex character.
I guess most politicians are probably complex human beings, not the 2-dimensional caricatures that we make them out to be. But I’m pretty convinced that that orange guy is a major exception.
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While I don’t think he’s a good idea, He IS starting a PAC… at least, for the moment.
Quoting the Forward Party FAQ:
Is the Forward Party a political party?
The Forward Party is a PAC that plans to grow its support and then petition the FEC for recognition as a political party when we fulfill the requirements, which include operating in several states, supporting candidates, getting volunteers signed up around the country, and other party activities.
I’ve read a couple biographies, as well as his autobiography. Interesting person. A thread that connects them is McCarthy, who was loosely allied with Nixon in the Senate, Nixon serving on the House UnAmerican committee, and McCarthy’s right hand man Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor.
Nixon did most of his good works because he thought he could win the support of enough independents to keep him in office, not because he, personally, believed in them. He was definitely not a good man, he just wasn’t the obsessive, brazen lunatic that many Republicans are today.
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i think they’ve got an easier job, because the talents they’re looking for are charisma and anger. actual qualifications don’t matter much. meanwhile, engaging with the fact based world is hard, and not every position a candidate takes is going to sit perfectly for all people.
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Hey, if politicians were all competing for the support of the public by doing actual good works that would be an awesome state of affairs. What’s in people’s heart of hearts is a lot less important than their actions.
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Also an unofficial motto of the SCA.
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Not before he bombed the shit out of Cambodia and destabilized the whole fucking region, though.
But his administration pushed for detente with the Soviet Union and normalized relations with China (or started the process). But his impact on the global south was pretty horrifc (supporting Pinochet, etc).
Nixon is a fascinating mixed bag, honestly.
Oh, he also beat his wife, Pat, which everyone knew about.
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I don’t see any radical leftists in established US politics. At all.
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Right? They are so far outside of the Overton Window they aren’t even in the same zip code.
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