October 26, 2021 • 20 mins
Andrew Yang drew attention to universal basic income as a Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election, and earlier this year in his run for mayor of New York City. Since then, he’s announced he’s leaving the Democratic Party to start a new one. The Forward Party will back certain candidates — Democrats and Republicans alike, Yang says — in favor of open primaries and ranked-choice voting, two policies he believes would free politicians from appealing to the extremes and “give rise to a more vibrant, dynamic, multi-polar democracy.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the recount on Marina nine and and you're listening
to the Recount Daily Pod. Today is Tuesday, October. Right
now we're like, why isn't it working? Why isn't it working?
It's actually designed not to work, and what's the natural
then next step change the design. That was Andrew Yang
talking about his views on the American political system. We'll
(00:27):
get into that and his announcement of the Forward Party
a little later on, but first your morning headlines. Major
change is coming for international air travel to the US.
The Biden administration will now allow vaccinated foreigners to enter.
That means citizens from dozens of countries, including most of
(00:47):
the European Union, the United Kingdom, China, and India, will
now be allowed to enter. The band had been in
place since early but new requirements will go into effect
November eight, U S citizens. In fact, scinated foreigners will
have to show proof of vaccination that's approved by both
the f d A and w h O. They will
also have to show a negative COVID test taken no
(01:09):
more than three days before boarding. Unvaccinated Americans will face
stricter rules. They will need to take a test one
day before departure and test again upon arrival. New York
Cities police union is suing the city over the vaccine mandate.
Mandate requires all city workers to get vaccinated. If they refuse,
(01:30):
they will be placed on either unpaid leave or possibly
get fired. In a statement, the Police Benevolent Association said
that the mandate would quote impose irreparable harm on police officers.
The group also plans to file a temporary injunction against
the city, though earlier this month, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor,
who oversees the Second Circuit, declined similar request from teachers
(01:54):
resisting the mandate. Currently, sev of New York City police
officers are vaccinated. Democrats are said to be nearing a
deal on a massive spending plan. Senator Bernie Sanders has
pushed expand Medicare to now cover dental, hearing and vision,
but on Monday, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Mansion shut
(02:15):
that proposal down because he says it's too expensive. The
Democrats need every one of their senators on board to
pass the plan. President Biden told reporters he hoped to
seal the deal before this weekend. Unclear if that will
happen now, If all that sounds like grid Luck to you,
My guest, Andrew Yang agrees. They'll join me in a
moment to talk about what it would take to change
(02:37):
the way decisions get made in Washington. And now to
our interview. Andrew Yang has risen to the national political
stage in the past few years. He drew attention to
the concept of universal basic income as a Democratic candidate
in the presidential election and earlier this year as a
candidate for mayor of New York City. Since then, he's
(02:58):
announced he's leaving the Democratic Party to start a new one,
the Forward Party. What does he hope to accomplish and
which voters does he want to attract? Here to answer
those very questions and more is the man himself, Andrew Yang. Hey, Andrew, welcome,
Hi Arena. Thanks for having me. Great to be here,
Great to have you on. So you made this decision
(03:18):
to leave the Democratic Party and start Forward. You know,
the US is really a two party system. It's been
hard for a third party to have traction. What do
you think yours would be any different? Well, when I
was digging into the problems that are plaguing us and
getting worse, unfortunately, Arena, one of the key drivers of
the fact that we feel so stuck and we feel
like we can't move forward. No pun intended is really
(03:40):
the polarization in our country where of Democrats and Republicans
regard the other side as evil or their mortal enemies.
And unfortunately that atmosphere is getting worse, not better, driven
by media incentives, political incentives, and social media. Maybe it's
not new to other people, but I was struggling after
my presidential campaign to figure out how you could genuinely
(04:03):
solve some of these big problems, and I realized that
we weren't going to be able to solve them with
this duopoly dynamic that, by the way, is something of
a nightmare of the Founders come to life. We're living through,
in many ways, the biggest design flaw in history. It
threatens to tear us apart, to destroy us, to turn
(04:23):
us against each other. So we have to do is
change that design. And I'm thrilled to say that there's
a straightforward wait for us to do it, not even
at the congressional level, but state by state, which is
to switch to open primaries and rank choice voting. That
would give rise to a more vibrant, dynamic, multipolar democracy
very high bar, I know. But it turns out that
(04:45):
Americans now want an alternative to the two major parties,
in part because they sense that this dynamic is not
working and it's going to get worse, not better. What
do you think the Forward Party can do that the
Democratic Party cannot in this moment? You know. One of
the things that I learned running for office, Grina, is
that at this point in American life, politics is almost
(05:07):
entirely tribal, where you imagine that we're arguing over policy prescriptions.
But the fact is, if you dig in, you find
that there's a low correlation between someone's self identified conservatism
or progressivism and their policy standpoints. It turns out, if
you sit down Americans of any background, the vast majority
of us think drug prices are too high, and the
(05:28):
vast majority of us want to see better educational outcomes
for our kids. So this is really a symptom of
the duopoly where there's I can usser them dynamic. Uh,
And it turns out we agree on much more if
you actually just abandoned coded language. If you go to
a Republican in a red state and you say I'm
a Democrat and I've had this experience, then a lot
(05:49):
of them just shut down immediately. Um. And that's something
that we can avoid really just by having new tribes,
new political languages, new appeals to try and break the
log jam. So when you ask what the Forward Party
can provide, at a minimum, the Forward Party is a
new political tribe that's not quoted negatively for hopefully the
(06:12):
vast majority of Americans, because most of the people haven't
heard of us yet. Will the Forward Party be running
any candidates at any level in the coming years. The
format is that we're probably gonna be supporting Democrats and
Republicans in various primaries, because you know that that's just
the practical reality for many people until we manage to
make this change. We'll be supporting some independence. I think
there'll be some people that run under Forward Party, But
(06:34):
we're very practical, inclusive popular movement. You can join as
a registered Democrat a Republican, no need to change your registration.
It's a movement of people that just want to make
the system makes sense. What kind of Democrat and what
kind of Republican candidate would the party support. We're going
to support candidates who stand up for the principles that
we stand for, which is open primaries and ranked choice voting.
(06:56):
You can before that as someone who's part of a
major party, Fact based governance, universal based income, grace and tolerance.
One other thing where for is eighteen year term limits
for members of Congress. We think that our nation's leadership
should be trying to rejuvenate itself a little bit more often.
And seventy four percent of Americans are for this. So
(07:17):
if various leaders say, look, even as I'm running for Congress,
I'm for people spending you know, a certain number of
years in d C and then coming home, that would
be a very powerful signal of leadership. And that's something
that will be looking for our candidates to support. Are
there any policy deal breakers that candidate might hold that
you wouldn't support, Well, if they stand for these principles
of better governance. Uh, that's what we're going to be
(07:39):
focused on, because right now there are certain issues that
divide Americans in certain environments, but that's not really the
core of our structural problem. Right now, we can disagree
on the social issue and then agree on the fact
that this system is now working and we need to
change it. I want ask you about your new book
it's called four Notes the Future of Democracy. In the
(08:02):
first sentence, you write, why isn't it working? What do
you believe specifically is broken in the American political system
that needs to be changed? The incentives are wrong? Uh,
And the big learning I took from my digging into
these issues and is that a system that's designed to
fail will fail, and our system is designed to fail.
(08:22):
That's really the big mental switch we have to make,
which is right now, where like, why isn't it working?
Why isn't it working? It's actually designed not to work?
And what's the natural then next step change the design?
And I do want to go back to first principles.
There's not a word about political parties in the Constitution.
Our founders were anti partisan. John Adams said what he
(08:45):
feared was two great parties that would be the worst
case scenario for our country, which, by the way, is
exactly what we're living right now. A Republican senator said
to me the other day that they are more rewarded
for we're having an issue alive then trying to reach
across the aisle to resolve it, because if they do
(09:06):
reach across the aisle to try and resolve it, they'll
probably actually pay a price at the polls and in
their own party, whereas it they say, hey, look it's
the other side's fault to give us more money, give
us more energy, give us more votes. Are members of
Congress are not rewarded for delivering of their constituents. They're
rewarded for placating and pleasing the ten most extreme partisans
(09:27):
on either side. If you change that to open primaries
and ranks, rois voting all of a sudden, pleasing the
ten to shifts to trying to get people to like them.
And that's a very very different legislator. They'll be more
reasonable overnight. But we've got to take a quick break.
We'll be right back with Andrew Gang on the Recount
(09:47):
Daily Pod. Welcome back to the Recount Daily Pod podcast
from the Recount. I'm joined by Andrew Gang. You got
a lot of tension when you ran about your concept
of universal basic income. In some ways, people got a
taste of this when the stimulus checks came out during
the pandemic. Do you think it's clear that at some
(10:09):
point in time, I don't know, twenty forty years, do
you really see universal basic income being part of budget reform.
We're already living a version of universal basic income right
now in the form of this child tax credit, which
I love, and four hundred forty eight economists signed the
letters saying we should keep it forever. It's left in
millions of families out of poverty. It's improved people's health,
(10:31):
mental health, kids ability to learn. And that's right now,
that's real. I mean that this is happening for six
kids and families are around the country. So what I
was arguing for on the presidential trail now is supported
by two thirds of Americans. This is a going to
continue to be the main policy prescription, and rightfully so.
(10:52):
And I'm so grateful to everyone who supported my campaign
to give us a chance to make this case, because
the country needed it. I want to ask you about
this moment in time right now country, as we're trying
to merge out of COVID, we've seen labor shortages. How
do you think universal basic income makes sense at a
time when there are actually more jobs than there are workers.
(11:12):
One of the issues I have with our current relief
measures RENA is that a lot of the unemployment relief
is tied to not having a job or not working
and I'm friends with young people who are on some
of these programs and they say, look, I'm going to
ride this out until like my my relief is over,
and then I'll go back to work. And it's totally
sensible for them to do so. If they were getting
(11:35):
some measure of cash and they got to keep it,
and then if they went to work, they would get
that too, I think you would see them making different
choices just right now where attaching negative incentives to at
least a significant proportion of the cash that's going out
to people. We're gonna pause, take a quick break, and
we'll be right back with Andrew Yang on The Recount
(11:56):
Daily Pod. Welcome back to the Recount Daily Pod, a
podcast from the Recount. I'm joined by Andrew Gang. I
want to ask you a little bit um about your future.
Is Andrew Gang going to run for president? Right now,
I'm laser focused on trying to fix things as much
(12:17):
as we can in two that's where all of our
attention should be because we don't have that much time.
So that's a yes, that's very much. Not that. That's
literally I have not thought about anything beyond November twenty
two and trying to get as much done as we can.
Right now, I'm focused on making this case the American people.
You know that feeling you have that things aren't working.
(12:37):
They're not working, and it's not going to get any
better unless we actually change the dynamics of the system.
Just like I spent years mainstream and universal basic income
for the American people, now I will be mainstreaming open
primaries and ranked choice voting as the way to unlock
our leaders from these perverse incentives that are making them crazy,
making us crazy, and making us feel like the country's
going to head into unfortunately um political violence instead of
(13:02):
solving problems. So that's my mission right now, Arena. I'm
super excited about it. Six of Americans want an alternative
to the Duwaffeli. Think about that for a second. Imagine
if you're an entrepreneur and you've showed up on a
scene there were two companies and people want an alternative.
Wouldn't you want to start a third company like that?
And we should not have three parties in the United States.
(13:22):
The UK has five, Germany has seven, Sweden has eight,
Netherlands has eighteen. I don't even have no fingers for that.
Those are resilient, sustainable systems. Right now, we have a
system that's uniquely vulnerable to authoritarianism because if you have
one major party suc come to terrible leadership, everyone then
falls in line. You would never design a system this way.
(13:44):
It is uniquely stupid, and you have to try and
change it as quickly as possible. You mentioned these European
countries with multiple parties, they are also parliamentary systems. For
the majority of US history it has been a two
party system with third parties not being able to hold
so sustainable traction for years. Right, How how do you
fix that all of a sudden after the majority of
(14:06):
US history it has really been a two party system.
The problem again is in the mechanics and right arena,
where it's very difficult for a third party to gain
any traction because you can't even beyond a ballot. In
some cases, you have to subscribe to one of the
major parties even to vote in what is essentially going
to be the deciding primary before the general election. That's
(14:30):
a formality in most locations. So it's the mechanics that
we have to examine and change. Right now, of districts
around the country are safe seats on one side or another.
The vast majority of Americans are just enfranchised. Right now,
ten percent of Americans are effectively deciding of our races. Uh,
and it's not working out at all. It requires us
(14:51):
to getting back to first principles. But you're right, you
have to change the mechanics for any new party to emerge.
What do you think of the electoral college system? The
elect a college system disproportionately rewards and represents rural areas.
Now Wyoming has the same number of senators as California
despite having one population. But the thing I want to
(15:12):
emphasize is that the electoral college will not change because
it requires a constitutional amendment to change it, which would
mean that Montana and Wyoming, in a bunch of other
states would need to agree to shoot themselves in the foot.
They're not going to do it. So this is the system,
and we have to work with the system that we
we have, and we've had for decades. To me, as
(15:34):
a practical person, I try and focus on the things
that we have a chance at changing. And the shift
to open primaries and ranked toys voting I'm describing has
already happened in one state, Alaska, in it can happen
in twenty four other states of enough of us get together.
What does this mean you think Democrats could be in
(15:57):
serious trouble buying? This majority really doesn't seem like it
will hold. You call for open primaries and ranked choice voting.
How do you think those two options could help with elections?
We've already seen legislators change their behavior based upon open
primaries and ranked ers voting. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski
is one of the only Republican senators who voted to
impeach Trump, in part because she's not subject again to
(16:19):
the ten most extreme voters in her state anymore. She
can take her case the entire state. So we've were
to make that change, and let's call it five other states.
In imagine ten senators who could vote their conscience, vote
their principle. That might be the difference between democracy surviving
and becoming stronger or disintegrating entirely, not to be overly dramatic,
(16:43):
but that is on the table. Because Rena, what you
just said is right, Like markets have right now about
a three quarters and seventi five percent chance of Republicans
retaken the House in two that's going to make any
real legislative victories essentially impossible for the Democrats through four,
and then who would you favor in a rematch between
Biden and Trump, which is the most likely scenario, and
(17:06):
that's not what the country really wants. We're gonna be
looking up and when you talk about the sense that
things are working, people are going to be like, wait,
we're running this back. I thought this was a one
time thing. I wasn't that pumped about it the first
time that we you know, we'll be seeing it again.
It'll it'll be like this emblem of just how sclerotic,
uh and stuck in our institutions are. Do you worry
(17:26):
that you could be working against the Democratic Party and
potentially allowing Republicans to take over Congress. Well, the first
thing is we need to try and implement rank choice voting, which,
by the way, eliminates this concern, this entire spoiler effect.
You could vote for Ford Party number one Democrat too,
and you know, no worry about wasting your vote, no
more spoiler effect. So I'm going to suggest that we
(17:48):
should just make that change and it would help eliminate
this concern. Um. But I do think that there's something
of a misconception where people think that, uh, if you
have a new party emerged, it's all we're going to
come from one side or the other. The fact is
the appetite for third parties actually higher among Republicans and independence,
and it is among Democrats. Uh. And even when I
(18:09):
was running for president as a Democrat, nearly half of
my support didn't identify as Democratic. So uh, if you
were an independent, which I am now, like, I think
it requires a lot of assumptions to say, like, oh,
you know you're just gonna take from one party or
the other. Andrew Yang, I want to thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks mana, thank you, recount, love
(18:29):
the format, you guys on the future, and now let's
look ahead at what's happening today. President Joe Biden will
take part in a virtual edition of the annual Ausion Summit.
This year. The ten country block of Southeast Asian nations
will focus on vaccine distribution, climate change, and infrastructure. An
official with the National Security Council said the White House
(18:51):
also wanted to address quote common challenges on maritime issues.
That's a clear reference to containing China. The country also
be in attendance. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal will lead a
hearing this morning titled protecting Kids Online, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Lawmakers on the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety,
(19:14):
and Data Security will question top brass from all three companies.
That's right, no Facebook this time. The topics will focus
on how the law could better protect children. It's game
time tonight in Houston. It's Game one of the World
Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves. The
game will be massive for Astro's manager, Dusty Baker, who
(19:35):
has now taken five different teams to the playoffs but
as yet to win the big prize. The seventy two
year old manager got to start as a player in
night at the age of nineteen, taking the outfield four
the Atlanta Braves. Good luck to both teams. I'll see
you back tomorrow. This is the Recount Daily Pod podcast
(19:59):
from the Recount Our. Thanks to Andrew Yang for being
on the show. And if you like this episode, I
hope you'll subscribe to the Recount Daily Pod And do
you leave us a rating on the Apple podcast app.
I'm your host, Rena
From the recount on Marina nine and and you're listening
to the Recount Daily Pod. Today is Tuesday, October. Right
now we're like, why isn't it working? Why isn't it working?
It's actually designed not to work, and what's the natural
then next step change the design. That was Andrew Yang
talking about his views on the American political system. We'll
(00:27):
get into that and his announcement of the Forward Party
a little later on, but first your morning headlines. Major
change is coming for international air travel to the US.
The Biden administration will now allow vaccinated foreigners to enter.
That means citizens from dozens of countries, including most of
(00:47):
the European Union, the United Kingdom, China, and India, will
now be allowed to enter. The band had been in
place since early but new requirements will go into effect
November eight, U S citizens. In fact, scinated foreigners will
have to show proof of vaccination that's approved by both
the f d A and w h O. They will
also have to show a negative COVID test taken no
(01:09):
more than three days before boarding. Unvaccinated Americans will face
stricter rules. They will need to take a test one
day before departure and test again upon arrival. New York
Cities police union is suing the city over the vaccine mandate.
Mandate requires all city workers to get vaccinated. If they refuse,
(01:30):
they will be placed on either unpaid leave or possibly
get fired. In a statement, the Police Benevolent Association said
that the mandate would quote impose irreparable harm on police officers.
The group also plans to file a temporary injunction against
the city, though earlier this month, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor,
who oversees the Second Circuit, declined similar request from teachers
(01:54):
resisting the mandate. Currently, sev of New York City police
officers are vaccinated. Democrats are said to be nearing a
deal on a massive spending plan. Senator Bernie Sanders has
pushed expand Medicare to now cover dental, hearing and vision,
but on Monday, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Mansion shut
(02:15):
that proposal down because he says it's too expensive. The
Democrats need every one of their senators on board to
pass the plan. President Biden told reporters he hoped to
seal the deal before this weekend. Unclear if that will
happen now, If all that sounds like grid Luck to you,
My guest, Andrew Yang agrees. They'll join me in a
moment to talk about what it would take to change
(02:37):
the way decisions get made in Washington. And now to
our interview. Andrew Yang has risen to the national political
stage in the past few years. He drew attention to
the concept of universal basic income as a Democratic candidate
in the presidential election and earlier this year as a
candidate for mayor of New York City. Since then, he's
(02:58):
announced he's leaving the Democratic Party to start a new one,
the Forward Party. What does he hope to accomplish and
which voters does he want to attract? Here to answer
those very questions and more is the man himself, Andrew Yang. Hey, Andrew, welcome,
Hi Arena. Thanks for having me. Great to be here,
Great to have you on. So you made this decision
(03:18):
to leave the Democratic Party and start Forward. You know,
the US is really a two party system. It's been
hard for a third party to have traction. What do
you think yours would be any different? Well, when I
was digging into the problems that are plaguing us and
getting worse, unfortunately, Arena, one of the key drivers of
the fact that we feel so stuck and we feel
like we can't move forward. No pun intended is really
(03:40):
the polarization in our country where of Democrats and Republicans
regard the other side as evil or their mortal enemies.
And unfortunately that atmosphere is getting worse, not better, driven
by media incentives, political incentives, and social media. Maybe it's
not new to other people, but I was struggling after
my presidential campaign to figure out how you could genuinely
(04:03):
solve some of these big problems, and I realized that
we weren't going to be able to solve them with
this duopoly dynamic that, by the way, is something of
a nightmare of the Founders come to life. We're living through,
in many ways, the biggest design flaw in history. It
threatens to tear us apart, to destroy us, to turn
(04:23):
us against each other. So we have to do is
change that design. And I'm thrilled to say that there's
a straightforward wait for us to do it, not even
at the congressional level, but state by state, which is
to switch to open primaries and rank choice voting. That
would give rise to a more vibrant, dynamic, multipolar democracy
very high bar, I know. But it turns out that
(04:45):
Americans now want an alternative to the two major parties,
in part because they sense that this dynamic is not
working and it's going to get worse, not better. What
do you think the Forward Party can do that the
Democratic Party cannot in this moment? You know. One of
the things that I learned running for office, Grina, is
that at this point in American life, politics is almost
(05:07):
entirely tribal, where you imagine that we're arguing over policy prescriptions.
But the fact is, if you dig in, you find
that there's a low correlation between someone's self identified conservatism
or progressivism and their policy standpoints. It turns out, if
you sit down Americans of any background, the vast majority
of us think drug prices are too high, and the
(05:28):
vast majority of us want to see better educational outcomes
for our kids. So this is really a symptom of
the duopoly where there's I can usser them dynamic. Uh,
And it turns out we agree on much more if
you actually just abandoned coded language. If you go to
a Republican in a red state and you say I'm
a Democrat and I've had this experience, then a lot
(05:49):
of them just shut down immediately. Um. And that's something
that we can avoid really just by having new tribes,
new political languages, new appeals to try and break the
log jam. So when you ask what the Forward Party
can provide, at a minimum, the Forward Party is a
new political tribe that's not quoted negatively for hopefully the
(06:12):
vast majority of Americans, because most of the people haven't
heard of us yet. Will the Forward Party be running
any candidates at any level in the coming years. The
format is that we're probably gonna be supporting Democrats and
Republicans in various primaries, because you know that that's just
the practical reality for many people until we manage to
make this change. We'll be supporting some independence. I think
there'll be some people that run under Forward Party, But
(06:34):
we're very practical, inclusive popular movement. You can join as
a registered Democrat a Republican, no need to change your registration.
It's a movement of people that just want to make
the system makes sense. What kind of Democrat and what
kind of Republican candidate would the party support. We're going
to support candidates who stand up for the principles that
we stand for, which is open primaries and ranked choice voting.
(06:56):
You can before that as someone who's part of a
major party, Fact based governance, universal based income, grace and tolerance.
One other thing where for is eighteen year term limits
for members of Congress. We think that our nation's leadership
should be trying to rejuvenate itself a little bit more often.
And seventy four percent of Americans are for this. So
(07:17):
if various leaders say, look, even as I'm running for Congress,
I'm for people spending you know, a certain number of
years in d C and then coming home, that would
be a very powerful signal of leadership. And that's something
that will be looking for our candidates to support. Are
there any policy deal breakers that candidate might hold that
you wouldn't support, Well, if they stand for these principles
of better governance. Uh, that's what we're going to be
(07:39):
focused on, because right now there are certain issues that
divide Americans in certain environments, but that's not really the
core of our structural problem. Right now, we can disagree
on the social issue and then agree on the fact
that this system is now working and we need to
change it. I want ask you about your new book
it's called four Notes the Future of Democracy. In the
(08:02):
first sentence, you write, why isn't it working? What do
you believe specifically is broken in the American political system
that needs to be changed? The incentives are wrong? Uh,
And the big learning I took from my digging into
these issues and is that a system that's designed to
fail will fail, and our system is designed to fail.
(08:22):
That's really the big mental switch we have to make,
which is right now, where like, why isn't it working?
Why isn't it working? It's actually designed not to work?
And what's the natural then next step change the design?
And I do want to go back to first principles.
There's not a word about political parties in the Constitution.
Our founders were anti partisan. John Adams said what he
(08:45):
feared was two great parties that would be the worst
case scenario for our country, which, by the way, is
exactly what we're living right now. A Republican senator said
to me the other day that they are more rewarded
for we're having an issue alive then trying to reach
across the aisle to resolve it, because if they do
(09:06):
reach across the aisle to try and resolve it, they'll
probably actually pay a price at the polls and in
their own party, whereas it they say, hey, look it's
the other side's fault to give us more money, give
us more energy, give us more votes. Are members of
Congress are not rewarded for delivering of their constituents. They're
rewarded for placating and pleasing the ten most extreme partisans
(09:27):
on either side. If you change that to open primaries
and ranks, rois voting all of a sudden, pleasing the
ten to shifts to trying to get people to like them.
And that's a very very different legislator. They'll be more
reasonable overnight. But we've got to take a quick break.
We'll be right back with Andrew Gang on the Recount
(09:47):
Daily Pod. Welcome back to the Recount Daily Pod podcast
from the Recount. I'm joined by Andrew Gang. You got
a lot of tension when you ran about your concept
of universal basic income. In some ways, people got a
taste of this when the stimulus checks came out during
the pandemic. Do you think it's clear that at some
(10:09):
point in time, I don't know, twenty forty years, do
you really see universal basic income being part of budget reform.
We're already living a version of universal basic income right
now in the form of this child tax credit, which
I love, and four hundred forty eight economists signed the
letters saying we should keep it forever. It's left in
millions of families out of poverty. It's improved people's health,
(10:31):
mental health, kids ability to learn. And that's right now,
that's real. I mean that this is happening for six
kids and families are around the country. So what I
was arguing for on the presidential trail now is supported
by two thirds of Americans. This is a going to
continue to be the main policy prescription, and rightfully so.
(10:52):
And I'm so grateful to everyone who supported my campaign
to give us a chance to make this case, because
the country needed it. I want to ask you about
this moment in time right now country, as we're trying
to merge out of COVID, we've seen labor shortages. How
do you think universal basic income makes sense at a
time when there are actually more jobs than there are workers.
(11:12):
One of the issues I have with our current relief
measures RENA is that a lot of the unemployment relief
is tied to not having a job or not working
and I'm friends with young people who are on some
of these programs and they say, look, I'm going to
ride this out until like my my relief is over,
and then I'll go back to work. And it's totally
sensible for them to do so. If they were getting
(11:35):
some measure of cash and they got to keep it,
and then if they went to work, they would get
that too, I think you would see them making different
choices just right now where attaching negative incentives to at
least a significant proportion of the cash that's going out
to people. We're gonna pause, take a quick break, and
we'll be right back with Andrew Yang on The Recount
(11:56):
Daily Pod. Welcome back to the Recount Daily Pod, a
podcast from the Recount. I'm joined by Andrew Gang. I
want to ask you a little bit um about your future.
Is Andrew Gang going to run for president? Right now,
I'm laser focused on trying to fix things as much
(12:17):
as we can in two that's where all of our
attention should be because we don't have that much time.
So that's a yes, that's very much. Not that. That's
literally I have not thought about anything beyond November twenty
two and trying to get as much done as we can.
Right now, I'm focused on making this case the American people.
You know that feeling you have that things aren't working.
(12:37):
They're not working, and it's not going to get any
better unless we actually change the dynamics of the system.
Just like I spent years mainstream and universal basic income
for the American people, now I will be mainstreaming open
primaries and ranked choice voting as the way to unlock
our leaders from these perverse incentives that are making them crazy,
making us crazy, and making us feel like the country's
going to head into unfortunately um political violence instead of
(13:02):
solving problems. So that's my mission right now, Arena. I'm
super excited about it. Six of Americans want an alternative
to the Duwaffeli. Think about that for a second. Imagine
if you're an entrepreneur and you've showed up on a
scene there were two companies and people want an alternative.
Wouldn't you want to start a third company like that?
And we should not have three parties in the United States.
(13:22):
The UK has five, Germany has seven, Sweden has eight,
Netherlands has eighteen. I don't even have no fingers for that.
Those are resilient, sustainable systems. Right now, we have a
system that's uniquely vulnerable to authoritarianism because if you have
one major party suc come to terrible leadership, everyone then
falls in line. You would never design a system this way.
(13:44):
It is uniquely stupid, and you have to try and
change it as quickly as possible. You mentioned these European
countries with multiple parties, they are also parliamentary systems. For
the majority of US history it has been a two
party system with third parties not being able to hold
so sustainable traction for years. Right, How how do you
fix that all of a sudden after the majority of
(14:06):
US history it has really been a two party system.
The problem again is in the mechanics and right arena,
where it's very difficult for a third party to gain
any traction because you can't even beyond a ballot. In
some cases, you have to subscribe to one of the
major parties even to vote in what is essentially going
to be the deciding primary before the general election. That's
(14:30):
a formality in most locations. So it's the mechanics that
we have to examine and change. Right now, of districts
around the country are safe seats on one side or another.
The vast majority of Americans are just enfranchised. Right now,
ten percent of Americans are effectively deciding of our races. Uh,
and it's not working out at all. It requires us
(14:51):
to getting back to first principles. But you're right, you
have to change the mechanics for any new party to emerge.
What do you think of the electoral college system? The
elect a college system disproportionately rewards and represents rural areas.
Now Wyoming has the same number of senators as California
despite having one population. But the thing I want to
(15:12):
emphasize is that the electoral college will not change because
it requires a constitutional amendment to change it, which would
mean that Montana and Wyoming, in a bunch of other
states would need to agree to shoot themselves in the foot.
They're not going to do it. So this is the system,
and we have to work with the system that we
we have, and we've had for decades. To me, as
(15:34):
a practical person, I try and focus on the things
that we have a chance at changing. And the shift
to open primaries and ranked toys voting I'm describing has
already happened in one state, Alaska, in it can happen
in twenty four other states of enough of us get together.
What does this mean you think Democrats could be in
(15:57):
serious trouble buying? This majority really doesn't seem like it
will hold. You call for open primaries and ranked choice voting.
How do you think those two options could help with elections?
We've already seen legislators change their behavior based upon open
primaries and ranked ers voting. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski
is one of the only Republican senators who voted to
impeach Trump, in part because she's not subject again to
(16:19):
the ten most extreme voters in her state anymore. She
can take her case the entire state. So we've were
to make that change, and let's call it five other states.
In imagine ten senators who could vote their conscience, vote
their principle. That might be the difference between democracy surviving
and becoming stronger or disintegrating entirely, not to be overly dramatic,
(16:43):
but that is on the table. Because Rena, what you
just said is right, Like markets have right now about
a three quarters and seventi five percent chance of Republicans
retaken the House in two that's going to make any
real legislative victories essentially impossible for the Democrats through four,
and then who would you favor in a rematch between
Biden and Trump, which is the most likely scenario, and
(17:06):
that's not what the country really wants. We're gonna be
looking up and when you talk about the sense that
things are working, people are going to be like, wait,
we're running this back. I thought this was a one
time thing. I wasn't that pumped about it the first
time that we you know, we'll be seeing it again.
It'll it'll be like this emblem of just how sclerotic,
uh and stuck in our institutions are. Do you worry
(17:26):
that you could be working against the Democratic Party and
potentially allowing Republicans to take over Congress. Well, the first
thing is we need to try and implement rank choice voting, which,
by the way, eliminates this concern, this entire spoiler effect.
You could vote for Ford Party number one Democrat too,
and you know, no worry about wasting your vote, no
more spoiler effect. So I'm going to suggest that we
(17:48):
should just make that change and it would help eliminate
this concern. Um. But I do think that there's something
of a misconception where people think that, uh, if you
have a new party emerged, it's all we're going to
come from one side or the other. The fact is
the appetite for third parties actually higher among Republicans and independence,
and it is among Democrats. Uh. And even when I
(18:09):
was running for president as a Democrat, nearly half of
my support didn't identify as Democratic. So uh, if you
were an independent, which I am now, like, I think
it requires a lot of assumptions to say, like, oh,
you know you're just gonna take from one party or
the other. Andrew Yang, I want to thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks mana, thank you, recount, love
(18:29):
the format, you guys on the future, and now let's
look ahead at what's happening today. President Joe Biden will
take part in a virtual edition of the annual Ausion Summit.
This year. The ten country block of Southeast Asian nations
will focus on vaccine distribution, climate change, and infrastructure. An
official with the National Security Council said the White House
(18:51):
also wanted to address quote common challenges on maritime issues.
That's a clear reference to containing China. The country also
be in attendance. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal will lead a
hearing this morning titled protecting Kids Online, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Lawmakers on the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety,
(19:14):
and Data Security will question top brass from all three companies.
That's right, no Facebook this time. The topics will focus
on how the law could better protect children. It's game
time tonight in Houston. It's Game one of the World
Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves. The
game will be massive for Astro's manager, Dusty Baker, who
(19:35):
has now taken five different teams to the playoffs but
as yet to win the big prize. The seventy two
year old manager got to start as a player in
night at the age of nineteen, taking the outfield four
the Atlanta Braves. Good luck to both teams. I'll see
you back tomorrow. This is the Recount Daily Pod podcast
(19:59):
from the Recount Our. Thanks to Andrew Yang for being
on the show. And if you like this episode, I
hope you'll subscribe to the Recount Daily Pod And do
you leave us a rating on the Apple podcast app.
I'm your host, Rena
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