Andrew Yang’s Message Wasn’t Merely about UBI
There’s been an ever-growing consensus that right now is the appropriate time for UBI. It seems as though all of the pundits have collectively clamored over Yang’s clairvoyance and the battle for, which Yang relentlessly fought for has been won. That’s now how I view it. While political commentators may have viewed Yang’s campaign as narrow and one dimensional, I, along with other supporters saw it for how truly multi-faceted it was in actuality. It was uncompromisingly techno-centric, populist, innovative, and futuristic. UBI may have been the flagship proposal for the campaign, Yang’s democracy reform policies were the understated genius of his platform.
Revolutionary politics of 2019 and 2020 have largely been centered on healthcare and economic policies, but democracy reform is truly the gate by which we can bring about real systemic change.
When Andrew Yang introduced democracy dollars at the September debates, the name was met with neoliberal-ridicule and the powerful idea behind democracy dollars fell flat among pundits. The reasoning behind democracy dollars was and is a people-powered one. If people gave cash to the candidate of their choice, then they can wash out the lobbyist cash and primaries now become less predictable. While Biden wasn’t a fundraising giant this campaign season, perhaps the results would’ve varied. It’s not particularly about securing a win, as it is about giving people a fighting chance against the corporation and special interest backed politicians. If every American received a $100 per election cycle to donate to any candidate of their choosing, this amount would add up to a potential $20 billion a year that would effectively out-raise the lobbyists and special interest groups.
All too often our primaries are won before they were even started and most of the winners are widely unfavorable. With ranked-choice voting, the winner typically ends up representing the support of the majority, and so if a person ends up with a lot of second choices votes with nobody locking up the majority of first-place votes, then that person wins. Ranked-choice voting roots out vote-splitting, discourages the incentive for negative campaigning, provides more choices for voters, minimizes strategic voting, and increases participation from military and oversea voters.
For progressives, this means nobody has to worry about splitting the progressive vote and therefore not only can more progressives join the race, but they have a higher probability of winning if more do so, while lobbyists and special interest groups typically focus on monetarily backing one candidate. Also, this means more viability and accessibility for the Green Party and Libertarian candidates, who so often get neglected during primary voting.
The beauty of democracy reform is that its a nonpartisan issue and thus if you campaign on it you can come across as having a lot of cross-over appeal. With institutional distrust at an all-time high, people are more eager to root money out of politics, especially considering how politics are interfering with people’s well-being. We’ve not been bailed-out during this pandemic. On our well-being is hinging on the most craven gatekeepers in politics, who’ve been conditioned not to care about the well-being of the citizen, but rather to care about the well-being of their pockets.
Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress since 1987 and she’s now in her 17th term. Mitch McConnell has been in Senate since 1985. As they’ve served in their respective roles, they’ve only have become more and more similar. They are both fueled by dark money, have accrued millions since being in office, and have continued to grow more and more distant from their constituency.
It remains largely unclear of how much Pelosi is worth exactly and figures range $140 million to $97 million. Nancy Pelosi’s salary is around $193,000 a year for being Minority Leader. As for Mitch McConell, his salary is around the same as Pelosi, and his net worth is around $27 million. Congressional term limits prevent people from getting rich from politics and develop these positions as gatekeepers to protect their interests. Sure Covid-19 may be highlighting the need for a UBI, it’s also highlighting a need for terms limits, automatic voter registration, voting restoration, democracy vouchers, ending Citizen’s United, and ranked-choice, approval, or STAR voting.
I asked congressional candidate Heidi Briones, who’s running to represent Oregon’s 1st district, ”How would a UBI along with robust Democracy reform level the playing field for working-class congressional candidates such as yourself?” This was her response.
“UBI would have allowed me to consider leaving my job to campaign full-time, while still having my basic needs met. This would mean that I could have been laser-focused on campaigning rather than trying to keep a full-time job while running a campaign. It’s been difficult to juggle both things and do them both well. Often times I feel highly stressed and it’s hard to manage having a job, a campaign, and a life of my own as well. UBI would have lifted that weight. If my constituents had Democracy Dollars or some kind of public voucher then I would have been able to focus more on reaching out to them directly and less on fundraising.
Grassroots candidates currently need to reach out to many people in order to fund their campaigns so they can reach voters. Things like DD allow you to reach out to voters for BOTH support and votes and also funds. That would be a huge advantage for candidates like myself that refuse to seek corporate PAC money and frankly have a hard time getting any money at all. Also, if we had RCV or STAR voting then I’d feel much more confident about my odds at winning. With our single-choice, winner-take-all style of voting, it’s extremely hard for smaller candidates to win. Reforming our voter systems is vital. Luckily, Oregon has voted by mail for 20 years so we do have that advantage. Overall, I’m running to change these things so normal people like myself have a shot at making real change for other normal people.”
Imagine replacing Pelosi with Heidi Briones or the person running against her, Shahid Buttar. When Congress reflects the majority of their constituency, the better it functions. When Pelosi showed off her year supply of ice cream, from her $24,000 fridge, I wasn’t smiling. I was actually rather baffled, by how democrats thought that accruing this amount of wealth while being in politics was ethical. Then I thought about how Heidi Briones, who is wildly competent, well-educated, well-versed in policy, wasn’t on James Corden’s show talking about stuff that actually matters and about stuff that people can actually relate to, but she’s out there fundraising and talking to voters.
Heidi and the people of America deserve a democracy, where a gig-economy worker can run for office and competitively raise money against the establishment candidate. We deserve an America where we can be automatically registered to vote, have enough disposable income to donate somebody that truly represents our values and lifestyle. We deserve an America that makes Election day a federal holiday so the working-class and overall voter turnout increases.
Yang’s legacy in summation could shortly be summarized as, “Power to the people.” With an A+ rating from Equal Citizens, Yang’s democracy reform platform is definitely something to remember him by, rather than just reducing him to the “UBI guy.” After yang concluded his campaign, I took it upon myself to always champion UBI, and democracy reform equally because they complement each other both in message and practice. It’s time we transition from corporate powered government to a people-powered government.
P.S. Donate to Heidi because she’s not shaking the money tree in the wine cave. https://www.heidiforcongress2020.com/
