About a month and half ago, I went to a grassroots fundraiser in just outside of Little Five Points in Atlanta. Nothing could’ve prepared for just how large and diverse the crowd was and while admittedly there were quite a few hipsters with mustaches that made mine feel inferior there but certainly didn’t represent the majority of those that were in attendance.
I parked ridiculously far away from the venue because I’m from the suburbs of Atlanta and the thought of having to parallel park amid rush hour traffic sounded like an absolute nightmare to me. On my journey towards the venue I met a nice, recently married couple that both worked at hospitals in the city. They told me the story of how they met at a Med School in Columbus and then talked about the part of town we were in as we approached the fundraiser. The wife was interested in Yang and the husband was a volunteer and an avid supporter.
I’m incredibly active on Twitter much to my wife’s chagrin, but because of that I happened to recognize a few of the people there at the fundraiser. The fundraiser was held in a two-story, brick tavern that had a saloon-like feel to it. It boasted a massive courtyard in the back where most of the people were congregating amid the brisk evening weather.
I met a woman who looked exactly like Kate McKinnon and so of course like the socially awkward person I brought that up right away as I introduced myself to her. Next to the merchandise table I saw Erick Sanchez, Yang’s press secretary, and talked to him for a couple minutes about basketball, and how campaigning was going. His forehead was mildly damp as he complained about how often they were eating at Waffle House. I commiserated with him, as I enjoyed his company for a little bit.
The crowd started chanting Andrew Yang as I turned my attention towards the far side of the courtyard. There were undoubtedly hundreds of people there in the bar and courtyard on behalf of a state that wasn’t even a primary state no less. Yang worked the stage like a seasoned stand-up comic for the first bit. He gave the crowd an almost stunningly accurate Bernie Sander’s impression. He told us he felt like as if MSNBC was treating him like he ran over their dog and then moved on to address the plight that is white nationalism and he talked about how strong men treat women well.
It was a stirring moment, especially after a debate where he really separated himself from the other candidates. Yang’s growth is anomalous and its mystifying. A relative unknown a year ago to possibly out-raising Vice President Joe Biden in quarter 4 funding. In November, I saw the glimpse of potential and I knew he would out-raise last quarter but the feats along the way were truly mesmerizing.
For instance, Andrew Yang’s campaign ended up raising $4 million in the last week of December. The campaign can now trend at number 1 on Twitter at will.
NPR’s Domenico Montanaro just recently wrote a piece where he left out Yang citing he had no viable path forward and that he wasn’t a serious candidate. He’s raising money competitively with the other front-runners and he’s won the past couple debates so the idea that he isn’t a serious contender is asinine. Given the fact that the DNC hasn’t had a qualifying poll in almost fifty days it’s hard to tell how much exactly has Yang grown, but it’s indisputable that Yang has grown.
The lack of polling has essentially left Yang’s campaign in limbo. While it’s easy to think that Yang’s media hurdles are behind him, due to him recently agreeing to go on MSNBC with an interview with Chris Hayes, CNBC mistakenly uses venture capitalist Geoff Yang’s photo, instead of Andrew Yang on a chart, effectively reviving the #YangMediaBlackout thread. The Iowa Caucus is in 28 days, how are you still making mistakes like this? Also they used Sen. Gillibrand’s photo instead of Tulsi’s, which bewilders me.
The campaign has reached 1 million donations, has over 400,000 unique donors. Yang has accomplished all these phenomenal feats, while leading all the other candidates with highest percentage of small donors. Instead of wine caves, he goes to local breweries. Instead of selling $1000 tickets that included a souvenir wine bottles and a Melissa Etheridge concert , he held Yangapalooza, which featured half of Weezer, with free admission.
It’s an historic to rise out of obscurity like this and in my mind it’s likely harder to come out of obscurity and outlast seasoned senators, governors, and congressional representatives and land in fifth, than it is to go from fifth to first. Admittedly, I have doubts that he’ll secure the nomination, but I’m only more motivated to continue to write and do my part because of said doubts because I know what’s on the line.
I know with a Yang ticket, that I along with the rest of America, will be put first. Trust me, I love Bernie Sanders, but when he said,” Nobody that’s working 40 hours a week, should be living in poverty,” I agree, but people who work more than 30 hours and are also full-time students like myself shouldn’t be living in poverty and a federally guaranteed job doesn’t give me the time I need to devote to school. Only a Freedom Dividend of a $1,000 a month would help me because I don’t need more work, I need more time.
I prefer Yang, when he said,” Nobody should live in poverty.” The reason why this flagship proposal is so important is because it’s perfectly complemented by all of his other policies and vice versa. An income floor and restored voting rights will curb recidivism rates. An income floor along with Yang’s universal healthcare plan and Yang’s implementing of the Portugal model will help those affected by the opioid crisis. After researching, it’s so easy to see the inter-connectivity of all of Yang’s proposals and that inter-connectivity isn’t merely happenstance, but has been crafted by a man who’s proposals have only proven prescient and clairvoyant throughout the duration of his campaign.
It’s easy and understandable to fall prey to the self-fulfilling prophecy that is “Yang can’t win.” Perhaps some Yang-binging sessions on YouTube will help alleviate your worries. Just remember he went from “longer than long-shot” to “Yang Could Win This Thing.” The latter is obviously the one we should embrace.
Yang’s campaign has become more and more reminiscent to that of Carter’s. Carter’s Peanut Brigade, the group of Georgian’s that would avidly travel and canvass for Carter, sound a lot like that of the Yang Gang. Perhaps you can compare “John Yang” to “Jimmy Who”, after all they do sound related. Jimmy also was under-polled and he over-performed to say the least. Carter, while he polled near 1% for the duration of his campaign, shocked Iowans when he won the caucus and Yang has the capability to do just that.
