> We will support candidates for office who align with our core principles so that we can reform the system and make it more responsive to the American people. This means that we will support Republicans, Democrats, and Independents - as well as candidates identifying themselves as Forward Party members.
Yang definitely hates Trump. He's not about to put him into power any time soon.
Yang is more about wielding influence on political discussion and trying to move the country away from incumbency than anything else. I really don't foresee anyone building a campaign on the forward party, but I can see a democrat or republican leveraging the forward party's ideas in the right environment to get endorsements from it to win in tight elections.
We will support candidates for office who align with our core principles so that we can reform the system and make it more responsive to the American people. This means that we will support Republicans, Democrats, and Independents - as well as candidates identifying themselves as Forward Party members.
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.
> 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.
From his podcast interview it sounds like this is a “party” like the DSA is a “party”: it throws its support behind more mainstream candidates who advance their platform (mainly ranked choice voting for now). But being independent allows them to throw support behind both Ds and Rs.
Can someone more knowledgable give some specific details about their plan? I've read what I could on their website, but I can't really get a hold of what the specific platform is, if any parties are involed...etc. For example, they want to win 5 races. Who would these candidates be? Is pure election reform their only task?
It's very easy for me to understand the anger. But my pessimism makes me skeptical of yet another political group asking for money to change politics.
I was very disappointed that their website homepage really didn't list any of the details or the specifics, it just detailed the anger. It also had the usual array of celebrity endorsements around that anger. I dunno, at its face this looks very similar to the splinter group party stuff on both sides.
Again. I'm just not someone super versed on this stuff and am looking for info. What makes this different and why will this work?
That's kind of an ideal party. They organize the vote but don't promote any candidate. Just make sure you are ready to vote, if you are willing to exercise your vote.
How do you mean exactly? I'm not sure how you can draw that conclusion from what I said. Politically I'm an independent, there's no real home for me any US political party.
No, their strategy is to focus on reform from the bottom up: getting local officials elected at the city, county, and state levels in order to pass electoral reform (states control election in the US) to make our national politics less inflammatory. Parties matter less at these levels. Their main goal right now is to get ranked choice voting passed in as many states as possible (focusing their energy on ballot initiatives). They are also not a "party" (they are registered as a PAC). This way, republicans or democrats can receive a foward party nomination without having to leave their own parties and run independent. They just have to be aligned with forward party goals. They have maybe 1 or 2 US representatives that they're tracking, but Andrew Yang is not running for president in 2024 because it would just be a waste of money to them. The vast majority of their advocacy is at the state and city level
> The party, which is centrist, has no specific policies yet. It will say at its Thursday launch: "How will we solve the big issues facing America? Not Left. Not Right. Forward."
Universal basic income was a major part of Yang's campaign in 2020. Given enough time, I suppose it could become centrist. In the meantime, this raises the question of what positions this new party will support exactly.
> .. The leaders cited a Gallup poll last year showing a record two-thirds of Americans believe a third party is needed.
One of the reasons they do so badly is that American third parties have almost nothing to do with respect to local governance. They tend to be focused on trying to win national elections. It's hard to build a bench of electable national candidates when so few of them have run a city or state under the banner of the party they're running with.
Unless this third party is willing to make a serious investment in local governance, I doubt it will do much better than the others.
> The obvious answer is to say, "Don't associate yourself with the D/R Party unless you agree with all of their viewpoints," [...]
Well yeah. The point of a party is to obliterate the minor differences and bull forward efficiently. You're supporting all their platforms even if you only like a few.
> I believe we can end up with an even better answer that allows people to get organized
But can you think of one that doesn't involve signing up for someone else to represent you, lock-stock-and-barrel?
I think so, but I think we need to look beyond parties.
Parties don't get votes (at least in most elections), the candidates do. The candidates can be members of a party and may be endorsed by them. in NY it sounds like a party can endorse a non-member. This doesn't sound fundamentally wrong or misleading to me.
> Platform: Putting People Before Corporations [..] Opening up Government [i.e. transparency]
Every party makes similar promises. Instead, lead with what makes you different - your focus on IP law and digital rights. Perhaps even emphasize your flexibility or neutrality on other issues, so that your voting base isn't decimated by your positions on wedge issues.
3rd, that would be the Green Party, no?
There is also Libertarian, Democratic Socialists, Socialist, and a handful of loca parties that only show up in ballots during election season.
I wonder if this will be a true leftist party or simply another milquetoast Democrat-light party.
It's not a party. It's more of a organization to fund politicians who align with their "core values".
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