Andrew Yang: 'Political Violence Is Becoming More and More of an Inevitability'
The former presidential candidate talks about UBI, race relations, ranked-choice voting, his new political party Forward, and how "the duopoly is killing us."
Andrew Yang's run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination didn't last all that long, but his support for a universal basic income (UBI) pushed that arcane topic to the center of ongoing policy debates about how best to help Americans dislocated by technological and economic change.
The 46-year-old entrepreneur, who also ran unsuccessfully this year to become New York City's mayor, has a new book out. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, is part campaign memoir and part political manifesto in which he outlines the principles and policies he thinks are essential to making America once again a land of opportunity. To further his agenda, he has also launched the Forward Party, which proclaims it is neither left nor right in its mission statement.
"We can tell that the duopoly is killing us," says Yang. "It's turning us against each other. Political stress is at civil war levels. Political violence is becoming more and more of an inevitability." The Forward Party's core principles include pushing for open primaries and ranked-choice voting, creating a basic income for all citizens, promoting "human-centered capitalism," and infusing politics with "grace and tolerance."
He talked about all that—and how his agenda intersects with libertarian ideas—with Reason's Nick Gillespie.
Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Newscom
