Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy

I assume most readers like myself try to identify the author’s leaning before reading a political book. In this case while Andrew Yang has run previously as a democrat, his core discussions in this book are absent of bias towards either of the two major parties. His identification of the dysfunction within our political system and proposed solutions I imagine would appeal to the moderates within both parties and the approximately 45% registered independent voters. There are left leaning concepts discussed such as universal basic income, however the core discussion surrounds our flawed electoral system which is vigorously protected by Democrats and Republicans party leadership alike to retain their power.To clearly signal the prevalent failures in our current political system problem, the author shares voter data indicating the approval rating for Congress Is approximately 20%, yet the re-election rate for members of Congress is 94%. The shocking re-election rate is driven by the fact that 80% of primaries are uncontested. The author clearly and succinctly demonstrates that the primary cause for this failure is the electoral system, and more specifically, closed primaries and the plural voting methods instituted in most all local, state, and federal elections.He also identifies other social, journalistic, and technological challenges influencing the current sociopolitical environment.Mr. Yang does great work explaining the challenges and the proposed solutions for each of the issues. While all the solutions were interesting and compelling many seem to represent wishful thinking and not yet ready for prime time or real implementation based on the current political environment.However, I find Mr. Yang’s contention that the closed primary system is the most glaring culprit for dysfunction and his proposed pragmatic solution for change rather compelling.Many agree with his conclusion that closed primaries allow the two major political parties and their fringe extreme elements to dominate and pre-select victors in primary elections. In-turn as 80% of general elections are pre-destined due to demographics, gerrymandering etc. whomever wins the primary wins the general election four times out of five. Typically, most primary voters consist of the extreme fringe elements of the two major parties representing only 10-20% of their respective registered voters. Thus, you have a very small population of extremists on both sends electing our representatives. It follows that these representatives will pander to the extremists in both parties and thus the failure for our elected to leaders to compromise in a bi-partisan fashion to address the multitude of challenges facing our nation.I find the message in this book symbolizes the swell of independents and the moderates in both parties who are fed up with the current electoral system and are beginning to mobilize for change.The primary electoral solutions presented by Mr Yang, Ranked Choice voting inclusive of open primaries are aligned with many groups acting for change including the Forward Party, Institute for Innovation, and Represent Us. If you enjoyed this book I would also recommend, The Politics Industry by Gehl and Porter.I have characterized myself as a center leaning Republican for over 35 years. As the result of events over the past six years I have become disenchanted with the republican party and more so with the two-party system. I am seeking ways to support centric and effective government which brought me to this title.Something must change if America is to effectively provide for the well-being of our people and remain a global leader. I feel Mr. Yang has proposed a simple (but not easy) viable solution for the approximately 60-80% of Americans who fall in the middle to win back our government from the extremists on both sides and once again establish a government by the people and for the people.

I came in to this book expecting a totally new approach to politics. I came out of it with a vague sense of what Andrew Yang is trying to do, and with quite a bit of confusion about a few contradictory positions.This book is well organized and somewhat well written, though Yang's tone is surprisingly informal for a presidential candidate. Yang divides his book up into three sections: the history of his presidential campaign, the problems he sees in modern America, and his proposed solutions.Had Yang stuck only to the history of his campaign, I would have given this book 5 stars. Yang's insight into the nature of presidential campaigning in the 21st century is absolutely priceless. Most interesting were his comments about being turned into almost a completely different candidate by his well-meaning campaign manager. We apparently live in the age of style above substance, the age where political strategists think that a new hairstyle is more important than coming up with a strategy to appeal to women or African American voters.Surprisingly, not every problem that Yang brings up receives a potential solution. Yang writes about a number of issues that we know all too well, including political extremism, racial profiling, the militarization of the police, and a few other common left-leaning talking points. However, Yang doesn't even make a pretense of finding an answer to these problems in his predictably UBI-focused rhetoric.Instead, the reader is made to believe that congressional inaction is one of the biggest problems facing the United States. We're told about the 90%+ incumbent reelection rate in the House of Representatives, which supposedly serves as some sort of proof of how the modern era has warped our political sensibilities. Only the most astute readers will discover, through a little bit of research, that House incumbents have been historically reelected at a clip of over 80%. Perhaps the problem is not as dire as we once thought.The contradictions start to abound. Yang has a soft spot in his heart for failing industries - particularly the dying manufacturing jobs that politicians tend to remember so fondly. Yang's love for traditional journalism, though, is a bit odd. Yang's solution to the utter failure of the journalism industry is nationalization. But what are we going to nationalize? The newspapers alone - despite the fact that two post-newspaper generations have already come of age? Do we expand the financial benefits to the slowly crumbling world of cable news television? What about the internet news portals and blogs that are being so rapidly replaced by podcasts and YouTube videos?Yang even goes as far as to call for financial support for long-form podcasts, such as the Joe Rogan show. I was left scratching my head, wondering why in the world Yang would think that Rogan and his ilk would need further support from the government. Did Yang forget that his podcast appearances did more to advance his image than any of his other media bits (including those 30-second commercials that apparently took 8 hours each to film)?I started to wonder why in the world we would even need party primaries if we moved to a rank order voting system that allows multiple representatives from each party to run for a seat. I puzzled over why the statistics that should replace GDP as measures of our national economic health, as well as the "dashboard" statistics Yang wants to display in both houses of Congress, just so happen to coincide with left-leaning talking points. And I became very confused over the concept that "facts" need to drive policy, constantly asking myself which "facts" are actually trustworthy (don't we all remember what Twain said about lies, damned lies, and statistics?). You get the picture.In the future, only masters of political trivia will remember that Yang was completely embarrassed in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary. Yang artfully mentioning any details of that race, including his embarrassing lack of knowledge of the key issues. But Yang does mention his unfortunate presidential debate experience, during which a basic question about foreign policy left him looking like a one-issue candidate. You'd think that Yang would have included at least a blurb about foreign policy in these 300 pages. Nope - not even a brief mention.Look - I like Andrew Yang. I don't think his Forward Party idea is going to get out of the mud, but I do like him as a policy maker. I like the idea of making government a pleasure to work with, of changing where our political focus lies, and of combating the dehumanizing nature of our bureaucracy. I really wish he would have taken the Secretary of Labor offer rather than shooting for that pie-in-the-sky mayoral position.However, I don't see much to like in this book. I worry that Yang has surrounded himself with like-minded people, and that he is not thinking critically about his own ideas. At this rate, he will be doomed to political obscurity.

This is worth a read for anyone interested in US politics.Andrew's diagnosis of what ails American government and society is spot-on.I am not qualified to scrutinise his solutions and proposals which are intended to improve the lives of ordinary people, but one or two of them sounded a little vague to me, although I'm all for them in spirit. I would support most, if not all of them, even if I'm not sure whether or not they would work. But hell, we need to try something different, and I'm grateful to Andrew for sharing his ideas along with a positive message.I'm particularly enthused with ranked-choice voting and open primaries. That is something for which I would definitely collect signatures. Learning how far behind our government is in terms of technology was also a real eye-opener.Keep going, Andrew.