The 2020 US presidential election is approaching amid much speculation over which candidate from the Democratic party will be selected to run against incumbent Donald Trump.
So far, Joe Biden, who was vice-president in the Barack Obama administration, has been leading the poll. But there is still plenty of time before anything is decided, meaning that the underdogs still have a chance.
One of them is Andrew Yang, a 44-year-old rising star from the opposition party who also happens to be the only candidate of Asian heritage.
Crushing the second night of the Democratic debate on Wednesday, Yang is becoming more and more relevant to the Democratic election.
He grew up in a Taiwanese immigrant family in New York. After completing his education at Ivy League institutions, he made a name as a successful entrepreneur, fulfilling his “American Dream”.
He is not a career politician as he only ventured into politics during this presidential campaign. This makes him a unique and fresh candidate compared to the rest of the Democrats in the race.
He likes to talk about jobs in the US. After years of creating thousands of jobs in the US through his NGO, Venture for America, he believes that he can solve the job market crisis in the country.
Yang’s main policy proposal in this campaign is to implement the Freedom Dividend, a US$1,000 per month universal basic income for every American adult over 18.
He wants to make this expensive plan feasible by imposing a value-added tax on big companies which benefit the most from automation.
As an experienced businessman who has created thousands of jobs, he is trying to solve problems in the US through his area of expertise: numbers. Throughout his campaign, he has repeatedly told his supporters in jest that “the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math”.
In a nutshell, he is trying to convey that the problems in the US, which are often polarised by different identity groups or parties, can be solved through math.
Yang has been intentionally avoiding the appeal of his ethnicity. This was especially evident when he was interviewed by The Daily Show star Ronny Chieng. Instead of going along with the discussion of ethnicity for which the Malaysian comedian had hoped, Yang said: “There are many other Americans who care more about my stance on the issues.”
It’s nothing new that identity politics has been blamed for Trump’s election. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama said in a recent interview that identity politics had begun “to take on an exclusive character where people’s ‘lived experiences’ determined who they were”. This, he believes, “created obstacles to empathy and communication”.
Fukuyama claims that the lack of communication between identities led identity politics to “move to the right” as opportunists like Trump took advantage of the situation by blaming other racial groups and refugees for the problems in the US.
Yang’s ultimate strategy, if he becomes the Democratic representative, is to win votes from the GOP by convincing them that his mathematic approach could be the real solution – not scapegoating refugees or other minority groups.
He focuses on people with jobs that will soon be automated like call centre workers or truck drivers. He tries to consolidate his support from the grassroots from both the GOP and the Democrats.
According to a recent poll by Fox News, Yang receives 3% of support from the Democrats. This may seem an insignificant number, but it’s an impressive result for a candidate who has never had his name on TV or any other mainstream media.
Besides, he is an internet sensation. After the first night of the Democratic debate, most of the YouTube comments on the highlight video were about how little airtime he received. His supporters call themselves #yanggang and have been some of the most enthusiastic from among Democratic supporters.
He seems like he is on an upward trend, but frankly his chances of becoming the Democratic nominee are small. The majority of Democrats still regard Biden as the “realistic” match for Trump.
So despite the hype, the possibility of Yang becoming president sounds too good to be true.
Although he is not a fan of using his ethnicity to gain votes, there is speculation that Asian voters in the US are becoming more excited about politics as they are finally being represented. Asians have been the smallest voting group compared to other minorities. So Yang running for president alone could be a tremendous driving force for encouraging Asian Americans to vote.
His indifference towards using his ethnicity could also bring unity once again after Obama’s administration and create a better image for the next Asian leaders. In fact, he is indirectly encouraging higher voting participation from Asians in the US, who can elect more leaders of their kind and stand a better chance of pressuring policymakers into acting in favour of their community.
Of course, scepticism exists. Ronald Cheing, a blogger from Staten Island, New York, doesn’t believe his Asian American peers and family members “are talking more about politics after Andrew Yang came in, let alone even heard of him”.
Yet there is no denying that Yang is the most talked-about Asian American politician to date. Whether or not he becomes the US president in 2020, he has the potential to change the fate not only of Asian Americans, but of American voters as a whole. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.