One Small Skip for the Gang

By Jack Corby

Posted: January 15th, 2020.

            As I walked into the auditorium, I was met with what I can only imagine is a great sense of purpose among the people in the room. I looked around and was met with hand signs, lots of posters, and hats that said MATH across them. I saw birthday balloons and party hats. I looked around and did not see one empty seat. I saw an auditorium that was filled to the brim with supporters for a different type of candidate.

            When Andrew Yang took the stage in the upper level Olmstead Center at Drake University, the crowd erupted into cheers, applause, and even Happy Birthday chants. It was their favorite presidential candidate’s birthday and his supporters were going to make sure he knew how much they loved him.

            After four (yes, four) introductory speakers, Yang finally took the stage, skipping up the steps, smiling with every jump. He grabbed the mic and preached to the crowd about how much their votes really matter. For anyone who does not know, Yang is a numbers guy. A business owner by trade and statistician naturally, Yang is very good with numbers, hence the MATH logo/saying (more on that later). He told the crowd that each Iowan is worth almost a 1000 Californians, as each Iowan carry lots of power with their votes, both caucus and state vote. For swing states, like Iowa, winning over the moderate votes is the key to victory. Unlike Iowa, California is almost a lock to go blue. Iowa, after two blue years in 2008 and 2012 under President Obama, turned red under President Trump in hopes of small-town change.

Trump promised new jobs and better lives in 2016, and Iowans, moreover Mid-Westerns, accepted his ideas and supported him, yet it has not exactly turned out that way. Yang pointed directly to five states, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, that went with Trump’s promise of new jobs and better lives but have not received on those promises. he capped it off with simple jabs at “the narcissistic reality TV star” that we currently have in office.

In between all the numbers and his MATH chant, which stands for Make America Think Harder, Yang surprised this moderate with facts, radical, yet practical, ideas, and simple humor that captivated not only the youth in the room, but also the mature voters that were present.

Andrew Yang presented lots of facts and ideas on stage. He proposed term limits for Congress, stated how Amazon and other large corporations stealing jobs not only from Americans but also from humans, and then outlined his plan for giving Americans a base monthly income. He said that it should be monthly because ever bill we have is monthly, not annually and that each American would benefit greatly from it, as it would pump more money into small town America and enable places like Iowa especially. Aside from the obvious large impact it would have on speeding up the inflation of the US dollar, as long as the money is not paid for through the deficit or through American tax dollars, the plan is actually very sound and has come up in US history before. Yang proposes taxing large corps, like Amazon, and directly using that money to help all Americans over the age of 18. When he asked the crowd which US state was already doing this, he received a large “ALASKA” (from their oil money) chant from his supporters, furthering the ideology of his meetings being a de-facto cult following.

Aside from his humor (“I will be the first president to use a PowerPoint at the State of the Union”) and his antics, like skipping onto stage, Andrew Yang clearly has captivated and energized a base of supporters.  He presented lots of facts and changes he would make to the American economic system. Overall, he presents a very strong argument to be President, with his strongest being very simple: He is the unknown. He is Trumps worst nightmare in the fact that he has very little political history (none) and truly could do anything if given the keys to the nomination, basically taking Trump’s own strategy and using it against him. Whether that happens or not, it is truly up to ‘YangGang’ and how much energy they can pump into their peers. But, if they can, President Trump will have to take Yang’s slogan as advice for himself: Work Harder.