How is it, former Democratic presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang asked a crowd earlier this year, that approval rating for Congress hovers at 28 percent — but 94 percent of incumbents are consistently reelected?
Relatedly, “Why,” asked Yang, “do we feel stuck? Why do we feel so negatively about this country and our future?”
Those negative feelings are not just feelings: They can lead to an apathy that allows the angriest voices to be heard and take power, a rage that allows disinformation to spread, an abandonment of consensus and communitarianism in favor of picking sides. They can, even, lead to the end of democracy — unless we find another way.
Yang’s idea? A third party he co-founded with former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and businessman Michael Willner called the Forward Party. (In August, former Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak announced he was joining the Forward Party as well.)
Yang will talk about his hopes for American democracy alongside former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele and Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin at The Citizen’s 5th annual Ideas We Should Steal Festival presented by Comcast NBCUniversal on Thursday, December 15, at the Comcast Technology Center. MSNBC anchor and Citizen board member Ali Velshi will moderate the conversation.
For a preview of what to expect from Yang, watch him talk about his new book, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, at an event in New York City last April:
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