Andrew Yang and Asian-American Pragmatism
I’ll be honest — I got interested in Andrew Yang 2020 presidential campaign mostly for the YIMBY Arts project (his name did well with SEO on my last few vids) but the more I look into him the more I’m starting to like his style. He has charisma, but it’s a different sort of pull you get from the usual politician — he’s humble, good natured and humorous, pragmatic, unapologetically smart and detail-oriented. His tagline, “I’m going to be the first president to use PowerPoint at the State of the Union!” really captured the hearts and minds of nerds everywhere.
Watching him outmaneuver hostile interviewers on Fox News was something to see — he turned bad questions into political opportunities and handled himself very well. No wonder even Tucker Carlson seems to like the guy. Yang also correctly identifies NIMBYism (he uses that term explicitly) and zoning as the main roadblocks to housing affordability so that’s worth mentioning, too.
Although Asian-Am representation in Hollywood has gotten a lot better in recent years, the vast majority of characters you see are basically the Asian equivalent of the Western Romantic — a different character for the same play, in a way. Most Asians, on the other hand, deal with their issues pragmatically so Yang’s perspective is much closer to that of what you’d expect from the average AA out there.
When Asians run for office they often have to pretend to be Romantics in order to win (why I don’t want to run for office, I know I would hate it), but Yang could potentially shift the conversation in a way that running as a pragmatist becomes politically viable in the future — might have to consider becoming a supporter solely for that reason.
The project’s goal was to do outreach to the gaming community, but in a way he’s already done the hard work winning over a lot of them so I’m really just standing on the shoulder of giants at this point.
More at the YIMBY Arts Website
