Thoughts on the Forward political party?

[krystee]

I checked to see if this was discussed in the July thread and didn’t see it. What are your thoughts on the new Forward political party?

www.forwardparty.com/

My thoughts are that it will cause another 2016 because it will siphon just enough votes away from Democrats (since one of the co-leaders is Andrew Yang).

I am all for more political parties, but my fear with three parties is that it breaks up the party it is closest to and hands a win over to the other one every time. This one claims to be centrist and theoretically would siphon from both, but I am not optimistic.

[underwaterrhymes]

I do not care for Yang, am a socialist, and am not interested in compromising with Republicans, so this party is absolutely not for me.

Honestly, while in a perfect world we would have more than two parties, the electoral college essentially means that won’t ever be an effective reality.

Also, this most definitely is not the time for this nonsense. This party includes the Democrats who won’t show up to vote if their person isn’t on the ballot, but you can bet the Republicans will show up and vote for their nominee. We do not have the luxury of splitting the Democratic Party right now. Our democracy is on the line.

[suburbanzookeeper]

It's a great way to guarantee DeSantis or Trump a win 2024 with the electoral college split. Forward is designed to pull democrats away from their party, not republicans who'll vote for those clowns regardless because they have an R next to their name.

Andrew Yang can fuck right off right now.

[Patsy Baloney]

Moderates. Lol.

[TR]

And the whole “people are fed up with both parties” thing - the people fed up with Democrats are fed up with Dems not being progressive enough. They don’t want this shit.

[Bad Dingo]

Yang is a Republican plant.

[cherryvalance]

I said this elsewhere when it was mentioned, but Christy Todd Whitman literally robbed NJ's pension system and left us in a fiscal mess that continues today. I hold her responsible for a lot of the Chris Christie years and the rise of anti-vax, anti-teacher, anti state worker animus we have today.

So, no, this party can fuck all the way off with every other, "Let's work together with the racists and fascists" moderate group. Nah.

[cherryvalance]

Jul 31, 2022 19:32:13 GMT -5 TR said:

And the whole “people are fed up with both parties” thing - the people fed up with Democrats are fed up with Dems not being progressive enough. They don’t want this shit.

lol, yes. Who is even, "Ugh, I hate Biden! He's so progressive! We need a moderate" except conservatives?

[NewOrleans]

Racist grifting foolishness

[lilac05]

I would love to see an end to the two party system some day…but this is not the time for it. The stakes and risks are too high.

[AJL]

Jul 31, 2022 19:54:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I would love to see an end to the two party system some day…but this is not the time for it. The stakes and risks are too high.

Just curious... when is the right time to end a two party system? 

[TR]

Jul 31, 2022 19:59:23 GMT -5 AJL said:

Jul 31, 2022 19:54:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I would love to see an end to the two party system some day…but this is not the time for it. The stakes and risks are too high.

Just curious... when is the right time to end a two party system? 

Well, for one - after the electoral college is dismantled.

[AJL]

Jul 31, 2022 20:11:26 GMT -5 TR said:

Jul 31, 2022 19:59:23 GMT -5 AJL said:

Just curious... when is the right time to end a two party system? 

Well, for one - after the electoral college is dismantled.

So not anytime in the near future.

[TR]

Jul 31, 2022 20:25:21 GMT -5 AJL said:

Jul 31, 2022 20:11:26 GMT -5 TR said:

Well, for one - after the electoral college is dismantled.

So not anytime in the near future.

Probably not? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

[AJL]

Jul 31, 2022 20:26:53 GMT -5 TR said:

Jul 31, 2022 20:25:21 GMT -5 AJL said:

So not anytime in the near future.

Probably not? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

I'm getting at there is never going to be a right time to make a change from two parties. 

[underwaterrhymes]

Jul 31, 2022 21:35:57 GMT -5 AJL said:

Jul 31, 2022 20:26:53 GMT -5 TR said:

Probably not? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

I'm getting at there is never going to be a right time to make a change from two parties. 

If we don’t all get out and vote for Democrats in 2022 and 2024, we won’t have to worry about any parties because our democracy will be gone.

[suburbanzookeeper]

Jul 31, 2022 19:43:33 GMT -5 Bad Dingo said:

Yang is a Republican plant.

It's feeling very... Tulsi Gabbard before she completely went off the deep end. 

[krystee]

SharonSaysSo is having Yang on her podcast this week to chat about the party. She has a huge following and is in the top 1% of podcast downloads, so it is quite a coup for him. I hope she uses her platform to ask hard questions and it isn’t a 60-minute commercial for him.

[lilac05]

Jul 31, 2022 22:37:04 GMT -5 krystee said:

SharonSaysSo is having Yang on her podcast this week to chat about the party. She has a huge following and is in the top 1% of podcast downloads, so it is quite a coup for him. I hope she uses her platform to ask hard questions and it isn’t a 60-minute commercial for him.

I’m interested in hearing how this goes, too. She’s not generally a “hard questions” interviewer, so I’m not too optimistic about that. I feel like her audience has a lot of people who consider themselves conservatives, but strongly dislike Trump and his rhetoric. Anyone who thinks the election was stolen and all of the other crazy Republican conspiracy theories are probably no longer her followers. She attempts to stay neutral about most things, but not those. If the party sticks around, I think she would be more successful pulling her followers from Republican to third party vs Democrat to third party, based on what I see of her following.

She did say the other day that if a third party has any chance whatsoever, they need to raise a LOT of money VERY quickly and have a very cohesive, very clear & concise platform and there was absolutely no room for disagreement or missteps. She didn’t seem optimistic that it would be successful.

@ajl, I don’t think a third party has a real chance until the electoral college is gone. I realize that is unrealistic, especially in the near future, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t hope for it to happen one day.

[TR]

Jul 31, 2022 21:35:57 GMT -5 AJL said:

Jul 31, 2022 20:26:53 GMT -5 TR said:

Probably not? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

I'm getting at there is never going to be a right time to make a change from two parties. 

So you think we should do it now?

[fortnightlily]

I think the fact that they announced themselves and launched before they had an actual platform is not a good look...

I think there is not an even 'both sides do it' problem to today's partisanship.

I think that major electoral reform (shorter campaign timelines, ranked choice voting, public funding, ending gerrymandering) would be a lot more constructive than a third party.

[underwaterrhymes]

Aug 1, 2022 8:37:13 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

I think the fact that they announced themselves and launched before they had an actual platform is not a good look...

I think there is not an even 'both sides do it' problem to today's partisanship.

I think that major electoral reform (shorter campaign timelines, ranked choice voting, public funding, ending gerrymandering) would be a lot more constructive than a third party.

Right. To me this reeks of someone wanting to be relevant and important rather than trying to actually make vital changes to our political process.

[NewOrleans]

Jul 31, 2022 19:54:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I would love to see an end to the two party system some day…but this is not the time for it. The stakes and risks are too high.

 there are already more than 2 parties. 

[NewOrleans]

Aug 1, 2022 8:37:13 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

I think the fact that they announced themselves and launched before they had an actual platform is not a good look...

It’s amateur hour.

[penguingrrl]

My first thought was surprise that Whitman was still alive. I think of her as a horrible relic of NJs past.

We don’t need a “centrist” party, the Dems already have that covered.

[Velar Fricative]

Andrew Yang is a grifter and an asshole. No thanks.

[AJL]

Aug 1, 2022 8:22:50 GMT -5 TR said:

Jul 31, 2022 21:35:57 GMT -5 AJL said:

I'm getting at there is never going to be a right time to make a change from two parties. 

So you think we should do it now?

🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️
I said it’s never going to be a right time to make the change from a two party system. I don’t care when or even if it happens. There is never going to be a perfect time for major political change so if it’s important to the people to change from a two party system, now is as good as time as any else.

[TR]

Aug 1, 2022 15:44:49 GMT -5 AJL said:

Aug 1, 2022 8:22:50 GMT -5 TR said:

So you think we should do it now?

🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️
I said it’s never going to be a right time to make the change from a two party system. I don’t care when or even if it happens. There is never going to be a perfect time for major political change so if it’s important to the people to change from a two party system, now is as good as time as any else.

But it being important doesn't make it possible. That's all anyone is saying. And your question was making it seem like people just don't care enough or aren't willing to take risks. But like underwaterrhymes said, if we fuck up these next two elections, there's a good chance it won't even matter because democracy and free & fair elections as we know them will be a thing of the past.

[picksthemusic]

I would honestly be much more for ranked choice voting before adding another party to the system. All I see with this is pulling votes from Ds which will hand the election to Rs.

[picksthemusic]

Jul 31, 2022 19:43:33 GMT -5 Bad Dingo said:

Yang is a Republican plant.

Just like Tulsi Gabbard.