00:00:00
well we are all getting ready for what could be a wild 2024 with the next presidential election on the agenda but
00:00:07
we also know that there are concerns about what might play out and the focus on elections in general is getting uh
00:00:15
quite a bit more traction after what was perceived to have occurred in 2020 as well as the impact from social media and
00:00:22
the potential impact from Ai and more former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has co-authored a novel
00:00:28
along with Canadian journalist Stephen Marsh titled the last election which puts forward a day where there are more
00:00:35
candidates running for office the highest office in the land than just the two predominant political parties and a
00:00:42
pleasure to have him joining us right now Andrew great to have you with us thanks very much well thanks for having
00:00:47
me Dan it's a pleasure let me start with the back story on on your interest on
00:00:51
doing a book like this and and what you potentially see could play out here in the years ahead
00:00:59
uh I get asked hey are you gonna run for president all the time I ran for president I have a lot of experiences I
00:01:07
wanted to convey and so the last election is a novel about what happens if a heavyweight independent decides to
00:01:14
run for president uh and so I'm imagine uh streamline narrative with characters
00:01:21
and motivations the main character is the campaign manager of the independent candidate and I wanted to paint a vivid
00:01:28
picture of what could be on the horizon for on the horizon for us and why uh even folks who really like independent
00:01:38
candidates may or may not be excited in large part because our system right now uh isn't set up to accommodate new
00:01:47
parties or perspectives yeah that's the the unique side to this is that the strength of both the
00:01:54
Democratic and Republican party in terms of the electoral process uh makes it such a challenge and I mean it even
00:02:00
makes it a big challenge for somebody to win from a third party if they're running for congress right now
00:02:06
oh congress is actually maybe the the biggest setup uh in terms of independent candidates so what's fun is uh Ford
00:02:13
supports Independents around the country uh and uh we have Mayors we have state legislators uh we have County Executives
00:02:23
but congressional districts uh that that's in some ways where it's most rigorously enforced I will tell you it's
00:02:31
it's much much more likely to get an independent senator from a state because
00:02:36
Statewide I don't know if your listeners know this but about half of Americans now say
00:02:42
we're Independents uh it's something like 20 25 damn 23 Republican and then 49
00:02:50
independent so if you actually let the votes play out um more openly as in a Statewide race
00:02:59
the independent can win but I think the perception is that right now is that there is still a belief by
00:03:06
probably a lot of those people that a vote for an independent candidate is a lost vote that that that structure that
00:03:14
is in place right now makes it so challenging for a candidate from from an independent side to be able to win the
00:03:21
presidency right now uh yeah it's it's one reason why we need something like ranked Choice voting
00:03:28
where then anyone can vote for whomever you want and you can't be labeled a spoiler can't be said hey you're messing
00:03:33
it up uh you're a bully so I'm gonna imagine your audience is very very business-minded
00:03:39
um and I I want to break down what I figured out about our system um what do you think the approval rating
00:03:47
is for congress right now Dan uh I'm gonna say it's pretty low I'm gonna say
00:03:52
it's down in the 20s yeah it's like 15 to 24 what do you think the re-election
00:03:58
rate is for incumbent members of Congress oh I think it's incredibly High I think it's probably up in the 80s
00:04:04
94 yeah it's a better win rate than the Jordan Air Chicago Bulls uh so the average American's like hey what the
00:04:12
heck is going on and they're like they're told hey nothing can change because 90 of the districts are drawn to
00:04:18
be either blue or red to your point like if you have an independent memory card who's like no we drew the district so
00:04:23
they're going to be blue or red uh and there's no suspense as to which party's
00:04:27
going to win that District only five to ten percent of races are even marginally
00:04:34
competitive in any given cycle so if there's one thing the parties agree on it's we don't like to compete we don't
00:04:40
even like to compete with each other really um so in that system then we get more
00:04:45
and more agitated and angry the second big fiction in American life is that our leaders have to make 51 percent of us
00:04:52
happy they don't they just need to keep the 10 to 12 percent most extreme polarized hyper partisans off their back
00:05:00
and then they Coast so in that system our incentives are getting dragged to the extremes and then you have media
00:05:09
organizations separating us into tribes and teams and then you have social media
00:05:13
pouring gasoline on the whole thing so that's why it feels like we're being
00:05:17
pulled apart because of bad incentives and for your business folks who love this stuff or hate it whatever there's a
00:05:24
book called the politics industry by Michael Porter and Catherine Gale that breaks down the incentives and it also
00:05:30
has a solution which by the way now my forward party is focused on delivering the American people and that's this get
00:05:36
rid of the party primaries make it so that anyone can vote for anyone and then that fiction that they have to make 51
00:05:42
of us happy actually becomes real and there are several States who've done this Alaska got rid of Sarah Palin had
00:05:49
Lisa murkowski fend off a trump endorsed Challenger even though she devoted to impeach Trump think about that in Alaska
00:05:56
cost of six million dollars and that's Evergreen we're going to spend 10
00:06:00
billion dollars hating each other and beating each other up next cycle six million dollars to get rid of the
00:06:04
primaries in the state it's the best freaking bargain in American history so
00:06:09
that is the work that we need to do we need to get rid of the party primaries and this now the last election is in
00:06:16
some part about what happens when the parties deliver candidates that don't make any sense I'm going to call them
00:06:22
Joe Biden and Donald Trump you know what I mean I like like the folks listening to this I don't know you at all I would
00:06:27
probably take you as president over those two guys like you know and I'm not talking about you
00:06:32
Dan I'm talking about anyone listening to this right now you know I mean like
00:06:36
that's the absurdity of the system 330 million people those are your choices
00:06:39
think about what the system's delivering and then what happens next well and the
00:06:44
book is interesting because it really does get into some interesting possibilities of of what could occur if
00:06:51
there is strength within a third party candidate and what potentially would happen if you move forward with that
00:06:58
type of a policy uh in terms of how we're looking at elections in general yeah I wanted to really game plan it out
00:07:05
uh you know like uh I'm I'm like a numbers guy who's been in this mix uh
00:07:11
and so I said you know what here's what you would do here's how the campaign
00:07:14
would run uh here are the problems hear the opportunities and then here's what I
00:07:19
think would be the most likely outcome and um so uh so for those of you who are interested in what I've said it's like
00:07:28
look about the system writ large again politics industry Incredible Book not mine Captain Gill and Michael Porter I
00:07:34
wrote a book nonfiction called forward which is saying look this system is going to just tear us apart and uh and
00:07:40
it's going to get worse and worse and then I tried to fictionalize it and by
00:07:44
the way now this is getting shopped in Hollywood for a screenplay because people like stories sometimes more than
00:07:51
they like nonfiction but I have a feeling your crown actually prefers non-fiction so if so if so so if you
00:07:58
want to check out nonfiction as to why our politics are so broken politics industry by Catherine Gail Michael
00:08:03
Porter and then you can check out my book forward notes on our democracy because
00:08:08
um you know I mean frankly I'm gonna just say it and I'm gonna say it I appreciate you uh adult men seldom read
00:08:15
fiction so thank you for having me on for this but I'm just letting you all know it's
00:08:21
like I get it you know like I mean I wrote a novel to get to certain people but um you know we're not the target
00:08:27
demo well I was gonna say numbers are kind of important I think in many cases in and around our landscape but I think
00:08:34
it's interesting you doing a book like this because you certainly have the experience firsthand of what it's like
00:08:40
to be involved in that landscape involved in that process and to see all of this play out and at the same time
00:08:47
see the problems that are there and maybe the things that we need to consider moving forward about our entire election
00:08:55
process oh yeah I mean there's so much uh corruption now uh and again I mean you
00:09:02
can I'm just gonna say again for the 24 seconds everyone can see it hey don't
00:09:05
like Joe Biden tough luck no process no debates no vote uh and the fix is in and
00:09:10
every major Democrat is being told you will ruin your career by running against Joe so just wait in line and now we have
00:09:16
the profiles and courage of crickets and 73 of us think wait a minute this guy is
00:09:21
going to be 82 at the end of 24. you know like I'm not comfortable with that
00:09:25
that's Choice number one choice number two and a lot of folks listening to this
00:09:29
you are what I'm going to call moderate Republicans before the Republican party
00:09:33
just went haywire and now you're like what the hell am I if you are in that category check out Ford really because
00:09:40
like we've got a lot of folks that resemble that a lot of Business Leaders I mean if you're a business leader what
00:09:44
the hell do you do at this point so you have Trump hovering over that entire proceeding up by 35 40 points and then
00:09:51
the rest of the field unfortunately is competing for second place and that's
00:09:55
how you wind up with these two dudes you know but but it if you had the general population
00:10:03
and real choices you you don't end up with anything like these guys let me talk a couple of areas for you
00:10:10
because we kind of go into this next year and one is AI and the importance we have
00:10:17
obviously seen it pick up uh here in the last several months and the concerns that are out there about how AI while it
00:10:25
may have great benefit in so many different areas could potentially have an impact in areas like political
00:10:31
elections and social media and and and more misinformation uh that we've already seen
00:10:38
yeah your your listeners will understand this imagine an environment where a synthetic deep fake video audio tape
00:10:46
image uh text message all of it is generatable for free uh and then imagine a legion of Bad actors uh
00:10:57
uh political or otherwise uh with those tools uh I think the last month of the election you're going to want to turn
00:11:04
your social media feed off because it's just going to be so rancid they're going
00:11:08
to be so many weird videos you're like wait he did what he said what and then
00:11:12
by the time that gets debunked there's like you know another five in your feed
00:11:16
10 billion dollars spent trying to beat each other up by the way we all know what's going to decide this election
00:11:22
it's not you or me actually it might be you Dan uh it's 250 000 swing voters in
00:11:28
five states you know what I mean that that's uh Pennsylvania Wisconsin Nevada
00:11:33
Arizona Georgia uh and and so the 10 billion dollars I mean geez like you know it's like if you break down
00:11:40
actually how much is going to get spent um we should just be giving all those swing voters you know
00:11:46
like the keys to the kingdom trust me we saw it uh in 2016 uh here firsthand and uh we expect to see it uh
00:11:56
here in Pennsylvania again in in 2024. how much then does the does the discussion around economy really play
00:12:04
into the decision uh about who is going to be the next president and I asked that again for you having been there but
00:12:12
we're also in a time where the economy is very much kind of up and down at this
00:12:16
point and the term recession is still being talked about a lot as we head into 2024.
00:12:22
yeah I I think that uh it's one of the real problems for Joe and the incumbents
00:12:29
is that even as the economy in some ways holds up very well surprisingly well I would say uh there are a lot of
00:12:35
Americans who are still very very ticked off I don't know if you saw the headline
00:12:38
but child poverty went up from five percent to 12 uh in 2022 so there are a lot of Americans are like you know
00:12:45
telling me this economy is great like that you know super mad inflation obviously
00:12:51
um that so that there are a couple of variables going into next year the economy is a major one I will say Joe's
00:12:58
agent health is another it's like he he could just have a problem in any given
00:13:02
day Trump too obviously I mean Trump's no no spring chicken um but people think that this is uh this
00:13:10
is somehow safe I mean it's not safe uh you know like Joe Biden it's a 39
00:13:14
approval rating I I wanted to I'm going to say what I've said publicly in other
00:13:20
venues Joe should either step aside and be like Mitt Romney he should say look let's have a real primary and anyone who
00:13:27
wants can run let's have debates and then I will Vanquish you all and then you'll see I've still got it or I lose
00:13:31
and then someone else has it or at a minimum have a primary for who his vice president should be because uh if you
00:13:38
have an 82 year old like the odds of your Veep taking over are pretty significant and people aren't feeling
00:13:44
Kamala so it's like look just like say hey Kamala like defend your spot against
00:13:49
you know all the other and then oh my gosh holy cow would every Dem be like oh I want I want that oh that one and
00:13:56
everyone listening to this if you're running a business organization uh and it was at all healthy you would do one
00:14:01
of these three things what do you want people when they read the last election really to take away do
00:14:07
you hope uh I want them to think wow is this realistic it is could it happen it could
00:14:15
and if I want to do something about it what should I do uh and one of the things I'm going to suggest again is uh
00:14:22
the two parties do not have our backs they're crumbling before our eyes and there needs to be A New Path a new
00:14:28
alternative but there also just needs to be a better system if you had something
00:14:31
like ranked Choice voting problem solved as it is that the two parties are just going to try and Bully us into
00:14:37
submission and they're going to deliver very very bad results because if you
00:14:41
have candidates that two-thirds of Americans do not like someone's gonna run I mean like you know nature of
00:14:47
course a vacuum business of course a vacuum and a country of 330 million if you offer us two
00:14:53
terrible choices someone's going to run Andrew great to meet you thanks very
00:14:59
much for your time all the best with the book fantastic thanks and go PA you really
00:15:04
are going to decide things and we are inside the future trust me we're getting
00:15:08
ready for what could be an amazing next next turn off your TVs too don't just
00:15:12
turn off your social media turn off your TVs thanks Andrew great luck with the book all the best thank you Dan
00:15:18
appreciate it you got a former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang the book by the way as we mentioned
00:15:23
co-authored with Stephen Marsh is titled the last election all right great thank you sir thanks Dan
00:15:30
appreciate it nice to meet you all about you too