Hey Yang Gang,

Arthur the Editor here. I guess a few of you liked the year-end letter I wrote, so Ki Chong roped me into doing a newsletter once a month. This week I want to talk about the bizarro world we all experienced during Tuesday’s Democratic Debate…

The title is a horrible play on words of Frank Capra’s famous It’s a Wonderful Life, a film about a man who contemplates suicide before his guardian angel shows him what life would be like if he never lived. We got a version of that classic 1940s film on Tuesday night when the top six democrats debated on a stage absent of Andrew Yang. You could say the debate was conservative because each candidate was pretty happy with their place in the polls and didn’t want to disrupt it by risking a debate maneuver a few weeks out from Iowa. I was disappointed in the debate, but mostly because of what happened off-screen, in my social circle.

I’ve been into politics my whole life, so I actually host debate watch parties at my apartment (because I’m really cool). We’ve had dwindling attendance as the race has slugged on, but there’s a few people I check-in on after debates to get a read of how things are going. After Tuesday’s debate, three of them stick out: Robert, Agnes, and Malcom (I’ve changed their names and slight details).

Robert

I met Robert in college and we immediately shared an interest in big ideas. Robert was a “business” major, but he spent way more time talking about philosophy. He always placed a high value on the concept of novelty. He loved new experiences, weird food, and learning about different worldviews. The possibility of life was so exciting to him, but he was often disappointed by the restrictions that came from the corporate world and the inauthenticity of other people. Unsurprisingly, Robert has never been engaged in politics despite having a clear understanding of issues and their importance. I always thought he could achieve great things if he could surmount the hurdle of disappointments inherent in life.

In his senior year, Robert and I had one of those grand ponderings about existence that accidentally strayed into personal introspection. He talked about how he felt like he was on autopilot for most of his life, doing what his parents expected of him, and he was just now realizing he was graduating with $100,000 of student debt with no real career prospects or any hope of paying it off. He planned to become an English teacher in Asia, partly so he could travel, but mostly so he could leave all his debt in the United States and never come back. This was one of the smartest, most insightful, genuine people I had met in life and he was about to leave my community forever because the economics simply didn’t work for him.

When I told Robert about Andrew Yang, it was as if the life returned to his soul. Yang’s views on student debt and the Freedom Dividend meant Robert could regain control of his life. For the first time ever, he registered to vote in New York — planning to vote for Yang — but Robert didn’t watch the debate on Tuesday and when I checked-in he seemed checked-out.

“I guess he was never going to win,” he said.

Agnes

You could say I’ve known Agnes and her husband Walter my whole life. My parents met Agnes because she handled our insurance. This was apparently enough to launch a lifelong friendship. Agnes is from Poland and has this comical accent that’s endearing in social contexts but devastating in the professional world. She’s had difficulty making friends at work because her accent leads many of her co-workers to believe she’s stupid. Although she has a master’s degree in economics, her alma mater is in Poland, which most people equate to having no education at all. Agnes has experienced discrimination throughout her entire life in America. For example, in the mid-2000s she brought in a recording of her daughter’s high school play to which one co-worker remarked “Wow, the dubbing on this is incredible.” Agnes’ daughter was born and raised in the United States and only speaks English, the recording was not dubbed.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Agnes and Walter have never really liked Democrats. I’d say the majority of this comes from their history of escaping a communist country and feeling uneasy about the similarities present in the modern Democratic party.

After the great recession, the insurance industry began downsizing and Agnes’ job was soon threatened. She was transferred a few times before ultimately the company she’d been with her whole life terminated her. She was 58 years old with a foreign degree, poor interviewing skills, and a few years too young for social security. Agnes fell into a deep depression, health problems plagued her motivation, and she began to believe what she heard from co-workers her whole life: maybe she was stupid. She was unemployed for three years and eventually got a job as a cashier at a clothing store. She likes the social atmosphere, but privately admits she’s never felt part of a community in America, and everyone is just waiting for her to die.

Agnes has never voted for a Democrat in her life, but when she asked me about the presidential campaign, I told her I supported Andrew Yang. She was fascinated by his platform. Her initial skepticism about “socialism” was overcome when she thought about what $1,000 a month could do for her situation. She could volunteer at the library, take care of her empty nest home, support her children (her daughter is pregnant and due in August), and get by her final years before official retirement without worrying about losing her house or skipping the doctor to save money. Agnes was increasingly excited about Yang’s chances, but she didn’t watch the debate on Tuesday either.

“The Democrats would never let a guy like him win,” she said.

Malcom

I met Malcom in high school. We bonded over being outsiders in our adolescent lives. Malcom was immensely intelligent and intuitive, but he had difficulties with his family life and didn’t do well in school. As we all know from Yang, the majority of factors affecting a child’s education success exist outside the classroom. I never quite nailed-down what was holding Malcom back, and maybe it was because he was holding himself back more than anything else. He was a very independent person and knew how to advocate for himself, but he was directionless and didn’t know how to achieve his goals without running into roadblocks.

I lost touch with Malcom when I was in college. He chose not to go to university and tried to make his music work instead. He had some promise at first, but the returns diminished as his confidence waned. Instead of working on music, he did anything he could to get away from his parent’s house. He befriended people who didn’t mind having a random dude hang out in their house all day, which inevitably became a gateway to seedy individuals and drug abuse.

I know if my friend Malcom had graduated with a Freedom Dividend, he’d feel some ownership over his life choices. He could determine his own path through life, move out to the middle of nowhere, afford basic expenses, and figure out whatever he needed to do. He could reboot his confidence and reassess his ambitions. He wouldn’t need any additional help, because the empowerment that comes from controlling your own life would have been enough.

Malcom didn’t watch the debate on Tuesday either, because he died of a heroin overdose five years ago.

What I saw on the debate stage wasn’t a version of our politics without Yang, it was a simulation of our country without my friends —the simulation that led to Robert’s desperation, Agnes’ depression, and Malcom’s death. A cruel simulation where the dreams and passions of the human spirit are crushed into a quantity that’s either profited from or discarded.

Other Democratic candidates would say their campaign is meant to support my friends and their stories, but the reality is my friends have never felt that way. In this context, a defeatist attitude like “Andrew Yang can’t win,” isn’t merely signing off on Yang’s personal chances, it’s looking at the faces of people whose lives have been changed by this campaign and saying their experience doesn’t matter. It’s choosing to reject humanity’s potential because we got too caught up a media narrative about debate performances.

To many Yang Gang, Tuesday was a dour moment in this campaign. It was a glimpse of the world where Yang isn’t in the race, but that wasn’t real life. Yang had many polls where he polled over 5 percent — they just weren’t counted for the January debate. Yang is already halfway to qualifying for the February 7 debate. Tuesday was a simulation of what happens if we falter in our commitment or belief. We need to buckle up for Iowa and beyond Yang Gang, because tomorrow holds as much potential as humanity itself.

And this is the simulation where we win.

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This newsletter was written by Arthur Augustyn, a writer based in the New York area. Arthur was previously a politics, education, and business reporter before transitioning careers to strategic communications. You can visit his website www.featherruffler.com.

This newsletter was produced with the help of Ki Chong Tran who was born and raised in Los Angeles, but now lives in London with his wife and puppy. Besides the Yang Gang, he also loves blockchain technology and mixed martial arts.

This project is not affiliated with the official Yang2020 campaign, which can be found at yang2020.com.