Andrew Yang’s announcement on the creation of a new, centrist third party has been met with mixed reaction online, with followers of American politics pondering the party’s chances in November, and wondering aloud about which of the two major parties the new political force is designed to steal votes from.
Yang, a former Democratic Party candidate for president who made waves during the 2020 primaries with his $1,000 universal basic income "Freedom Dividend" proposal, rolled out the new party – called "Forward," on Wednesday, promising that the coalition of former Republicans, Democrats, and independents would offer people a real alternative to the big two parties.
Yang is the party’s co-chair, with Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, serving as its other co-chair.
The United States has been run by a two-party duopoly since the 1790s, with the modern Democratic-Republican dichotomy emerging in the 1850s. An independent candidate has not held the White House since the Millard Fillmore presidency of 1850-1853, and only eight non-affiliated politicians have held state governorships since the 1930s.
Yang hopes to change all that, or so he says.
“About 10 months ago, I left the Democratic Party. I did so because I knew the country needed a new kind of party to help realign our politics and reverse the polarization that is tearing our country apart,” the politician wrote in a blog post on Wednesday announcing the new party.
Boasting the party’s plans to make it to the ballot in 15 states by November, and all 50 states by 2024, Yang stressed that “it’s time to deliver a new approach to party politics millions of Americans have been waiting for – Forward!”
“What is the main objection you hear to third parties? ‘They can’t compete’. Well, we are demonstrating that we can generate the resources necessary to elevate and elect candidates around the country with the support of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of dollars of grassroots funding,” he added.
Forward merges the Renew America Movement, which was created in 2021 by dozens of ex-Republican officials from the Reagan, Bush, and Trump administrations, Yang’s Forward movement, as well as the Serve America Movement – a bipartisan group brought together by former GOP Congressman David Jolly, an avowed never-Trump Republican.
The new party plans a series of events this fall to explain its platform and garner support, and has announced a formal rollout in Houston, Texas on September 24. A national convention is scheduled for the summer of 2023.
A Suffolk University/USA Today poll published Thursday found that some 60 percent of Americans support the creation of a third party or parties, with just 25 percent saying they were satisfied with the current two party arrangement.
However, observers remain divided about whether Yang and Forward are up to the task, with some complaining about the non-viability of national third parties in the US’s gerrymandered first-past-the-post electoral system, or pointing to the existence of other third parties, such as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Others still simply voiced hopes for what a third party alternative should be like. “All I want is a party that isn’t super dumb about economic stuff while also not being super dumb about social stuff. Mild Competency and not totally corrupt would be good too,” Dogecoin creator Billy Markus wrote. ""Not totally corrupt?' - Now you're asking for too much," one person responded.