This article has about 3 dozen tweets about Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang I compiled in real time during the Democratic Debates on November 20th, 2019. I’ve grouped the tweets by 6 main topics:
- #LetYangSpeak – Andrew Yang had the least speaking time during the debate, and didn’t get asked a question until minute 33.
- International Relations – Yang was asked one question on this, and he answered with a zinger, then a thoughtful response.
- Raising Kids / Parenting
- Racism and White Nationalism
- Challenges of the 21st Century (Andrew Yang’s forte)
- Potpourri – you’re in my thoughts, Alex!
#LetYangSpeak
Andrew Yang has been the bottom of the pack for speaking time in every democratic debate he’s participated in. Some reasons make sense; debate rules allow for rebuttals so the more attacking people do, the more sparring there is. Since Yang talks about issues largely outside of the typical political banter he rarely gets in tiffs with other candidates.
More concerning though is the lack of questions by the debate hosts. In this debate, he was the last candidate asked a question. This first question was 33 minutes into the debate.
This last tweet is by this author, and includes a screen grab from the New York Times debate coverage:
International Relations
One of the biggest zingers of the night was from Yang. He was asked what we will say to Vladimir Putin on their first call once he is elected…
Yang was able to work in some non-Russia international relations commentary in other answers. Here’s an example:
Parenting and Raising Kids
Racism and White Nationalism
What was revelatory about Andrew Yang’s responses here is that he spoke to the root of white nationalism – disenfranchised young men. He advised that if we can solve this problem we’ll undermine these racist movements before they start. Mother Jones magazine even tweeted a link to the research behind this strategy.
Challenges of the 21st Century
Andrew Yang’s stump speech and most recent book, The War on Normal People, revolves around how the 4th industrial revolution and its automation are displacing workers. Most alarmingly he brought up the threat of China having the potential to advance ahead of the US on the artificial intelligence (AI) front, which will (if we allow it to happen) have major geopolitical ramifications that could hurt the US.
Potpourri
Through the debate there was a a number of people who simply shouted interest or encouragement or other commentary on Twitter.
If you’re already #YangGang, thank you for visiting my site! Let’s secure that bag!
If you’re new to my site and Andrew Yang, here’s some additional articles I wrote wherein you can learn more about Yang.