Says the guy supporting the guy who is telling us about all his big plans (with lol zero details) but won’t get rid of the filibuster.
And everyone can stfu about this being him buying votes or this being a campaign finance violation. That doesn’t come close to making sense. He’s giving it a hundred families. This isn’t politicians buying votes in eastern Ohio in the late 1800’s lol. God forbid a candidate give any money to normal people instead of media conglomerates.
It definitely had a gimmicky feel to it, especially to political junkies.
But his goal was to get his message out to more people who have never heard of him and get them to go to his website. I think 90% of the emails they captured were new. Mission accomplished.
Spend millions on adds, no big deal.
Hire a consultant for 6 figures, go for it.
Give $1000 a month to 12 families for a year ($120,000) to show the positive effects of UBI:
He CaNt Do ThAt He Is BuYiNg VoTeS!?!?!?!?
It was a little gimmicky, but eh. I think he was doing what he had to do to get more eyes, since the MSM really doesn’t cover him that much.
Honestly, I thought Yang did fine, except for the super-cringy comment about knowing doctors because he’s Asian.
you guys sign up for the UBI sweepstakes? Man if I win my interview with the Yang campaign is going to be lit. Did the UBI help me? You bet my man, now instead of saving 500 bucks a month in my Vanguard taxable account I save 1500 bucks a month. Changed my life bro.
Apparently the Yang raffle is clearly in violation of election laws but since the FEC doesn’t have a quorum, there’s nothing they can do to stop him. Anyway, great democracy we have here, looking forward to the general election.
You’re going to have to do more than hand wave the opinion of a bunch of journalists that it violates election laws when he’s stated that he consulted an attorney and it’s fine. It’s in a gray area for sure, but if it’s close to the limits of the letter of the law it’s for sure nowhere near violating the spirit of said law (which is about stopping people from buying votes, something that used to be extremely common earlier in our history).
Particularly since those journalists work for media organizations that make money through ad revenue. Obviously advertising companies won’t appreciate political candidates spending what they no doubt view as their money on things like raffles to the public lol. And to that I say fuck 'em.
yeah Andrew Yang being able to do a pilot program for UBI is for sure one of the most pressing problems with American democracy. HE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED
Will this do?
“Handing out money to individuals for their own personal use would seem to be a violation of campaign-finance law,” says Erin Chlopak, director of campaign finance strategy at the Campaign Legal Center and a former FEC attorney. “It’s hard for me to envision how taking campaign funds and just handing it out to individuals would not violate the personal use prohibition.”
Is funding academic studies that have paid participants explicitly against campaign finance laws? All kidding aside this is a letter of the law vs spirit of the law deal for me. I’ll admit that there’s a healthy part of me that doesn’t care if it’s legal or not. We should have done a lot more studies on this than we have by now.
It’s fine from my perspective to push norms in the current political meta. I’m really tired of Democrats acting like they have to abide by every single line in the Federal legal code while the GOP just goes out and does whatever the hell they want.
I definitely think being willing to do this kind of thing isn’t a bad thing for facing off vs Trump in the general for instance.
I mean call me Pollyanna but if a candidate can go onstage, openly announce that he’s going to break election laws and there’s nothing the FEC can do, that seems like a problem? You guys get that the 2020 election is gonna be Calvinball, right?
Yes. So let’s pick a nominee that’s ready to play instead of whine about the other guy playing it. All kidding aside Yang is on to something here… and the guy converts conservatives at a rate I’ve never seen from a Democrat before. Some absurd % of the YangGang are Trump voters. He’d roll Trump in a general election.
As FEC violations go this one is pretty damned minor too. It’s 120k. This is in a campaign where billions will be spent.
That’s exactly why this is a problem, Trump’s already sitting on $100 million and if there’s precedent set for candidates “funding academic studies” you can bet Trump 2020 will fund a shitload of “studies” in MN, WI, MI, PA, and FL.
My irony meter cant process a scenario where Republicans take campaign donations from the wealthy and redistribute it to the working class as an electoral strategy.
It’s political advertising. He’s paying ten families 12k each to share their experiences with his signature political position. It’s obviously not “personal use” – a candidate is certainly expected to pay a huge amount of their budget on advertising his candidacy.
Lol at thinking that Donald needs any excuses to play Calvinball in 2020. He’s going to refuse to leave the WH when he loses ffs. He’s highly likely to try to use the powers of the executive branch on his opponent like a third world dictator.
To expand on this: how is Yang giving $12,000 to ten families and then having them tell their stories any different from Yang giving 12k to ten social media influencers to promote his campaign?
Because they’re not employees of his campaign.
If they are obligated to tell their experience with the UBI experiment and have it publicized on behalf of the campaign then it seems like they are.
Don’t be silly. They’re gonna grift campaign donations from MAGA chuds and give it to friends or use it to pay off hookers.
