Forward in PA!

Hello, I hope all is great!  On Tuesday I attended the Cure concert where I met one of my childhood idols.   Then on Wednesday, I was a part of political history. 

In Harrisburg, PA two state senators – Anthony Williams and Lisa Boscola – signed up to become affiliates of the Forward Party!  With press and the public in attendance, they signed a pledge to work together with us and those who want to restore genuine pluralism and the ability to work with people of diverse party backgrounds. 

Their reasons were both personal and familiar.  Said Senator Williams, “The people I represent don’t care about politics, they’re just trying to heat their homes.  We’re not different teams, we’re all Americans and we’re supposed to represent the people that send us here!” 

Senator Lisa Boscola said, “I’ve been serving the people of Pennsylvania for decades.  They just want us to work together and get things done.  I’ve been the same person, but politics have become more and more divisive, and we need real leaders to turn it around.” 

It was a phenomenal event that has the potential to change politics nationwide.  Pennsylvania is an evenly divided swing state with a narrowly divided legislature – imagine a dozen state legislators from both parties that are committed to true pluralism and finding solutions, as well as reform measures like ranked choice voting and open primaries.  That could be pivotal. 

What’s happening in Pennsylvania could also be a template around the country.  There are hundreds of state legislators and officeholders in other states who are aligned with our goals and are looking for a way to improve our political incentives.  They will look at what Senator Williams and Senator Boscola did and think, “That’s what I want to do too!”    

We are succeeding in identifying a coalition of both voters and officeholders who want to end the hostility and hate toward people of another party or tribe and come together.  Being American or a good person doesn’t reside in one party or another.  Let’s make it safe for our leaders to make this case. 

Senator Boscola said, “A ton of the people I represent aren’t so much political, they’re independents.”  She’s right.  And she’s willing to act on her principles. 

There are others like Senator Boscola and Senator Williams.  Let’s find them and make it easier for them to do what they want.  Our future depends on it. 

Donate to Forward today to help us back Senator Williams and Senator Boscola and others like them!  With your help, we can make it safer for leaders to do right by all of us instead of just toeing the party line.  

Texas is Moving

What a week! 
 
I visited Dallas, Austin and Houston this past week to meet with Forward Party leaders and those who want to build a brighter future in the Lone Star State.  I met with people who had just arrived in the state a few years ago to those who have been there for generations. 

Everywhere I went, there was a massive appetite for change.  People know that politics in Texas is not serving them and isn’t representative of what most want.  The current political system is dividing the state up into noncompetitive red and blue zones, suppressing popular will.    
 
Yet there is a path; 43% of local races in Texas go uncontested and the majority of county seats, school board seats and other posts are nonpartisan.  If we take our blue and red hats off and make common cause, we can give rise to a new force in Texas that doesn’t subscribe to the ideological back and forth that serves to divide us rather than solve problems.    
 
You know how many Texans it takes to start a new major party?  82,000.  That’s very doable.  With that many people signed up, candidates could run for any post in the state under a new banner that doesn’t turn 50% of people off from the get-go.  People would have to listen to the candidate and regard them as an individual rather than just a team jersey. 
 
At the same time, the Forwardists of Texas will back reform-minded Democrats and Republicans who back measures like Ranked Choice Voting.  We are open-minded and practical; many people who have joined Forward remain registered Democrats and Republicans. 
 
Will this be easy?  No.  But imagine running 50 candidates in local races and having 10 of them win.  And then do it again.  Before you know it, you have a real coalition of change-making leaders who can be a fulcrum at every level. 
 
I came away from Texas 100% confident that there is an enormous need and hunger for reform.  The people who joined Forward at these events were phenomenal.  Our state leaders are revved up.  I’ll be back in September and I expect the movement will only be bigger and stronger.   
 
Does this sound like you?  Please do check out TexasForwardParty.org to connect with the incredible people in Texas fighting for a better future.  Even signing up for the mailing list will be a plus. 
 
What is the path toward better politics in Texas? 
 
It’s not left or right, but Forward.  Let’s lead the way.   

In a Bad State

One of the biggest stormclouds on the horizon for the US economy is empty office buildings.
 
$1.5 trillion in commercial mortgages will come due in the next two years – and midtown Manhattan office buildings have a reported 50% utilization rate according to Barbara Corcoran.  If you walk the downtowns of New York, DC or San Francisco, the foot traffic remains low as office workers have shifted to remote or hybrid. 

This has dire portents for regional banks, which hold 70% of bank-held commercial mortgages.  It also signals rough times ahead for city and state budgets, which rely on taxes on office buildings that are about to fall in value. 
 
What happens when the federal money runs out and cities and states have to tighten their belts?  That’s one of the main questions considered by David Schleicher, Yale Law Professor and author of “In a Bad State:  Responding to State and Local Budget Crises,” whom I interview on the podcast this week.  City and state budgets have been flush since 2020, when the federal government sent out billions in aid packages.  But that money is, in many cases, being clawed back, spent, or has already been committed to new programs. 
 
“When you have to bailout a city or state, you’re left with three choices,” David says.  “I call it a trilemma.  One, you can bail them out with federal money.  The problem is that everyone thinks that cities and states that get into trouble will get bailed out, which leads to bad behavior both from politicians who will continue to overspend and lenders who give them access to money.  Two, you can choose austerity.  The problem there is that you will cut workers and services, generally when things are already going badly, which makes a bad time worse.  Three, you can default on the debt.  This raises the cost of lending to cities and states, who build virtually all of our infrastructure.” 
 
“In our history, we’ve done all three,” David comments.  His book details how the US has handled local budget crises in the past, from Hamilton assuming state debts in the 1830s to Detroit’s managed bankruptcy and Puerto Rico today.  His argument is that there are ways to mitigate the downsides of each of these approaches with elements like conditional aid that push more responsible accounting and behavior.  “If each approach has a major problem, you can do a little of each: a little bailout, a little austerity, a little default.”  He uses Detroit as an example, where there was a bankruptcy but also state and philanthropic aid immediately afterwards. 
 
David cautions that states and cities are often set up to be vulnerable fiscally by what he describes as their ‘broken politics.’  “The central problem of state and local politics is that they lack functional popular politics.  Most voters know little and care less about state politics, with state elections outside of gubernatorial races largely serving as referenda on the president of the United States.  The lack of broad public engagement with state politics leaves state and local politicians in hock to the narrow set of voters and lobbying groups who dominate low-information elections like legislative primaries or off-cycle local elections . . . state and local officials do not seek, and do not receive, a public mandate from ordinary voters.  They are instead responsive to narrow and unrepresentative groups of voters and interests.” 
 
Basically, local politicians have to listen to special interests because they're the only ones paying attention.  That leads to financial precarity over time.  Who would make a tough call for the public good that antagonizes a powerful interest group?    

As David put it in his recent piece in the Atlantic, “We have ignored state and local politics, assuming that everything will work out fine.  Once federal cash stops flowing and budgets worsen, the costs of having done so will be all too clear.  Whether and how we respond are up to us.”  

Sounds like a challenge worth responding to. 
 
Want to improve local politics?  Check out Forward in your state!  For my interview with David click here. 

The First Review

The first review for ‘The Last Election’ is in and it is great!! The book got a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly:

Former Democratic presidential candidate Yang (The War on Normal People) teams up with novelist Marche (The Hunger of the Wolf) to craft a frighteningly plausible “what-if” scenario in this taut political thriller . . . Yang and Marche masterfully ratchet the tension to near-unbearable levels. The outcome, in this worthy 21st-century update of the 1962 classic Seven Days in May, is just possible enough to give readers nightmares.

As an author, you always are eager for the first bit of feedback. The Last Election is a new format for me as my first novel. I thought that a narrative would be a compelling way to convey a message as to what’s to come, and how we can improve on it. I’m excited to get this story out into the world.

The Last Election comes out on September 12th - you can pre-order your copy directly from the publisher here. Use the discount code LASTELECTION for 30% off and I’ll sign all pre-ordered copies. My plan is to go to the publisher’s office for a day in August with a few sharpies. ;)

Here not taking our elections for granted,

The Presidential Field Forms

The past week was a big week for the Presidential field. Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Doug Burgum declared as Republicans. Chris Sununu decided against a run. Cornel West also declared in the People’s Party as a 3rd party candidate. And of course Trump was indicted by the DOJ for mishandling classified documents.

In the short run, other Republican candidates are rallying to Trump’s side while hoping his legal troubles make him seem increasingly unelectable in the general election.

People aren’t giving any of the 3 new Republican candidates much hope. I agree on Mike Pence – it’s very hard to see the appeal of someone who was Trump’s loyal sidekick only to break with the base and strike out on his own against his old boss. The evangelical base will be split among a number of candidates and Pence’s base is unclear.

Some feel the same way about Chris Christie. I was on a panel with Chris Christie a number of months ago and I think he can contribute a lot to the race. Unlike some others, he’s done this before. He fills a room. He has a mission. He’s tough, battle-hardened and can crack a joke. And he has been gearing up to give it to Trump on a debate stage for literally years.

Having been on the debate stage myself, it’s an odd environment. Most people will come across as phony or rehearsed if they mount an attack. Chris Christie will seem entirely natural. That will go a very long way. He’s going to have all sorts of memorable exchanges – if he gets there.

The first Republican debate is on August 23rd – the criteria to make it are 1% in 3 polls and 40,000 individual donors. Only 5 candidates seem assured of making the first debate: Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, and Scott. Christie should make the polling but will struggle to get 40,000 individual donors in 10 weeks.

Doug Burgum has a fascinating profile; he sold Great Plains Software out of North Dakota to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001 and stayed there through 2007. 9 years later he ran for Governor as an outsider and won twice. He has a combination of vast wealth and political experience that could make him a factor if everything clicks. His campaign video seemed tailor made for Iowa in particular.

Money has a ton of advantages. You don’t have to waste time fundraising; other candidates will disappear from the trail regularly to hit the money centers. You can hire a top-notch team. You can spend online to grow the following. But money also is a barrier to support in that no one wants to give to the campaign and candidate that is super rich.

Burgum, like Christie, will have a tough time getting 40,000 donors by August 21 and he will probably struggle to get 1% in polls too. He at least has some fans in North Dakota as the current governor that can give him a boost to his donor numbers.

Chris Sununu, like Larry Hogan before him, saw this field and thought that he’d be splitting the anti-Trump vote. Look for Chris to try and help non-Trump candidates wherever he can. The conventional wisdom is it’s Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and everybody else. Other candidates will be trying to break into the conversation.

On the Democratic side there will be no debates even as RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson climb in the polls. And now Cornel West is running with the People’s Party.

One thing that most people don’t realize – in most states it’s a lot easier to run for President as an Independent candidate than it is on a party line. Cornel is making a very specific choice, as People’s Party has to get on the ballot for someone to vote for Cornel.

Forward Party is going through a similar process trying to get party recognition and ballot access around the country. We have party recognition in six states, executive committees in twelve and state chapters in forty-eight. If you’d like to sign up to help, click here. We would love for you to join our efforts!

I sometimes catch wind of what different candidates are going to do; some of them call me up to take my temperature ahead of time. I’ve heard from several others who are considering running. I didn’t know Cornel was declaring until the day of. This probably means that more candidates are on the way. Trump’s second indictment makes that all the more likely.

Want better from our politics? Check out Forward Party today!

The Writers Strike

When I wrote “The War on Normal People” a number of years ago, I was deeply concerned about the impact AI would have on all sorts of jobs.

One job I didn’t talk about much is writers – yet the Writers’ Guild of America strike is very much now on the frontlines of what is happening with new technologies. The strike was initially thought of as the Streaming Strike because of writers being compensated more poorly with the shift to streamers. But now AI is front and center as studios want to retain the right to use the technology to produce scripts. Writers understandably want to restrict the use of AI and its ability to develop models based on their work. “This town is going to be leveled by AI” is how one friend in LA put it to me. That’s in part what the writers are going on strike to prevent.

There are about 11,500 writers in the writing strike.  This week on the podcast I interview one of them, Michael Jamin, a showrunner and writer for such shows as King of the Hill, Beavis & Butthead, and Just Shoot Me (I’m a big Mike Judge fan).  “It takes a while to become a good writer.  You learn a lot from the veterans in the room.  You need to spend time not just in the writers’ room but on set if you’re ever going to run a show,” Michael comments. 

Michael continues, “We want to make sure that writing continues as a profession.  It’s gotten harder and harder for anyone to make a living as there are fewer episodes per season with the streamers.  They’ve also put in mini-rooms where they have you write scripts that may or may not be used and say, ‘we should pay you less because we might not use these.’  Our argument is, if I go into a grocery store can I pay less because I might throw the banana away?  It takes the same amount of work to make it whether you use it or not.”     
 
There’s a notion that Hollywood writers are all rich.  I can say with authority that that’s not true, as I know a few of them.  “A lot of us don’t know where the next gig is going to come from.  Some people have other jobs to tide them over.”  Even some writers with noteworthy credits are essentially on the edge. 
 
That said, the writers seem very determined.  The last strike in 2007 went on for 100 days.  How long might this one last?  “Keep in mind it’s not just the writers who are going without pay due to the strike.  It’s the caterers, the set decorators and carpenters, the countless small businesses that benefit from a film shoot.  This is disrupting a lot of lives.”  The content pipeline would really dry up if the Actors join the strike later this year; SAG-AFTRA is voting to authorize a strike right now. 
 
The media landscape is being quickly transformed as tech firms grow in prominence; Amazon and Apple essentially have major studios stapled onto them as marketing arms, and the content producers are competing for finite attention and dollars.  They want to manage their costs.  On the other side are the writers.  What role will human creativity play in the future of storytelling?  I told Michael that good writing is what distinguishes the good shows from the not-so-good ones; who will be doing the writing in the future?  And if the most skilled creatives are in danger of being commoditized in the 21st century economy, who is safe? 
 
We essentially turned a blind eye when automation came for manufacturing and industrial workers.  It’s coming for more and more of us.  The Writers are an unusual group to be on the frontlines of the tug-of-war between tech-fueled efficiencies and humanity, but here they are.  They’ll have more company soon.    
 
For my interview with Michael, click here.  For my book “The War on Normal People” click here.  To join Forward to humanize our economy, click here.  

Testimony

Hello!  I hope that you are celebrating Memorial Day weekend with family and friends.  
 
The Republican primary is heating up with Trump as the frontrunner.   A significant proportion of his supporters are evangelical Christians.  Why do so many evangelicals support Trump despite any number of controversies? 

Jon Ward, the chief national correspondent for Yahoo News, tries to answer this question in his deeply personal new book, “Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation.”  It’s personal because Jon grew up evangelical himself in the suburbs of Maryland.  
 
Jon is the son of a pastor.  His parents kept him out of the local public school as too secular and prone to bad values.  Jon went to a church school through sixth grade, was homeschooled for two years and then attended a Christian high school.  “Christians established their own communities, educational institutions, and music festivals, isolated from the rest of the world,” Jon writes.  He recalls being part of pro-life protests as a young child.  
 
Not that he was unwilling; “I was still under the spell of my upbringing, which had taught me there was nothing to think about.  Just vote GOP.  This dismissal of thinking carefully was based on the notion that because Democrats support abortion, voting for any Democrat was unthinkable.”  That simplicity was later challenged when he “met more actual Democrats who were real people and who were doing good in the world.”  
 
Indeed, his work as a journalist with Yahoo, the Huffington Post and the Washington Times brought him into contact with thousands of people in a multitude of different environments.  It broadened his sense of texture and complexity.  
 
And then came the rise of Trump.  Jon understood Trump’s appeal on a gut level.  “Trump blew up the rules, ditched the media, and millions of Americans loved it.  And I get it.  How could I not?  I had grown up deep inside the world that said the media was out to get us.”  Of course, as a member of the media now himself Jon had quite a different perspective.  
 
Jon details arguments he’d have with his family over Trump.  Here, he believes that, at least for some, faith had lost to fear.  “Faith gave us courage to stick to our principles even if there was a cost.  Courage gave us the strength to engage lovingly and constructively with others who thought or believed differently from us.  Fear, on the other hand, drove us to withdraw and retreat from dialogue and cooperation with others who were not like-minded.  Fear would drive us to abandon our principles, to seek safety and protection at almost any cost, no matter who it hurt or how it reflected on our faith.”  
 
One thing that I have been consistently dismayed by is how often people are willing to caricature supporters of one candidate or another.  Perhaps it is because I’ve traveled the country so extensively to rural areas in the Midwest and the South, but I’ve always thought that most people are good and moral in any walk of life or town, blue or red.  
 
“Testimony” is a valuable book in explaining how so many Americans of faith were – and still are – willing to support a candidate who seems so anathema to many of their expressed values.  It ultimately is a call to avoid black and white binary ways of thinking, for people of faith or anyone else.  “Christians should become agents of nuance rather than of reductionism.”  
 
He writes, “[T]ruth-seekers don’t search for battles outside themselves to win.  Instead, they examine their own point of view, searching for holes, weaknesses, errors . . . Journalism has made me more of a Christian, a better Christian.  It has exposed me to the richness and complexity of life and has led me into the adventurous pursuit of truth that has durability, integrity and honesty . . . It is to live a life of curiosity and wonder.”  
 
To hear Jon's story, click here.  For Jon’s book click here.  To move our politics beyond one side vs. the other, click here.  

A Rockstar Joins Forward

Some huge news came out this week – Krist Novoselic has joined the National Board of the Forward Party!  Krist co-founded Nirvana with Kurt Cobain – he’s the tall, good-looking one playing the guitar toward the back.  Nirvana sold more than 75 million records and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.  Also, seemingly every teenager wears a Nirvana T-shirt to this day. 

Krist is no stranger to political activism.  He was the chairman of Fairvote, an org championing Ranked Choice Voting, for 9 years and was the former chair of his local county Democratic Party.  He even wrote a book, “Of Grunge and Government: Let’s Fix this Broken Democracy.“

I’ve been in touch with Krist for a number of months, but our first meeting was last month in Seattle.  At 6 foot 5 inches tall, Krist is a very conspicuous figure.  He joined me in speaking to the Washington Forward Party, and agreed to join our efforts after meeting the local activists and volunteers in the state. 

I remember when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came out in 1991 – it felt impactful immediately.  Nirvana and the Seattle grunge scene was the defining music for a generation.  It certainly shaped me, based on the oversized flannel shirts I wore for years. 

You would imagine that Krist might feel larger-than-life between his height and fame, but he’s extraordinarily down to earth.  He’s still making music in Seattle, most recently with musicians from Pearl Jam and Soundgarden as part of the supergroup 3rd Secret. 

“The only way you do anything is to become really active,” Krist says.  He also said, in another context: “I kind of discovered my voice for the first time, and the more I did it, the better it got.”

That’s a pretty good summary of what Forward is about.  Can we change the face of American politics?  Krist thinks we can – and he’s done it once already.   

To check out Forward Party click here.  More people join every day! 

Take Back Your Power

Are we holding ourselves back?  Deb Liu thinks that most of us are. 
 
Deb is the CEO of Ancestry, a multi-billion dollar genealogy company that enables people to identify and learn about their family trees.  She came to Ancestry as a senior executive and product manager at Facebook, PayPal and eBay.  She wrote a very compelling book:  “Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work” about her personal journey. 

“I was a very introverted child.  And I got bullied a lot growing up in South Carolina – I resented my parents for moving us there from Queens where I was born,” Deb relates.  “I thought that doing well at school was my path out of that town, so I resolved to be an excellent student.”  That kind of motivation fueled Deb’s ambition for years.  “I definitely had a chip on my shoulder.” 
 
Deb graduated with an engineering degree and was a top student, but found that her professional success required different skills and attributes.  “I thought it was about doing the work, which was the way I was brought up.  But a lot of it was about how you communicated the work you were doing and the relationships you built.  I learned that at the consulting firm I joined out of college.  Then, in business school I took a class that asked what I would do differently to achieve my goals.  I wrote down, ‘I will be an extrovert at work.’” 
 
This is quite a statement; most of us think of ourselves as having a certain nature, and that nature is not subject to change through a simple act of will.  Deb approached it differently.  “If I told you that you were going to Spain for work and you had to learn Spanish to succeed, wouldn’t you do it?  I approached being extroverted at work the same way, as something you need to develop in order to achieve your goals.” 
 
Deb recounts many painful experiences through work.  About beating herself up for expressing something imperfectly.  About being cut off by co-workers, only to have a sponsor intercede and tell others to make sure and give Deb and others the space to express themselves.  About reporting to a colleague that she didn’t get along with, whom she said, “I’d quit if I had to report to him,” only to be put in what you would consider professional marriage counseling because they had to make it work.  About becoming a product manager when fewer than 10% of others in that role were women and changing the rules as to what was required for the job.  “There was a technical requirement that didn’t necessarily help the organization actually perform well, but it was in place and no one questioned it even as it was clear that there were people, like me, who were excelling in the role without a computer science degree.”  And about being a female CEO of a multi-billion dollar firm and still being mistaken for an assistant periodically at conferences and other gatherings.  “For a while, you justify it and want to make other people comfortable.  But eventually you say, ‘you know what, it’s okay to make someone else a little uncomfortable.’”
 
I could relate to Deb’s account of being an introvert who had to push beyond it.  I too was a bookish child of immigrants.  I did the most extroverted thing that you can imagine: run for President of the United States.  I did it because I had a mission in mind that seemed much more important than my own discomfort.  Still, my team had to adjust to my nature; realizing, for example, that after a day of in-person events and interviews I would want some alone time to let my brain cool down. 
 
Deb is a Christian, and writes a lot about the idea of forgiveness.  But not just of our enemies or those who slight us - of ourselves.  “Forgiving yourself is often the hardest type of forgiveness,” she writes.  “Forgiveness creates its own power and soothes the pain of old wounds.  It allows us to break free of the hold the past has over us.”  I remember also berating myself when I was young; it was only after I was able to let things go that I started being a better friend and leader. 
 
Deb’s story is extraordinarily uplifting; she now has a thriving family with 3 children, a loving husband and a career that most wouldn’t have thought possible.  And still, she is finding new ways to make a difference.  “The ladder is infinite if you are willing to climb it, and there is never a top rung.”  All things are possible if you have a mission and can push beyond your comfort zone, and are working with the right people.
 
For my interview with Deb click here.  For a copy of her book click here.  For a better approach to our politics, check out Forward Party here. 

9 Ways Vivek Ramaswamy Can Beat Donald Trump

Ever since Vivek Ramaswamy declared his presidential run, people have been comparing him to me. And I get it. We’re both young (in political years in particular) with new ideas, tech-savvy, Asian and really, really good-looking.

I don’t agree with Vivek on a lot of things. I also don’t know him and haven’t spoken to him. But I vastly prefer him to, let’s say, the big orange frontrunner in the Republican field.

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