Andrew Yang’s Forward Party is dead. In its place, rises… the Party forward but with Republicans. In this newly announced mega-group, simply called Forward, Yang is joined as co-chairman of the hopeful third-party candidate by former New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. Former Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., and former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor are also involved in the new project, which aims to upend America’s two-party system.
But reading their moderation manifesto, I’m bound to wonder if their supposed outside-the-box thinking is really thinking inside a much bigger box? If so, does this amalgamation, this neutron star born of a collapsed political spectrum, go far enough in its mission? Or do we need to move past the tired idea they’ve been clinging to, that a “third party” is what it takes to shake up our system? The answer becomes clear once you take Forward’s views to their obvious terminus: What America really needs to grow and prosper is a Fourth to party.
Yes, it’s true that Forward “doesn’t have a specific policy yet,” as Reuters reported on Wednesday. It is truly a blank slate on the issues facing the United States, ready to plant its flag in whatever a majority of Americans believe in the latest poll. This suits a party that sees “moderation” and “centrism” as fundamental principles. Only by comparing himself to the positions of the other two parties will he ever be able to know what he believes, as described in a Washington Post op-ed outlining the party’s vision.
What America really needs to grow and prosper is a fourth party.
“On guns, for example, most Americans don’t agree with far-left calls to confiscate all guns and repeal the Second Amendment, but they’re also rightly worried. of the far-right’s insistence on eliminating gun laws,” Yang, Jolly and Whitman wrote in the Post. “On climate change, most Americans disagree with calls from the far left to completely disrupt our economy and our way of life, but they also reject the far right’s denial that there is even has a problem. On abortion, most Americans disagree with extreme far-left views on late-term abortions, but they are also alarmed by the far-right’s quest to make a woman’s choice a criminal offence.
Not once do they seek to clarify what the middle ground position on each of these issues actually is and how that differs from what the Democratic Party is offering. They do not note the popularity of each of the ideas they list within either party, nor that “late abortion” is not a medically accepted term. They do not bother to point out that the far right has a party firmly in its grip while the “far left” views they list are not embraced by any of the party leaders. And even this quagmire of ambiguity is not enough to decouple this new party from the divisions that deepen each day.
The problem with Forward is that it is still limited in its degree of inclusiveness. America needs a fourth party, one that doesn’t just hide in the center, catering to the median voter; a party that is truly universal and does not shy away from embracing literally every aspect of an issue. Think of the multiverse diversions of “everything, everywhere, all at once,” but with the unlimited possibility of politics going through a single party.
A fourth party will bridge the divides by including both the far right and the far left under its umbrella, championing even the most contradictory views in the name of unity and freedom. American voters deserve nothing less than the “I don’t know, all you want for dinner is fine with me” of politics. They demand the most “meh” of options, like choosing between a warm salad and a sandwich where one side is the heel of the bread. Americans don’t need “leaders” with “detailed ideas” and “specific policy goals that guarantee the basic rights of every American.” They need whatever makes them feel least uncomfortable putting their own interests first.
As Yang’s hero Abraham Lincoln understood, a house divided among itself cannot stand. That’s why Lincoln and his running mate, Andrew Johnson, showed up on a third ticket in 1864, a move that had absolutely no negative consequences. Lincoln knew that only by trying to please literally everyone at all times can politicians heal our wounded country and make this ruined house a home.
To do this, we must avoid the kind of biased and binary labels that permeate our politics at all levels: left and right; conservative and liberal; racist and non-racist; basic human dignity and encroaching fascism. Only then can our country get back on track.
A fourth party would transcend politics by being truly apolitical.
A fourth party would transcend politics by being truly apolitical. For example, it would examine the divide on the issue of transgender rights and correctly diagnose that trans people clearly exist and should be allowed to thrive in peace. But it would also see that maybe we just shouldn’t talk about it in public, like never before. A firm wave of our fingers to anyone who disagrees with either side of this matter would be appropriate. A big tent requires a big rug to sweep away all the pesky problems in life in the name of civility.
This fourth party could be a real hotbed for all disgruntled independents who want the Democratic Party to be just a little more libertarian and the Republican Party to be a little less vocal about letting kids go hungry instead of raise taxes on the rich. . It can be a place for members of the pro-business community who are tired of former President Donald Trump and members of the pro-business community who are tired of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A fourth party can be a place where wealthy donors are free to fire their money at a monthly rate that suits their own individual hedge fund holdings.
America is at a turning point. It is only through bold and daring inaction that our great experiment can hope to survive. Yang and his former GOP cohorts are thinking too small in their attempt to replace the status quo with an equal status quo. We must fully commit to a policy of treating even the most abhorrent ideas as legitimate speech and respecting all lives devoted to twirling towards freedom. Only then will we live in a country where all Americans can feel the smug sense of superiority that comes with voting for a candidate who has no chance of winning.