Are You ‘Third-Party-Curious’? Andrew Yang and David Jolly Would Like a Word.

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years, hopeful reformers have touted the promise of third parties as an antidote to our political polarization. But when so many of the issues that voters care about most — like abortion, or climate change, or guns — are also the most divisive, can any third party actually bring voters together under a big tent? Or will it just fracture the electorate further? Today’s guests say it’s worth it to try. Andrew Yang and David Jolly are two of the co-founders of the Forward Party, a new political party focused on advancing election reform measures, including open primaries, independent redistricting commissions in every state and the widespread adoption of ranked choice voting. Yang is a former Democratic candidate for president and a former Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City. Jolly is a former Republican congressman and executive chairman of the Serve America Movement. Together, they joined Jane Coaston live onstage at the Texas Tribune Festival to discuss why they’ve built a party and not a nonprofit, what kinds of candidates they want to see run under their banner and what Democrats are getting wrong in their midterm strategy right now. (A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the argument.
0:03.7	I'm Jane Coulson.
0:09.0	Today's episode is a little different.
0:11.0	It's a live conversation I had recently, with Andrew Yang and David Jolly, to talk about
0:16.4	their new venture, the Forward Party.
0:18.6	It's their answer for Democrats and Republicans who aren't happy with their current party.
0:24.4	And you know what, I can see the appeal of third parties.
0:27.7	I'm actually a registered libertarian, though I'm starting to feel not very good about it.
0:34.8	Even as a third party enthusiast, though, I was skeptical.
0:39.1	See, third parties, for many reasons, haven't gotten very far when it comes to actually
0:44.1	getting things done in the national stage.
0:46.8	You've never had a constitution party president, for example.
0:50.8	And the Forward Party has a lot of ideas about changing how we vote, but no broader platform
0:56.4	to vote on.
0:58.1	Andrew Yang is a former candidate for president in 2020 and candidate for mayor of New York
1:03.2	City in 2021 and co-chair of the Forward Party.
1:07.2	David Jolly is a former Republican congressman and executive chairman of the Serve America
1:11.7	movement, which merged with the Forward Party.
1:14.8	Here's our conversation.
1:15.8	Hello, everyone.
1:16.8	Oh, we got a call in response.
1:18.8	I love that energy.
	...

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