Introducing Andrew Yang

I wrote this short speech on January 30 to introduce Andrew Yang at his town hall in Dubuque, Iowa. Photo by Marc Klockow of my delivering it.

If you're Yang Gang, there's a good chance you know who I am, and if you're Yang Curious, you're probably wondering, who the heck is this guy? Well, I'm a guy who's been pushing for universal basic income for seven straight years now, and I'm here to tell you, the Freedom Dividend is the most important policy of the 21st century, and Andrew Yang is the only candidate who knows that. Andrew knows this is about Amazon, data, and robots, but he also knows this is about poverty, security, and humanity.

We need to ask the question, "What is America for?" We founded this country on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and over two centuries later, we have yet to live up to these ideals. Do we truly recognize the right to life so long as we don't all have the money we need to live? Do we have liberty if through a lack of money, we lack the power to say no to those who don't lack money? Do we have the ability to even think about pursuing happiness so long as mere survival is all we can think about?

It cannot be overstated how important this election is. On Monday, you have the power to help return power to the people to a truly historic degree. If this were the 18th century, Andrew would be the guy talking about this idea called democracy while everyone else was debating who would be the better king or queen.

I'm not exaggerating. An Andrew Yang presidency will be as transformative as when we chose self-governing over the divine right of kings. We need to remember there are no kings here. This country is ours. All of ours. It belongs to We the People. Democracy was a reallocation of power in a time of kings. The Freedom Dividend is a reallocation of power in a time of billionaires. The Freedom Dividend is not free money. It's freedom. It's freedom from poverty, freedom from abusive relationships, and the freedom to start dreaming again.

I want that freedom for everyone and so there is no human being on this planet who I'd rather see in the White House than Andrew, so please now welcome my friend, and the 46th President of these United States, Andrew Yang!

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