Hmm . . . Andrew Yang? It’s a “no” from me.

First, I need to make a disclaimer. I’ve never liked Andrew Yang. I may have liked him in the very beginning of his 2020 presidential run, but if I did, I’ve forgotten it. Let me clarify. I didn’t not like him and I didn’t like him, I just feigned positivity toward him because he was part of the progressive wing. However, when he dropped out of the presidential race and decided not to support Bernie Sanders, he became a corpse in my eyes. I didn’t feel betrayed by him the way I felt when Lizzzzzzzz left because I never liked him enough to feel betrayed, but I wasn’t buying what he was selling. My dislike was exacerbated when I saw an interview on the The Breakfast Club where Yang insinuated that he was promised a place in Biden’s cabinet in exchange for an endorsement from Yang. I have a snarl on my face as I type. To date, Yang does not have a cabinet position, but the fact that he would say that in public annoyed me on it’s face and because it’s ILLEGAL!

I don’t like to kick a dog when he’s down and right now Yang is undoubtedly down, but I have to do a little kicking because I’m in a mood after his apology for his initial statement supporting Israel’s aggression toward Palestine. I know it’s more than aggression. I digressed. I wasn’t especially annoyed by his initial statement on twitter. I thought it was callous and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why he would even comment on the situation in the midst of an election. New York is a diverse city, so I would assume the smartest position would be to zip it (it=his mouth and those twitter fingers) up so that no one is offended, but he supported Israel and I thought it was done. However, the part annoys me right now, is this apology. WHY? WHY? WHY? I’m so over the obligatory fake apology. No one needs it. You said what you said. Stand by what you say!!

Keep your apology!!! (Yes, three exclamation marks!!!) If Yang supports the oppressors, let him support the oppressors. If he doesn’t give two craps about Palestinian civilians dying, and we know he doesn’t, then he should stick to his beliefs! At least we know. I would have more respect for Yang if he would not have apologized. I still wouldn’t like him, but I wouldn’t think of him as a slimy politician who had the audacity to fake being a progressive to get on a national stage. The fake apology adds insult to injury. It says so many things, none of the things are positive. Andrew Yang’s ill crafted apology says the following to me:

1. He wasn’t informed on the complexity of the Israel v. Palestine conflict and he was so unaware of his own ignorance in the matter, that he made a public statement about it without doing a cursory check of the details or at the very least consulting anyone with more information before speaking about it publicly . . . and by speaking about it publicly, I mean writing it on twitter.
   
2. He doesn’t see Palestinians as humans. This is important for me because I believe the if any person has the capability to not see humanity in a specific group of humans, then more likely than not, they have a bias toward black people that will appear when they govern. These kind of people generally have no issues with the the “good negros”, but the rest of us are a problem.
   
3. He didn’t have either the forethought, or the desire to check with his publicist before issuing the fake apology. He didn’t pay someone to write a statement that doesn’t make people roll their eyes when they read it. People get paid to craft heart felt apologies for politicians. I don’t get paid to write them, but if I worked on his campaign, I would have had him write this, “I apologize for my previous tweet. My default position is to agree with Israel because we are allies with the Isreali government. However, I was not aware that the Human Right Office of the United Nations had called on Israel to halt evictions due to violations of international laws, nor was I aware of the number of Palestinian and Israeli civilians that had lost their lives when I published the tweet. In the future, I promise to gather essential information and to be mindful about the sensitive nature of complex international issues before making statements. Also, I was a dick for not endorsing Bernie Sanders and for that I am truly sorry.”

I’m getting sleepy. I was going to write a paragraph about how the disingenuous apology mirrors the disingenuous action that Yang showed by not endorsing the candidate who’s positions most aligned with his is 2020, but I’m going to live in 2021.

Overall, I just want Andrew Yang to be happy, but happy as a private citizen who doesn’t make policy decisions because we don’t need more politicians like him. At the very, least, he doesn’t need to label himself as a progressive if he’s going to act like a corporate democrat, which I think is just a democrat. We need politicians who believe in real issues, who are intelligent enough to research complex issues before making damaging public statements and who are humble, yet courageous enough to admit that they don’t have enough information to come to an informed, non-biased decision. Can you imagine how awesome the world would be if politicians had courage and integrity? The thought makes me smile. I’m digressing, but we as citizens also have to let politicians tell us that they don’t know without bashing them, so that they are not forced into lying. Think about it: if one politician is honest and one politician is lying, the liar will always win unless people are mature enough to accept the truth, but that’s another issue.

#sigh

I feel better now. I needed to vent.

In conclusion, if Andrew Yang would like to make the world a better place, I think he should start a non-profit and start there, but we don’t need him adding to the noise of lying, disingenuous politicians. We have enough of them. If the people of New York City elect him as their mayor, I hope he proves me wrong. #StrangerThingsHaveHappens Can we say off world vehicles?