Many of you have reached out—some in support and some in strong opposition—to the views expressed in yesterday’s Politico interview with Founding Co-Chair Andrew Yang. Andrew is an outspoken builder of this party; someone who is not afraid to take risks and to engage with every opportunity to grow our movement.
The interview, and the discussion surrounding it, gives us the opportunity to reaffirm who we are and to restate our values.
Forward is a grassroots, principles-based political party committed to advancing dignity, dynamism, and democracy. We are the only party building a movement to end the two-party’s stranglehold on our democracy, which has prevented meaningful change in this country that would actually solve the problems confronting Americans. The Republican and Democratic Parties are shedding members as they continue to take increasingly extreme, ineffective, and unpopular stances and fight for “solutions” that only satisfy the increasingly narrow special interest groups that have captured them.
No wonder Elon Musk’s poll showed that 80% of Americans want a third party!
That said, Forward will never be any one person’s party. It is a coalition of individuals and communities seeking a new direction in America’s political life. This coalition has been and will remain open to having conversations with anyone looking to improve the lives of Americans.
In this Politico interview yesterday, co-founder Andrew Yang laid out why the Forward Party exists, what we are aiming to accomplish, and what we need to do to break up the current system in order to save democracy for all Americans. Of course, the article comes with a sensational headline regarding Andrew’s outreach to Elon Musk through X. Politico seemed more interested in Musk-as-clickbait than in the reality that our political system is failing. Headlines are written to pique interest and outrage; I encourage you to read the whole article.
Every time Mark Cuban, Mike Bloomberg, Elon Musk—anyone with massive name ID and a huge following—engages in a discussion about the need for a new political party in America, it is good for Forward and good for the country. When we heard Musk call for a third-party, Andrew did the responsible thing, which was to reach out to educate Musk about our work at Forward. Outreach is not an endorsement. Outreach is taking seriously the plight of our nation.
A lack of conversation around meaningful political reform has gotten us into this mess and we are trying to start a national conversation about the way forward. When Musk called for a third party to emerge and pointed out that nearly 80% of Americans are calling for change, Andrew wanted to make sure Musk knew Forward has been building an alternative to the two legacy parties for four years and to remind America that choice is coming. It was Andrew raising his hand and saying, “Hey, we are here. We have been building a third party.”
If there are high profile public conversations about third parties and Forward is not part of those conversations, we are not doing our job.
Forward!
Lindsey Williams Drath
Forward Party CEO