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Meet the Candidates 2020: Andrew Yang

Meet the Candidates 2020: Andrew Yang

If you’ve spent much time at all thinking about the Yang Gang, then you’re definitely a millennial so congrats on having no assets or retirement savings. It’s no wonder that Yang’s marquee proposal, a universal basic income that he calls the “Freedom Dividend,” appeals to you. If you’re not part of the doomed generation, your first thought about Andrew Yang was probably, “What on earth?” and then your second was probably, “Who is this guy on the debate stage wearing no tie?” It’s been a long time since somebody dazzled the overly coiffed candidate field with such a dashing display of casualness. 

Meet the Candidates 2020: Tom Steyer

Meet the Candidates 2020: Tom Steyer

Electing a rich guy from New York with no obvious qualifications to be president is going so swimmingly, why not try it again? That’s the apparent logic behind native Upper East Sider, retired hedge funder, and anti-Trump commercial-maker Tom Steyer’s campaign for president. 

Meet the Candidates 2020: Bill de Blasio

Meet the Candidates 2020: Bill de Blasio

NYC mayor Bill de Blasio is among the most distinctive members of the forgettable generic white people club for two reasons:

  1. He’s tall. Too tall. If you noticed a giant lumberjack (beanpole?) of a man shouting from the fringes of the stage at the first two Democratic debates, you probably were noticing Bill de Blasio. 

  2. He’s, politically speaking, far to the left of the other generic white people. That means that when you noticed him shouting from off-camera, it was probably about how some other godforsaken corner-person was telling us what we can’t do and can’t have and shouldn’t stand for and why to stop dreaming IMMEDIATELY.

Meet the Candidate 2020: Joe Sestak

Meet the Candidate 2020: Joe Sestak

Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter what Joe Sestak says or does because he hasn’t qualified for a single debate and his platform is indistinguishable from every other generic white person on the trail anyway. See: Tim Ryan, Michael Bennet, and John Delaney. Or actually see none of them because even finding out about Joe Sestak second-hand isn’t worth it. But fine, if you insist…

Meet the Candidates 2020: John Delaney

Meet the Candidates 2020: John Delaney

What could be better that big, structural change? Well small, imperceptible change that doesn’t impact the ultra wealthy, of course! With so much dreaming going on among this year’s top presidential contenders, John Delaney on the scene to scold us about how our dreams of living in a just society are just a scooch too big. Why not try something smaller? Or maybe try nothing. It’s better if we don’t rock the boat. After all, if John Delaney got rich in this system, anybody can!

Meet The Candidates: Michael Bennet

Meet The Candidates: Michael Bennet

Michael Bennet is a man who, unlike you, has been personally impacted by humans having health. That’s, at least, what he would like you to believe as he argues passionately that he’s uniquely positioned to understand the challenges of the healthcare system (and why we can’t challenge corporate control of it) because...he’s experienced being sick. In early 2019 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent a “completely successful” surgery. No update on the billing scenario he faced in the aftermath, though chances are it was less scary than what you as a non-Senator would face in a similar situation. But, you know, we defer to him since apparently he’s the expert.

Meet The Candidates 2020: Tim Ryan

Meet The Candidates 2020: Tim Ryan

You might remember Tim Ryan as the red-faced football player to the far side of your debate stage who seemed confused about who caused 9/11 and argued vociferously that Ohio, a state that receives roughly 800% of each candidate’s attention during the presidential cycle and has picked the winner of nearly every presidential race since the late 1800s, doesn’t get enough of a voice in politics. But what you might not remember him from is the author page of his meditation guide, "A Mindful Nation,” in which he presumably teaches us not to engage in the same rage-induced debate tactics as he does. 

BTL Special Edition - The Iowa Extravaganza - 8/22/19

BTL Special Edition - The Iowa Extravaganza - 8/22/19

Last weekend we went to Iowa to visit the nation's most famous state fair and as many campaign offices as we could get to in the home of 2020 first primary-mania! Here's our take on who's campaigns were a mess, who's poised to surprise us, which conspiracy theories we developed along the way.