It appears that Andrew Yang, who has run unsuccessful political campaigns for both president and New York City mayor, just now learned what gerrymandering is. That’s odd, considering his repeated insistence that he’s qualified to hold political office, but what’s worse is that he seems to think his experience is universal.
“6 years ago no one knew what gerrymandering was. Now everyone knows – and hates it,” Yang tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
“6 years ago no one knew what gerrymandering was. Now everyone knows – and hates it.”
— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) June 7, 2022
First of all, who is he quoting? Himself? You can’t just put words inside quote marks and invent your own platitudes, Andrew.
More importantly though, lots of people knew what gerrymandering was before 2016. I want to say most people did, since it is something that most of us first learned about in middle or high school government classes. (Although I’m sure that for many, it falls into that category of “learned and then forgot.”)
Andrew 6 years ago was 2016
— Alex Peter (@LolOverruled) June 7, 2022
So yes, most people probably know what gerrymandering is, and unless they’re a politician or lobbyist making the process work in their favor, they’re going to hate it! Unlike redistricting, which is the normal and necessary process of redrawing electoral district maps to reflect changing populations, gerrymandering is a partisan attempt to draw those maps to unfairly favor one political party.
andrew yang is kinda like trump in that he’s learning about politics and tweeting along the way
— follow for bad takes (@VLeen00) June 7, 2022
This isn’t the first time Yang has appeared to be tweeting his way through a high school civics textbook. After his failed attempts to run for office as a Democrat, he’s been trying to form his own political party, the “Forward Party.” Back in April, he tweeted a little historical fact, apparently as an example of the benefits of working outside of the two-party system.
“Lincoln won the presidency on the brand new Republican ticket in 1860 with 39.8% in a four-way race. He took a Democrat, Andrew Johnson as his running mate in 1864,” Yang tweeted.
Ok, now this is why John Legend said what he said.
— Dr. Dee Knight (@DrDeeKnight) June 8, 2022
😭 https://t.co/5K6SiE8ORj pic.twitter.com/2yJKBy2nvl
If Yang had read to the end of that chapter before tweeting, he would have learned that Johnson took over as President after Lincoln’s assassination, immediately tried to restore seceded states to the union without any protections for newly freed formerly enslaved people, and ended up getting impeached. Not the best example of unity in action!
(image: Marco Bello/Getty Images)
