Reporter joins the Yang Gang

October 17, 2019 — by Allen Chen

Becoming an active participant in politics.

Originally, this story was supposed to be an opinion story about signing up for the Freedom Dividend raffle. This was going to be a soaring epic about the process of signing up for a chance to get $1,000 a month, and realizing myself as a person in the process. I was going to get really deep: “Maybe the real Freedom Dividend was the friends we made along the way”.

Unfortunately, the raffle deadline passed a few days ago, and the story got moved to the back page. Fortunately, I am pretty experienced with haggling out due dates. I hopped onto the Yang campaign website and slid into the chatbot’s DMs.

“Hi, just wanted to start by saying thanks for your time. I had some internet issues, so I couldn't turn in my application for the Freedom Dividend raffle on time. Could I possibly turn in the assignment now, maybe for half credit ($500?) or something? Sorry I couldn't catch you during tutorial. I appreciate it, Allen Chen.”

Mr. Yang and his underlings never got back to me for some reason. I decided to switch gears. Searching through his website, I noticed an artist collaboration section. Recalling something my mom told me about making more political art, I decided to contribute a piece. I got a piece of binder paper and drew Mr. Yang’s face with some Expo Markers I found on the ground. Then, I scanned it into a computer and did some light cleaning in Photoshop.

Now that I have contributed somewhat to the Yang campaign, I think I have successfully replaced the premise of signing up for the Freedom Dividend raffle. Also, I now have the high ground to tell my friends to participate in politics.

Although I don’t have $1,000 a month or the grand saga I was trying to write, the fulfillment of having spent 5 minutes submitting artwork to Andrew Yang’s website more than compensates the disappointment. From now on, I am proud to be an active member of American politics.

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