Thread by @JHMarble

Here’s 14 minutes of @AndrewYang talking about autism from the lense if family members and support professionals as if autistic people aren’t sentient beings or voters ourselves.

I’m so over this sh*t.

This is AFTER his campaign caught flack for doing the same thing in the most recent Democratic presidential debate.

In this clip, he also equates non-verbal autistic people with people unable to work and says “autistic children often grow up to become autistic adults.” Often?

Yes, those could be slips of the tongue, and I don’t want to play “gotcha” here. However, @AndrewYang often touts his status as a parent of an autistic child on the campaign trail. It’s not too much to ask that he pause to engage and center autistic people in anything about us.

*One thing I appreciate about @AndrewYang is that he continuously hits the message that autistic people shouldn’t be valued by our ability to work. That’s a very important message for people to hear, and kudos for him repeatedly saying that. All autistic people have equal value.

And let me be clear that I don’t think Andrew Yang is some horrible person. None of our Democratic candidates (except Tulsi) are. They are people who want to serve their country. Accountability and pressure like this during primaries helps them better do that.

And if you’re a Yang supporter, don’t be dismayed by my words here. He’s clearly a candidate who wants to get things right.

In two decades of working in politics, I’ve yet to find a perfect politician. None are. Great politicians hold both good intent and the ability to grow.

It’s rare to have a candidate get everything on an issue you’re an expert on totally right. They usually won’t. That’s how it is. What’s more important to me is how they broadly approach issues and the teams they build to fill-in those knowledge gaps.

So, if it seems I’m yelling here as an autistic voter, I am. There’s a role for that (and it doesn’t mean I hate him or his campaign). There’s also a role for Yang supporters to positively engage and shape the candidate and campaign staff on this. Both are effective levers.

I’ve found that it takes a bit of yelling to grab the attention of a campaign on things like this. However, I’ve also found that it’s supporters of a particular candidate who are the ones who can take that and then create positive change within a campaign.

😃

Any frustration I have with @AndrewYang in this is 1000x overshadowed by my faith in his ability to adapt and grow in his view of (and approach towards) autistic voters.

(End of Accidental Thread)