May 18, 2020 · 1h 16m · top-founders
Jonathan Herzog: His Plan To Get 30k Votes to Beat Jerry Nadler for NY Congressional Seat, YangGang Strategy and Freedom Dividend
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Former Andrew Yang campaign organizer Jonathan Herzog discusses his congressional primary challenge against Jerry Nadler in New York's 10th District, breaking down his platform of Universal Basic Income, data property rights, and decentralized grassroots campaign strategy.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 25.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.8 Guest teaching 3.6 Guest disagreement 2.4 Nathan pushing back 4.1
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 24:10 Calling election cancellation pretense bullshit
Herzog vehemently dismisses the New York State Board of Elections' public safety justification for cancelling the primary, citing federal court rulings to label the state party's narrative as pure falsehood.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 48:33 Correcting 2008 bailout balance sheet factsLatka directly interrupts Herzog's claim that four trillion dollars was handed to banks in 2008 without payback, detailing federal balance sheet numbers and TARP interest returns.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:06 Breaking down Iowa caucus delegate realignmentHerzog educates Latka on the exact mechanics of the Iowa caucus, explaining viability thresholds and why Buttigieg surged during second-round realignments.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 1:06:15 Dissecting VAT revenue calculations against 21T GDPLatka demonstrates deep financial acumen by questioning the 800B revenue figure from a 10% VAT on a 21T economy, exposing underlying policy exemptions and lobbying loopholes.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launching Andrew Yang's Campaign Through Startup Politics in Iowa | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Latka opens with conversational questions exploring how an Ivy League graduate ended up organizing Iowa for Andrew Yang. Herzog explains the grassroots 'startup politics' approach where early staffers wore 50 hats across the state. | |
| Analyzing the Iowa Caucus Dynamics and Buttigieg's Alignment | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Latka asks why Pete Buttigieg outperformed Yang in Iowa. Herzog educates Latka on caucus mechanics, detailing the first and second alignment thresholds and why Buttigieg captured viable second-choice realignment votes. | |
| Building the Decentralized Online Infrastructure of Yang Gang | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Latka presses Herzog on specific tactics behind Yang Gang's organic Twitter power, rejecting Herzog's initial broad answer about message resonance. Herzog elaborates on their decentralized snowflake network model compared to Bernie Sanders' centralized surrogate structure. | |
| Campaign Narrative Psychology and the Humanity First Philosophy | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | Latka pushes a political theory that campaigns require concrete human villains (like Nancy Pelosi or Jim Acosta) rather than abstract scapegoats like automation. Herzog counters by defending Yang's 'Humanity First' philosophy of non-vilification. | |
| Defending Primary Elections and Battling Targeted Disinformation Campaigns | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | Latka questions why New York Democrats would cancel the primary and why Sinclair would undermine Herzog, proposing standard public health concerns. Herzog forcefully dismisses the health rationale as bogus given existing executive orders authorizing universal mail-in voting. | |
| Overcoming Institutional Ballot Access Barriers During COVID-19 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Herzog walks through the practical hurdles of ballot access, DCCC blacklists, and signature collection during the onset of the pandemic. Latka asks strategic questions about spoiler candidates and voter threshold models. | |
| Addressing District Poverty, Anti-Semitism, and Economic Disparities | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 | Herzog discusses local district challenges and compares current economic strain to Weimar Germany and the 2008 bailout. Latka forcefully intervenes to correct Herzog's description of 2008, pointing out that TARP loans were repaid with interest rather than handed out as grants. | |
| Universal Basic Income vs Minimum Wage and Value-Added Tax | 7 | 4 | 3 | 6 | A substantive policy debate over UBI, minimum wage, and a Value-Added Tax. Latka challenges the VAT math by comparing an 800-billion-dollar estimate to overall GDP, questioning price pass-throughs and inflationary effects on small businesses. | |
| Establishing Data Property Rights and Blockchain Innovation Policy | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | Herzog advocates for data property rights and blockchain innovation, suggesting paid privacy dials. Latka pushes back on practicality and points out that Bitcoin mining concentration is driven by electricity subsidies, not lack of local regulation. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Herzog: Yang campaign had no Iowa team members in late 2018
“But at that point, there were no such thing as precinct captains. There were no such thing as even other team members in, in, in Iowa.”
Andrew Yang started 2020 presidential fundraising from his personal Gmail contacts
“Well, so what's incredible, Nathan, is that, again, we, our candidate literally started fundraising from his Gmail address book.”
Herzog: Yang's Digital Campaign Was Highly Decentralized Like Trump's
“And then, in, in our case, what was different, and this is actually more paralleling the Trump campaign's kind of digital approach, which was, it was highly, highly decentralized.”
Herzog: Andrew Yang was the only 2020 candidate with zero personal attacks
“Andrew was, again, if you look at the data on this, it's shocking. The only candidate who never attacked, never any ad hominems, never any personal attack against any of his competitors or even Trump or anyone who had voted for Trump.”
Jonathan Herzog claims SEO disinformation generated 100,000 false headlines post-launch
“Immediately thereafter, a targeted Systematic disinformation campaign was launched, where if you Google my name, Jonathan Herzog, on a computer and hit the news tab, you will see 100,000 of false headlines improperly indexed through SEO manipulation to myself,…”
Herzog: 15,000 mail votes needed to defeat Jerry Nadler in NY-10
“In order to win the seat and unseat Jerry Nadler, we need 15,000 votes by mail by June 23rd.”
Jonathan Herzog claims opponent Lindsay Boylan's ballot signatures were 80% invalid
“So we actually found about an 80% invalidity rate going line by line because most of them were collected in the Bronx or Queens.”
Herzog: UBI passed the U.S. House twice in 1971 under Nixon
“This actually passed the U.S. House of Representatives twice in 1971 and almost became law under Nixon.”
Herzog: Firms will not rehire furloughed workers post-crisis
“The firms that are, you know, laying off and furloughing tens of thousands of workers they're not going to rehire them, unfortunately, at the end of this crisis.”
Herzog: A 10% VAT would generate $800B annually for US
“So if we pass a 10% value added tax, that on its own conservatively would bring in eight hundred billion annually new revenue into the system.”
Jonathan Herzog claims 94% of Americans would benefit from VAT-funded UBI
“If you spend less than a 120,000 dollars a year on stuff, Then you are so much better off, and that's basically 94% of all people in the United States, because there's money coming in from oxygen in the system, from all the transactions, all the production, al…”