Democratic Debate — November, 2019

ddouglas
ddouglas
Nov 2 · 4 min read

Questions for the Moderators

Dear Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Kristen Welker, and Ashley Parker:

I am begging you, begging you not to ask any silly “human interest” questions like one’s favorite book, feelings about a competitor, most admired person, etc.. There are too many candidates & too little time. Here are four major areas I want the candidates to address (and two “spicy” questions at the end):

1. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

We’ve learned these past years that norms of professional conduct are only as good as the character of the professional. Would you support a Constitutional Amendment to

a. require Presidents to divest all of their businesses, or put them in blind trusts, upon assuming office.

b. require a complete annual medical checkup by [non-personal physician] on [specified date] of every year, the complete results to be made public within one month.

c. require that the IRS release the President’s tax return on [specified date] of every year

d. define the nature and extent of Executive Privilege, the circumstances under which it may be claimed and by which members of the President’s Administration.

e. prevent Presidents from employing, in paid or unpaid positions, any members of their immediate family in the White House for any official governmental business.

f. prevent Presidents from pardoning themselves, their families, current or past employees or members of their Administration

Violation of any or all of these conditions to be grounds for immediate impeachment.

MEDICARE FOR ALL

1. President Obama campaigned and won office in part because of his pledge to reform the health care system which reform would include a public option. In spite of a majority in the House and, for a brief time, a super majority in the Senate, he was unable to get the Public Option. In additon, passage of the ACA is widely credited with the loss of the Democratic House majority in 2010. Why should any Democratic member of the 2021 House, let alone the Speaker, risk a repeat performance in the name of MFA?

2. The Trump Administration has done its very best to weaken the ACA, and we can assume that any Republican Administration would do the same to MFA, especially given its decades-long committment to privatizing Medicare. Wouldn’t MFA be even more vulnerable than the ACA?

3. Why should women not fear a MFA system run by a Republican Administration committed to interfering with the rights of women to complete reproductive health care?

A future Republican Administration will do its best to disable the ACA with a Public Option, but citizens would still have access to private insurance not controlled by Conservatives. If there is no affordable private insurance option, health care will be in the hands of Conservatives who will treat it as if it were welfare.

SPECIFICALLY FOR MR. BIDEN

You have stated that Republicans will “recover” once Mr. Trump is gone. Mitch McConnell filibustered everything President Obama tried to do — 8 years before Mr. Trump won the EC. He refused even to grant Merrick Garland a hearing. He pushed through the nomination of Kavanaugh, violating almost all standard Senate procedures. What makes you think that he would treat your adminsitration any differently than he treated President Obama’s?

COURTS

SCOTUS now has 2 justices reliably accused of sexual misconduct and one whose nomination was the result of a judicial position stolen from President Obama. The Federal courts are being packed with Conservative justices, a number of whom have been accused of being totally unfit for the job.

How would you reform the nomination and appointment of Federal and Supreme Court justices to prevent the packing of the court systems by either Republicans or Democrats?

Will you nominate liberal Justices or continue the Democratic practice of nominating moderates in the hope of getting some GOP support?

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Too many times in the past 5 decades, we have seen Presidents politicize the Department of Justice. Have you any thoughts as to how that Department may be permanently insulated from such political interference given that it is the President who appoints the AG?

PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS — SOME USEFUL “ SPICE”

  1. To Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders: you will be, respectively, around 79 and 80 years of age on Jan. 21, 2021. What do you say to Democratic primary voters who fear you will be, effectively, lame ducks the day after you are sworn in, one-term Presidents who will give the Republican Party the unearned opportunity of an election in 2024 that has no Democratic incumbent running?
  2. To the men on the stage, what do you say to the women on Twitter who do not want, in November 2020, to choose between two old white guys or, for that matter, between two white dudes? Is your response a verbal pat on the head and a promise that they will have a chance to elect a woman President in 2024 or 2028?
ddouglas

Written by

ddouglas

Californian by choice. Proud bleeding-heart liberal feminist. Fascinated by everything I don’t understand.

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