As we are only 68 days from the fall elections, it will soon be time for that wonderful political institution – the debate. That time when we get to hear pablum answers to direct questions, and the whole goal for the candidates is to escape without a major gaffe.
We rarely learn anything truly revealing from those debates. Most of the time the “preparation” has been about what talking points to hammer home, no matter what the question is.
I think we need some questions that can’t really be answered with pablum – or if they are, it’s obvious to everyone. And, we need questions where a candidate that actually wants to take a stand can do so.
Here, then, are ten questions that I would love to see asked of Republican candidates in any debate or forum this fall. Almost all of them can be answered with a simple Yes or No – but I will guarantee that any Republican will stumble over their responses to these, because they don’t want to answer. (Their base might get mad – oh nos!)
10 questions for Republican candidates this fall
- Is Joe Biden the legitimately elected president of the United States?
- Should the government force a 12-year-old rape victim to carry her pregnancy to term?
- Does racism exist in America? If your answer is Yes, should it be discussed in our public schools, or ignored?
- If a company is polluting drinking water so that it cannot be consumed safely, should the government stop the company from doing that?
- Should individuals who make more than $400,000 a year pay a higher tax rate?
- If a teenager identifies as gay, should the government, including the public schools, punish them for being gay?
- Should any religion have control over the government?
- If the data shows that Blacks in a community are arrested and imprisoned at a higher rate than whites, even though both commit the same crimes at the same rate, what should be done?
- Should state legislatures have the power to throw out the results of presidential elections in their state, and choose the winner themselves?
- If Donald Trump had top secret documents in his desk in Mar-A-Lago, should he be punished? And what should the punishment be?
There you go – ten simple questions. Let’s hope they get asked.
(PS – I think I’ll send them to Renee Shaw at KET.)
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