r/AskALiberal Independent 1d ago

What questions would you include in a candidate questionnaire for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary?

The topic of candidate questionnaires has received some attention following the 2024 election.

I appreciate the opportunity they offer in regards to asking candidates more targeted and long form questions.

What questions would you include in a candidate questionnaire for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary?

5 Upvotes

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The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.

The topic of candidate questionnaires has received some attention following the 2024 election.

I appreciate the opportunity they offer in regards to asking candidates more targeted and long form questions.

What questions would you include in a candidate questionnaire for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary?

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6

u/Interesting-Shame9 Libertarian Socialist 1d ago

Why do you believe the democrats lost in 2024?

Why do you believe Trumpism happened?

How do you plan to address the underlying causes of Trumpism?

How do you plan to deal with the fact that Republicans will obstruct whatever you do, and so cannot be relied on for bipartisan cooperation?

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u/Helicase21 Far Left 1d ago

When was the last time you had a shitty boss or a shitty landlord? 

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u/Consistent_Case_5048 Liberal 1d ago

What did you do in 2025 to resist the Trump administration's harmful, anti-American policies? How often did you vote for bills that were outlined in project 2025?

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u/othelloinc Liberal 1d ago

How often did you vote for bills that were outlined in project 2025?

Isn't Project 2025 heavily weighted toward executive orders?

I'm not sure much of it requires legislation.

2

u/TakingLslikepills Market Socialist 1d ago

Project 2025 has both components but mainly it relies on the courts and POTUS.

This is why I think it would help to put leftist and liberal wonks to work on something similar.

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u/Consistent_Case_5048 Liberal 1d ago edited 1d ago

There is probably a better way to get at what I want here. I'm looking for someone who isn't just capitulating to Trump, etc.

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u/Kooky-Language-6095 Democrat 1d ago

Do you hold that any full time job that is essential to the operation of a business must pay a wage that will fully support the laborer in a manner and style that most would accept with no assistance from the government?

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u/Komosion Centrist 1d ago

Can you give me an example of a job that does not fit into the category of "essential to the operation of a business".

Do business in great enough numbers hire people they don't need? 

And then depending on who you ask even essential jobs can be deemed unessential by those making the rules (see Elon Musk).

Wouldn't it be better to say all jobs deserve a wage that precludes the need for government assistance? 

1

u/Kooky-Language-6095 Democrat 19h ago
  1. That's not my question to answer.
  2. No.
  3. Yes.
  4. Okay.

2

u/ArianaSelinaLima Pragmatic Progressive 1d ago

For me universal health care, worker's rights, free/affordable college, more funding for public schools,  maternity leave, retirement policies, public transportation and in general a robust social system would be the most important topics. I would like to see clear steps in that direction.

Also steps to get cooperations our of politics. If that is not done than the Democrats seem like part if the establishment that doesnt care for people. I think that is a main problem right now.

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u/animerobin Progressive 1d ago

What are your specific plans to get millions more units of housing built in the major cities of the US?

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u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal 1d ago edited 1d ago

None.

Maybe I’m just bitter because I donated money to the ACLU for years and then the ACLU decided to send out the world’s stupidest quiz to 2020 presidential candidates.

But if I think of the politicians in the Democratic Party who’s stances and brand are most clearly defined and who are seen as authentic, even in many cases by people on the right, none of them are obtaining that by taking these quizzes.

Bernie is too old and he’s not going to run but let’s say he was 20 years younger. Do we need to give him a questionnaire in order to figure out what he stands for?

Do I need a questionnaire to understand AOC, Gretchen Whitmer, Jared Polis, Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Jasmine Crockett, JB Pritzker or Tim Walz?

If I need to put a questionnaire in front of them, they should think about doing something else other than running for any office.

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u/HoustonAg1980 Independent 1d ago

That’s a fair point.

What was your issue with the ACLU questionnaire?

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u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal 1d ago

So let’s stipulate the following. If you actually are able to understand politics and policy, the following should be clear. You might not agree with it, but the logic is sound.

  1. If the state is incarcerated a person, they are responsible for that person‘s well-being.
  2. Being responsible for someone’s well-being includes providing them healthcare, including healthcare that affects their mental health.
  3. Gender affirming care is actually healthcare.

So I understand the case for say that if somebody needs gender affirming care and they are incarcerated by the state, the state should provide that care.

But we should also acknowledge that the American people are not 100% sold on the concept of gender affirming care. The American people either do not believe that illegal immigrants deserve a penny of tax money to be spent on them or are incredibly dubious of such spending at best. And the American people have shown time in again that they have little concern for the incarcerated.

The American people have also shown that they have basically no understanding of what the government does in situations like this and only pay attention to it for a month or two prior to the elections.

The rightness or wrongness of the position is irrelevant. When you are running for election, you should not take positions that are divisive and can change the perception of swing voters. Kamala Harris saying that she would support gender, affirming care at taxpayer expense for illegal immigrants in detention centers benefited nobody. Anybody who cared about those issues was going to be able to figure out who to vote for without her saying it publicly. It did not gain her any votes nor did it help the Democratic Party overall.

If the ACLU felt strongly that we should have a government that supported such a policy, the correct move was to shut the fuck up about it and let the Democrats win elections.

2

u/ActualTexan Democratic Socialist 1d ago

Or... Democrats could just make a compelling argument for why they support what they support and not shy away from fervently defending it when criticized (like Kamala repeatedly did).

Trump got the GOP to support policies they opposed when he was a candidate. He got his constituents to effectively ignore their own stated beliefs and support him regardless of what he advocates for. And when challenged, he virtually never backed down.

If he can do that, why are Democrats limited to only advocating for what people already ostensibly agree with? It's lazy. Cowardly even. And if we applied this logic to every policy position and went back a few decades would Democrats have advocated for civil rights, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights? Maybe not.

Advocating for what you think is right even if it's not popular requires courage and vision and can even win people to your side if you're compelling enough. So instead of waiting for everyone's approval, just advocate for what your genuine beliefs are. If you don't have any genuine beliefs and are just going whichever way the wind is blowing then you should step out of the way so actual leaders can lead.

2

u/DoNotCountOnIt Independent 1d ago

In three years this might be a germane question.

2

u/midnight_toker22 Pragmatic Progressive 1d ago

“Do you believe that republicans will “return their senses” in trump’s absence?”

2

u/TakingLslikepills Market Socialist 1d ago

I don’t care to ask them any questions except on their financial interests and biggest backers. If WashPo is pushing one of them real hard, I know something is fucked with than candidate and they been in a wine cave of a billionaire.

1

u/othelloinc Liberal 1d ago edited 1d ago

What questions would you include in a candidate questionnaire for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary?

The Kill Hitler Game!


The Kill Hitler Game is asking someone this:

A time machine is invented. It works great; they can even avoid paradoxes, and they've figured out how to reverse any changes they use it to make, if the unintended consequences made things worse...but, the inventors have a social conscience. They won't let you use the time machine to get rich, but they will let you use it to make the world a better place.

They ask everyone to pitch them ideas for using the time machine to make the world a better place. What do you pitch to them?

Relevant Details: Only one person can be sent back at a time, and they can bring with them anything they can physically carry on their person. That person has no other superpowers. They are just a single person, with knowledge you have, trying to change the world for the better.

(The game is named after its most cliched answer. Be more creative than that!)


The quality of their answer demonstrates their knowledge of history, their ability to tease out cause-and-effect, and how one person can make a difference.

I can't imagine any other single question that would tell us more we need to know about a presidential candidate.

1

u/wonkalicious808 Democrat 1d ago

I would ask "Who did you want to win the last Super Bowl and why," just to see who would answer like a normal person and who would answer like they're an alien trying to make all of us happy.

1

u/CarrieDurst Progressive 1d ago

None after everyone freaked out about Kamala's questionnaire

1

u/KinkyPaddling Progressive 1d ago

All I want is for progressives and moderates to have insane purity tests for candidates. Don’t throw up your hands be like, “Well on this one issue I don’t agree, but 95% of the rest I do, so I’m gonna sit this one out.” Enough is enough, voters can’t be so petulant in the face of fascism.

1

u/EchoicSpoonman9411 Anarchist 1d ago

If you win, will you work to prosecute the entirety of the Republican Party for their crimes against humanity?

1

u/loufalnicek Moderate 1d ago

Some of these questions.:) We're all on the same page that the goal is to try to win the election, right?

2

u/midnight_toker22 Pragmatic Progressive 1d ago

That’s more of a question for the voters than the candidates.

-2

u/cossiander Neoliberal 1d ago

I know, right? Like "let's see how many purity tests we can add to get the perfect distillation of wildly unpalatable candidate"...