Interviews during 2017-2019: on Government Reform
Kanye West:
Liberal racists worry about splitting the black vote
Mr. West offered further detail during a recent interview with Nick Cannon, the actor and podcast host, in which he was dismissive of Mr. Biden, and said: "Let me tell you who's the most racist, the liberal racist. When a white person can tell me you're
going to split the vote, better not step past the line, boy."He also said his political aspirations would not end in 2020. "The reason why
I know eventually--eventually could be three months, eventually could be three and a half years--the reason why I eventually will make a great president is because I'm sensitive," Mr. West said. "I'm here to serve. Even as a Gemini,
I feel the energy in the room, I read body language, I read this energy, and I hurt. I hurt for the country, I hurt not just Black people, but all people of America. And I hurt for all people of the world."
Source: New York Post "Page Six" on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Sep 2, 2020
Jo Jorgensen:
No photo ID for voting unless easy to get
Q: Strict ID and other rules to combat possible fraud, even if limit access?Jo Jorgensen: No. Photo ID should be required only if it is easy to get an ID to vote.
Joe Biden: No. Restore Voting Rights Act. Support automatic and same-day
voter registration.
Donald Trump: Yes. Seeks stronger voter ID requirements. Voter ID opponents "intend to cheat."
Howie Hawkins: No. Restore Voting Rights Act. Supports automatic voter registration, same-day registration, and extended voting days.
Source: CampusElect on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 30, 2020
Gloria La Riva:
Uniform ballot access; eliminate Electoral College
We support the introduction of proportional representation at every level of government. We call for uniform ballot access laws for all states that give all political parties a chance to have their candidates on the ballot.
We call for the elimination of the Electoral College and support instant run-off voting of all elected officials. We call for the restoration of the right to vote for all citizens incarcerated in jails and prisons.
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Universal voter registration; statehood for DC
- Enact a national "right to vote" law or constitutional amendment to guarantee universal, automatic, permanent voter registration.
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Enact statehood for the District of Columbia.
- Restore full citizenship rights to felons upon completion of their sentence, including the right to vote.
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Make Election Day a national holiday and/or have weekend elections.
- Enact proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state and federal levels.
- Proportional representation systems provide that
people are represented in the proportion their views are held in society and are based on dividing seats proportionally within multi-seat districts, compared to the standard U.S. single-seat, winner-take all districts.
Source: Green Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jul 12, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Open debates to third parties on sufficient ballots
- Eliminate all ballot access laws and rules that discriminate against smaller parties and independents, and otherwise place undue burden on the right of citizens to run for office.
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Create a publicly-funded People's Commission on Presidential Debates, and open debates to all candidates who appear on as many ballots as would represent a majority of the
Electoral College and who raise enough funds to otherwise qualify for general election public financing.
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Any candidate who refuses to participate in such debates would lose public financing.
Source: Green Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jul 12, 2020
Joe Biden:
Commit to appointing a Black woman to the Supreme Court
National Black civil rights leaders participated in a call with former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, a day after the release of Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America.Al Sharpton noted, "I urge
Biden to fulfill his commitment to appointing a Black woman to the Supreme Court as well as to prioritize diversity of experience and thought in his administration. The Black community knows that it is essential for a person of color to have the ear of
the president."
The President and CEO of the National Urban League raised the issue of voter protection and voter suppression. "A no-excuse vote-by-mail program with prepaid postage and expanded early voting would go
a long way toward expanding access to the ballot and ensuring that the pandemic is not used as an excuse to trample vulnerable Americans' right to vote," he said.
Source: National Action Network on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 5, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Repeal 17th amendment; end direct election of senators
If we are to see a return to the states those powers, programs, and sources of revenue that the federal government has unconstitutionally taken away, then it is also vital that we repeal the Seventeenth Amendment
and return to state legislatures the function of electing the Senate. In so doing, the U.S. Senate would return to being a body that represents the legislatures of the several states on the federal level and part of the checks and balances that our
Constitution originally provided.We oppose any attempt to call for a Constitutional convention, for any purpose whatsoever, because it cannot be limited to any single issue,
and such convention could seriously erode our Constitutionally protected unalienable rights.
Source: Constitution Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 2, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Oppose National Popular Vote proposal to elect president
The so-called National Popular Vote is a dangerous threat, allowing as few as eighteen to twenty-one states to circumvent the Constitutional requirement of 38 states to amend the Constitution. The National Popular Vote process would effectively
eliminate the last vestiges of the Electoral College as originally set forth in the United States Constitution. The National Popular Vote creates a fake majority by forcing electors to vote against the votes cast by their own constituents.
The Constitution does not provide for the election of the President and Vice President of the United States by popular vote, but rather by the selection of "Electors" according to rules adopted by each state's legislators. These electors would
receive the list of certified candidates. They would then cast their vote for whomever they ascertained as best qualified to fill these two highest offices of trust with the federal government. The Constitution Party seeks a restoration of this process.
Source: Constitution Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 2, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Oppose statehood for DC & Puerto Rico
We oppose any effort to confer statehood on the District of Columbia or any representation in Congress comparable to that of an independent state in the federal union. We oppose efforts to confer statehood upon the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico or expand statehood beyond the current fifty states. We acknowledge that each state's membership in the Union is voluntary.
Source: Constitution Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 2, 2020
Justin Amash:
For limited government, not total Presidential authority
Amash took to Twitter to express his opposition to Trump's assertion that he had "total authority" as president to reopen the American economy on whatever timetable he wished: @justinamash: Americans who believe in limited government deserve
another option.
Donald Trump: "When somebody's president of the United States, the authority is total, and that's the way it's gotta be."
Source: Slate.com e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2020
Joe Biden:
Statehood good for Puerto Rico, and our whole country
For decades, Puerto Ricans and their interests have been ignored by Washington. There's a clear solution to this challenge that a majority of Puerto Ricans support. And it's a solution that, polls show, two-thirds of all Americans also support:
statehood. But most candidates for president have been too afraid to back it. Not me. I'll state it clearly: I support statehood for Puerto Rico. I believe statehood would be good not only for Puerto Rico, but for our whole country.
Source: The Orlando Sentinel on 2020 Presidential Hopefuls
Jan 27, 2020
Bernie Sanders:
Rotate judges on Supreme Court, like term limits
Sanders's "rotating judges" idea actually makes some sense. At the Democratic debate, the moderators never raised how to handle the Supreme Court's emboldened conservative majority.They came closest to tackling the issue in an exchange about Roe v.
Wade and what the candidates would do to protect abortion rights if it were overturned. Sanders replied by saying he opposed adding additional justices to the bench, a solution several other candidates have proposed. "I do not believe in packing the
court," Sanders said. But "I do believe that constitutionally we have the ability to rotate judges to other courts."
At a forum in April, Sanders offered up a similar proposal. "What may make sense is, if not term limits, then rotating judges to the
appeals court as well. Letting them get out of the Supreme Court and bringing in new blood." The proposal is constitutionally dubious and might require an amendment, but it's not without merit if it gets rid of corrosive confirmation battles.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jun 29, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Citizens United was a disaster for our democracy
Buttigieg says the Citizens United Supreme Court case that opened the doors for corporations, nonprofits and unions to contribute to campaigns should be overturned.He says dollars have begun to out weigh people. He personally has returned money from
Washington lobbyists and has sworn off taking money from the fossil fuel industry or certain political action committees. "Citizens United was a disaster for our democracy," he told CSPAN2.
Source: Indianapolis Star on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 6, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Supports statehood for DC & Puerto Rico
I'm 100 percent for D.C. statehood. You should have been a state a long time ago. And I am also for Puerto Rican statehood, which is also long overdue.
It's like a statement I make is that if Puerto Ricans looked like Swedes, they would have been Americans a long time ago.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
Julian Castro:
Require candidates to release tax returns
I support making it a requirement by statute, Congress passing a law that requires people who are running for president to submit 10 years of their tax returns.
It is astonishing that this president still has not released his taxes. I look forward to releasing 10 years of my tax returns. If you have nothing to hide, then there should be no problem releasing those tax returns.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 11, 2019
Julian Castro:
We need election security against foreign interference
We need a standard for cybersecurity for our elections. It is absolutely amazing that in county after county they have different voting machines, different standards for how they handle information. There's no one uniform standard to ensure that
there's absolute security and integrity of the franchise. I would fund communities to be able to upgrade their equipment. I think that we need to create a paper trail, so that have a check on how people voted.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 11, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Make Supreme Court appointments less partisan
What we need to do is stop every vacancy from becoming this apocalyptic ideological battle. The proposal I've mentioned does expand the court to 15 but changes the structure. Only 10 of them are politically appointed by Democratic or
Republican presidents. The other five can only be seated by unanimous consent of the remaining 10. Whichever particular mechanism is best, the point is we need to begin the debate on what it will take to make sure our Supreme Court is less political.
Source: CNN Town Hall: back-to-back 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 10, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
Require disclosure of campaign expenditures over $10,000
In 2016, Sanders refused corporate donations and relied on small donors to fund his White House campaign. He has proposed a constitutional amendment that would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling and ban corporations
and nonprofits from unlimited campaign expenditures. The independent senator would also require any organization to disclose election-related campaign expenditures of $10,000 or more.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 19, 2019
Bill Weld:
Blow up unnecessary state agencies
- Economy and government: Supports cutting taxes and reigning in spending. Opposes Trump's tariffs.
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A fiscal conservative, as Massachusetts' governor Weld reigned in spending, cut taxes some 15 times, and vetoed minimum wage hikes.
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He's a free trader who said in 2016 that candidate Donald Trump's "huge unilateral tariffs" would damage the world economy.
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Weld promised to "blow up" unnecessary state agencies after taking office as governor in 1991. As a Libertarian candidate in 2016, he pledged to cut the federal government by 20 percent to reduce waste.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 15, 2019
Amy Klobuchar:
Honest Ads Act: no more foreign meddling in elections
Klobuchar introduced the Honest Ads Act with former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in response to Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The bill requires advertisement buys and publishers to publicly disclose information about the ad in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 10, 2019
Kirsten Gillibrand:
Overturn Citizens United; refuse corporate PAC donations
- Campaign finance: Overturn Citizens United. Refuse corporate PAC donations.
- Gillibrand would reverse the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed for nearly unlimited campaign contributions from corporate and non-profit
organizations.
- She supports a constitutional amendment to change the law.
- The New York senator is also among several prominent Democrats who have pledged to not accept donations from corporate Political Action Committees, or PACs.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 16, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Supports a lifetime ban on officials becoming lobbyists
Warren calls the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act: a frontal assault on lobbying, including a lifetime prohibition that would prevent federal officeholders (including the president, members of Congress, and
Cabinet secretaries) from ever becoming paid influence peddlers. Her argument is that lobbying undermines the functioning of markets, by permitting corporations to exert outsize control over the regulatory state and use government to squash competitors.
Source: The Atlantic, "Capitalism," on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 28, 2018
Tom Steyer:
Looking for old fashioned values, character and transparency
Q: Has President Trump made the whole prospect of successful business figures in public office more or less enticing?STEYER: When I look at America today, what I am looking for is people
who are willing to be transparent, who have real principles, who go back to what I think of as basic American values. I'm looking for people of character to stand up for the same values that have characterized our country for hundreds of years.
Source: Scott Simon, NPR host, on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 10, 2018
Mark Sanford:
Trump not releasing returns hurts democracy's transparency
Rep. Mark Sanford is urging his party's presidential nominee to release his income-tax returns. In a New York Times op-ed, Sanford blasts Trump's "obstinacy." "Not releasing his tax returns would hurt transparency in our democratic process, and
particularly in how voters evaluate the men and women vying to be our leaders," Sanford writes. Sanford warned that the tradition of presidential nominees disclosing tax returns could be permanently "broken," and said voters deserve transparency.
Source: The Daily Beast blog for 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 15, 2016
Jesse Ventura:
I believe there should be term limits
I actually had experience in politics prior to running. I just decided not to make a career out of it because I believe there should be term limits.
But that experience shouldn't really matter in the first place because Minnesota's state constitution states that no prior experience is necessary to run for office.
Source: Time magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 2, 2016
Pete Buttigieg:
Created plan to ensure diversity in city government jobs
The city released a "Diversity and Inclusion Plan" that says too few women and minorities are employed as administrators and technicians and too few are police officers and firefighters. The plan seeks to promote diversity in three areas of city
government: workplace, workforce and community. "The focus areas include making sure we are driving quantity and quality of applicants for positions in the city; making sure that career development and promotion is based on performance," Buttigieg said.
Source: South Bend Tribune on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 9, 2016
Howie Hawkins:
Senators for 20% can block bills favored by 80%
The most persuasive argument in favor of ditching the Senate is in Thomas Geoghegan's book, The Secret Lives of Citizens., Geoghegan calculates that 41 senators representing about 10% of the population can block a bill favored by 60 senators
representing about 90% of the population. Howie Hawkins, a Green Party USA candidate for Congress in New York, figured 20% of the population can block legislation favored by 80% of the population-but the point remains the same.
Source: Slate.com e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 2, 2000
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021