Talk:Wikinews interviews Brian Carroll, American Solidarity Party presidential nominee
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[edit]E-mail interview forwarded to scoop.
William, 1. Which past U.S. president(s) do you most admire and why? My two childhood heroes were Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who were interested in almost everything, and followed every interest. I patterned my own educational goals in that direction. As I got older, I could see the underside of Jefferson, and every human being has two sides. I taught history for 40 years to junior high and high school students, and spent extra time on Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Polk (as negatives), Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt as positive in domestic affairs and negative in foreign affairs, Wilson as negative. I have recently gained an appreciation for Grant. He aggressively took on the KKK, and crushed them for the duration of his era.
2. How have your past experiences prepared you for the job of President? A teacher explains things all day long, just like a politician. My other experiences include specific issues where my role was largely raising community awareness. That’s a political role.
3. How would you describe your style of leadership? How does it compare to the leadership styles of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama? I’m the unTrump. I’m secure enough in myself that I don’t feel threatened by experts. Like Jefferson, I have multiple interests and a softer personality, though I’m more comfortable speaking in public than was Jefferson. I will hire a very organized staff to help keep me focused.
4. If you were president, how would you have handled the coronavirus pandemic differently than President Trump? I would not have entered office by throwing away the playbook for pandemics that Obama left him. I would have acted earlier to order American industry to produce the equipment we needed.
5. How has the pandemic affected your campaign and your ability to reach out to voters? It has kept me from traveling, and it made it more difficult to collect signatures in states that required that to get on the ballot. It has given me six months at home with my wife, which has been a blessing over what would have been a very hectic six months. I know lots of people who have been stressed by the situations the virus has put them in, but it has been much easier on me.
6. In 2016, American Solidarity Party presidential nominee Mike Maturen received 6,777 votes, largely from write-ins. Based on your general feeling on the ground, how many votes do you expect to receive in the 2020 election? We will certainly outdo that by a factor of ten or twenty. I’m hoping for even more.
7. What would a Carroll administration look like? Which specific individuals would you ask to be in your cabinet? I’m not going to name individuals that I have never asked. But I would begin by asking my key advisors to submit suggestions, and then I would go to the congressional caucuses that have proven they can work across the aisles, the Climate Solutions Caucus and the Problem Solvers Caucus, and ask for their suggestions. I want a Cabinet that can work with Congress.
8. Who would you nominate to the Supreme Court? Would you apply any litmus tests? Should the number of justices remain at nine? I think we in the Pro-life movement have been hoodwinked into supporting judges who were loosely Pro-life but strongly Pro-business. I would de-emphasize business, in favor of workers and consumers.
9. How will you work with Congress to avoid gridlock and pass your agenda? I’ve already mentioned my Cabinet strategy. I will but out the word that the action is going to be in bipartisanship, and if people want to be at the table, that’s where they need to be.
10. What should be done, from the government's perspective, to combat global climate change? We are at a triage point. We must reduce carbon dependency. I don’t see how we can do that without taking advantage of Thorium nuclear technology. We need to use solar, wind, and thermal where practical, and explore carbon capture, as well.
11. What are your views on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
What would you do as president to help resolve the conflict and how
does that comport with your overarching philosophy on foreign affairs? Diplomacy but not military intervention.
12. Are you concerned about deplatforming and the censorship of certain views on social media? How would you address this issue as president? Social media is still too young to graduate from high school. We’re learning, and social media is learning, but the teen years are stressful for any person or organization. They need to be dealt with according to patient persistence. We’ll get there.
13. What can you do, as president, to improve race relations in the United States? First, let it be known that we consider it a priority. A document like the recent Contract with Black America has well over a hundred ideas, most of them good. The idea is that it could be accomplished in the first 100 days, which I think is unrealistic, but there needs to be a visible start from day one.
14. Election Day is quickly approaching and early voting has already started in some states. What is your final plea to voters? When many voters—or citizens who have given up on voting—are asked what they want, they describe a party that fits our description. This is their chance. The major parties are campaigning on panic. They want to scare voters with visions of life under the other party. The American Solidarity Party is a party of hope.
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[edit]I've been through the interview, with two caveats. I did check the ballot-access map.
- The number of votes for Mike Maturen was stated correctly (per the cited source) in the intro but off-by-one in the interview question. I'm thinking there should be some sort of note on that, so readers are wary of it, without needlessly disrupting the flow of things, but haven't decided yet quite what to do.
- @William S. Saturn: Did you mean to include the final plea? Just wondering, since you've been reserving other final pleas for the October campaign trail (which is cutting things pretty close, at this point).
--Pi zero (talk) 05:41, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
- The Final plea for October will be Collins, Hammons, and Jorgensen since they did not participate in the Free & Equal debate. The October article is close to completion and will likely be submitted for review within the next 24 hours.--William S. Saturn (talk) 07:39, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
- As for the number of votes in 2016, 6,777 is the number used in the Election Atlas. The Solidarity Party page used for the July campaign trail article shows 6,776. I have now matched the figure used in the question to the intro and added the Election Atlas as a source.--William S. Saturn (talk) 07:51, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
- Hmm. Okay. If 6,777 is the figure, this raises the possibility of a {{correction}} of some sort for the July campaign trail article. --Pi zero (talk) 13:24, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
Review of revision 4590131 [Passed]
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Revision 4590131 of this article has been reviewed by Pi zero (talk · contribs) and has passed its review at 17:40, 30 October 2020 (UTC).
Comments by reviewer:
The reviewed revision should automatically have been edited by removing {{Review}} and adding {{Publish}} at the bottom, and the edit sighted; if this did not happen, it may be done manually by a reviewer. |
Revision 4590131 of this article has been reviewed by Pi zero (talk · contribs) and has passed its review at 17:40, 30 October 2020 (UTC).
Comments by reviewer:
The reviewed revision should automatically have been edited by removing {{Review}} and adding {{Publish}} at the bottom, and the edit sighted; if this did not happen, it may be done manually by a reviewer. |