Three Important Questions You Won’t Hear During the Presidential Debates

Photo by Jigar Panchal.

In November 2020 Shared dreams published my column, “Three Questions That Didn’t Get Asked During the Presidential Debates (and Probably Never Will).” The piece asked a few probing policy questions that (I suspected) would never make it past the corporate media’s screening process. Of course, none of those issues were addressed in the widely televised 2020 election debates.

But here we are again. As we approach the November election, I find myself reflecting once again on some of the pressing political issues that always seem to be buried in the constant supply of irrelevant corporate media distractions. This includes, but is not limited to, endless and often relatively irrelevant and inconclusive polls, ongoing character assassinations, unfounded speculation from talking heads providing what one of my old college professors used to call “graceful monuments to the obvious,” and buckets of information overload that lack perspective and thoughtful analysis. The now almost universal tendency of major news organizations to emphasize horse racing politics combined with infotainment and political theatrics has led to conventions and debates that sometimes seem more like rock concerts or sporting events than venues offering thoughtful analysis of the issues that are supposed to be at the heart of democracy.

In the past, all this smearing was called muckraking journalism and was done primarily by bottom-feeding publications. Now we have supposedly respectable mainstream media outlets digging up as much dirt and negative trivia as they can find on candidates who are now expected to pass impossible purity tests. While on the one hand our prevailing cultural amnesia all but guarantees that the lessons of the past will be erased from memory, paradoxically, the implacable permanence of the digital world and the Internet also ensures that no act or mistake by any public figure will be forgotten or forgiven. It seems obvious that all this fuss generates far more heat than light. Given this sorry state of affairs and presented as a simple thought experiment, here are some questions that corporate media should ask candidates not only in the presidential debates but also routinely, given the stunning events of this extraordinary presidential campaign.

Question 1: The role of AI in the economy and the labor market

Although there is a common belief that AI was developed exclusively by Big Tech, for many years the federal government sponsored a massive AI development program, working closely with and even funding the private sector. In 2024, Big Tech unleashed the powerful but still poorly understood capabilities of AI on the economy before its implications and impact on labor markets could be fully assessed. The federal government has fallen further behind industry, trying to develop sensible regulatory policies to prevent AI from seriously disrupting an already fragile and unstable economy. It now seems abundantly clear that AI is indeed displacing jobs of all kinds, from customer service to professional positions in marketing, accounting, entertainment, and many other fields.

Rather than confront and manage a problem that government itself helped create, Congress and the executive branch seem content to let unelected technocrats like Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, formulate policy proposals and other much-needed guardrails. Moreover, it is troubling that rogue AI is already acting as an agent of chaos, has the potential to undermine the foundations of democracy by empowering hackers, and is further deepening the crisis of information quality and validity that haunts our political landscape. More broadly, both robots and AI—with the apparent blessing of both corporations and governments—are beginning to intrude on society, culture, and politics.Given all of these trends, what is your stance on the impact of AI and robotics on the U.S. economy and quality of life?

Question 2: Privatization of the healthcare system

The mass closures of Steward hospitals across the country have dramatically underscored the failure of state and federal governments to allow for-profit companies and private equity to take over many aspects of the health care system. The company, which operated 31 hospitals in eight states, has now filed for bankruptcy and is selling its hospitals to pay creditors after years of mismanagement and profiteering by its management team. Private equity firms have been making acquisitions in the health care sector for years, including ambulance services, hospitals and, more recently, primary care practices.

The corporate greed of these companies is terrifying. They see the decline in healthcare as an opportunity for monetary gain, even as they themselves are contributing to that decline, and government regulators are doing little to improve the situation. Many citizens, through no fault of their own, are trapped in medical debt. Gofundme is reportedly now the most widely used form of medical bill-paying in the US. Furthermore, the handling of the COVID-19 crisis—a topic that has now seemingly been forgotten about during the campaign—was also a major factor in the decline in healthcare quality. Given these realities, what is your plan to restore reliable, affordable health care in the U.S. and get for-profit companies out of the health care system?

Question 3: Unchecked Corporate Influence on US Politics

Long-term side effects Citizens United The Supreme Court’s decision has radically changed the political landscape. It has not only opened the door to vast influence from dark money and billionaire donors, but it has also allowed corporations to exert disproportionate influence over government policy and legislation. This is a problem that threatens the very heart of our democratic process. Corporate power has multiplied over the past few decades, and its takeover of U.S. politics has opened the door to corrupt practices and allowed corporations to put their own interests ahead of collective interests and the good of society. Opinion polls show that this is one of the main reasons why Americans now have so little trust in all three branches of government.

Since the most powerful and influential companies tend to operate in Big Tech, equally disturbing is how technological control is being used to develop and consolidate this new “behind the scenes” power structure. We can think of this as technologically enhanced “backdoor” politics. The total privatization of the commons and the sweet deals that happen behind the scenes are now confusingly coded as “public-private partnerships.”

Many of today’s difficult social issues can be traced back to this corporate takeover. Additionally, a huge part of this scenario is the control of information by Big Tech and Big Media, which have become our primary sources of political news and information. Given this situation, what is your position on the disproportionate control that corporations now have over our political system? What will your administration do to eliminate pay-for-play politics and restore the kind of democratic government that Americans deeply yearn for and deserve?

In what is undoubtedly one of the strangest and most convoluted elections in U.S. history, we seem to be choosing not just two presidential candidates but two alternative realities. It is all the more important, therefore, that responsible and responsive examination of the most important existential issues facing the American public be thoughtfully and proactively undertaken by the media. Many Americans are already asking these difficult questions in their minds and hearts. If this process can be expanded to include a public community of debate and vigorous discourse, perhaps we will see a glimmer of hope for true transformative change at this unprecedented crossroads in our nation’s history.