Washington (US Political RP; 2016 ; Special Events ; OPEN!)

[Prolieum]

"You, Governor Danders, may begin to lecture me on being a progressive when you pass your first piece of gun control legislation. You have been the toy of the NRA throughout your entire career. You have no spine, and the gun lobby has you under their thumb. If you want to start criticizing, Governor, look at actions, not words."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"Governors, you will end this line of debate immediately, and refer to the question at hand."

[Democratic Peoples republic of Kelvinsi]

"You, Governor Danders, may begin to lecture me on being a progressive when you pass your first piece of gun control legislation. You have been the toy of the NRA throughout your entire career. You have no spine, and the gun lobby has you under their thumb. If you want to start criticizing, Governor, look at actions, not words."

"I am glad that you brought up my record on crime Governor. As you know Governor, Vermont has the lowest level of violent crime in the country, and I will gladly compare our records on violent crime. I am proud of the fact that we built a functioning society where guns are treated as tools and not weapons. I am proud of that Governor,."

[Tallahassee News Station]

[Mic cut off at "Governor."]

All right, Governor Danders, that's quite enough out of you. Let's talk about a different issue, of federalism. Many Americans feel that the federal government is becoming too dominant, enforcing mandates from its own bubble, and overriding the rights of states. Senator Conti, we will start with you. What are your thoughts on that?"

[Argentarino]

[Mic cut off at "Governor."]

All right, Governor Danders, that's quite enough out of you. Let's talk about a different issue, of federalism. Many Americans feel that the federal government is becoming too dominant, enforcing mandates from its own bubble, and overriding the rights of states. Senator Conti, we will start with you. What are your thoughts on that?"

"I can see why many Americans may feel that. We probably have too many regulations and mandates that are outdated or inefficient, and they make governing difficult. I believe that government does have a role, but we have to look at our codes and regulations to make sure that everything is modern and efficient. I'm sure we've got an outdated regulation about how to handle milk lying around somewhere, but these outdated regulations and mandates have the potential of costing our taxpayers a little more than they should wrangle with and costing us the ability to govern effectively."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"The question was about the rights of states, Senator"

[Argentarino]

"The question was about the rights of states, Senator"

"The question was also about big government, but I digress," he said with a chuckle. "There is no black and white way to look at state's rights. Though when it comes to civil rights, there are a lot of painful discussions, and I'm sure that is one of the things you're referring to in your question. Would you mind if I ask you to clarify that for me? I want to be sure I am answering the question as you interpret it."

[Jovuistan]

Corey Patrick's Twitter

"We've had months worth of debates so far, and the problems facing our African-American communities have still gone unaddressed. I hope that our candidates get the chance to speak about criminal justice reform this time. #DemDebate"

[Tallahassee News Station]

"I'm talking in general, Senator, but there are certainly many issues. You've mentioned the marriage issue, thing like the arrest and jailing of a Kentucky clerk, but also environmental regulations, business standards, the minimum wage in states with low costs of living, taxes, medicaid mandates, the Affordable Care Act, and other such things."

[Argentarino]

"I'm talking in general, Senator, but there are certainly many issues. You've mentioned the marriage issue, thing like the arrest and jailing of a Kentucky clerk, but also environmental regulations, business standards, the minimum wage in states with low costs of living, taxes, medicaid mandates, the Affordable Care Act, and other such things."

"In regards to the clerk from Kentucky, she violated the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court and she failed to uphold her oath to the US Constitution when she refused to issue those marriage licenses. I believe that the federal government could do a better job when it comes to maneuvering policy with the states, but it is important to note that the job of the federal government is the wellbeing of the country as a whole. So inevitably, there will be conflicts between the states and the federal government, and it is the job of governors, state legislatures, their respective Members of Congress, and the President and their administration to sit down and work out these issues."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"The next question is for Governor Kuznetsov. Governor, you've made criminal justice reform a staple of your plan for office. Just how do you plan to carry that out while keeping the safety of the officers in mind?"

[Prolieum]

"Yes, I have made this a major part of my campaign, and with good reason. I can say without shame that I believe that Black Lives Matter, and that we need immediate reform-and unlike my colleague here, I will provide actual answers. Institute nationwide body cameras for police officers, to ensure that real evidence is on-hand, and justice is done. Implement regulations for non-lethal training for officers, and make non-lethal weaponry standard patrol equipment nationwide. Create real, common-sense gun control to, as you say, ensure the safety of the officers so that the real criminals cannot get their hands on weapons, and modify the grand jury practice so that when this happens, a fair trial can be heard for both sides in a court of law."

[Argentarino]

"I believe that was a reference to me. May I respond?"

[Tallahassee News Station]

"Go ahead."

[Argentarino]

"Governor Kuznetsov, I am not perfect, I will not be the first nor the last to fumble on a question. As I've stated before, there needs to be criminal justice reform that stretches far and wide. We need to reevaluate mandatory minimums, we need to institute body cameras for police departments around the country, we need to improve de-escalation training for officers of the law, as well as emphasize community policing. In Baltimore, the old broken windows policy may have reduced crime rates, but at terrible cost to community relations and harming a generation of young men and women. I think that if we focus on community policing, we may be able to rebridge the gap between communities and law enforcement. We also need to demilitarize communities, implement gun control laws and regulations so that our law enforcement officers not only feel safer, but are safer, in the line of duty. Is that 'actual' enough for you, Governor?"

[Prolieum]

"It's quite actual to me, Senator. Quite familiar too. I suppose copying my policies is a step up from not having any."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"All right, that's enough. Next question."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"This is a question for any candidate. Across the nation, especially on college campuses, many feel that free speech is under attack, and non-free speech zones are criticized by many as being against the First Amendment. How much do you think we should protect freedom of speech?"

[Democratic Peoples republic of Kelvinsi]

"This is a question for any candidate. Across the nation, especially on college campuses, many feel that free speech is under attack, and non-free speech zones are criticized by many as being against the First Amendment. How much do you think we should protect freedom of speech?"

"Look I respect the right to free speech, and I think that some of the punishments that are doled about too harshly. I support the open discussion of ideas across our universities and campuses, and yes safe speech zones often go to far expelling students for saying something politically incorrect. Yes that is too far, but we also need to make sure that there is a balance between the discussion of ideas and outright racist, and homophobic speech, I would prefer that we move the safe speech zones into something more of an honor system where students are expected to follow safe speech guidelines, but there will be no penalties against those who violate the terms. You may say that it is useless, but I have stats that show that the honor system and peer pressure/discussion is the best way to make sure that good constructive dialogue is coming out of campuses."

[Argentarino]

"This is a question for any candidate. Across the nation, especially on college campuses, many feel that free speech is under attack, and non-free speech zones are criticized by many as being against the First Amendment. How much do you think we should protect freedom of speech?"

"I think, first and foremost, that there needs to be a balance, as with many instances of constitutional law. There are numerous arguments in college campuses concerning so-called 'safe spaces,' and while these were hardly a thing when I went to college, I'm not going to say that the concerns of students who are asking for safe spaces or trigger warnings are unfounded. Trigger warnings, by the way, aren't forms of censorship. Think of it as an academic equivalent for a ratings announcement that one sees in movies or television shows: it is simply an advisory of the content in an academic piece of a syllabus. I can see merit in them when it comes to material regarding sexual violence, seeing that the problem of sexual violence on college campuses has impacted too many young men and women in various psychological and emotional ways."

[Prolieum]

"I don't support censorship. I believe in free speech, in all our First Amendment liberties, and think that they need to be protected. If we had passed limitations on free speech in the 1950s or 60s, then the Civil Rights movement could never have succeeded, or in the 70s, women's rights and protests against the Vietnam war would have failed. Our colleges have been a great force for progressive change, and we shouldn't censor that."

[Tallahassee News Station]

"While we are on Constitutional liberties, let's move over to another amendment, the fourth. What are your stances on our current treatment of it? Any candidate may answer."

[Democratic Peoples republic of Kelvinsi]

"While we are on Constitutional liberties, let's move over to another amendment, the fourth. What are your stances on our current treatment of it? Any candidate may answer."

"I feel that the 4th amendment is something that needs to be protected right now. Currently we have those on the GOP who are continuing stop and frisk and even in some cases expanding, that law is against the constitution, the seizure is completely unreasonable, and therefore illegal. These people who claim to be for the constitution they are only for the constitution when it agrees with them, only when it agrees with them, and at other times they think it could go into the garbage can. I support expanded enforcement of the 4th amendment and we are going to hold people, like the sheriff Joe Arpaio who is a complete racist who hates Latinos, accountable. These people need to be brought to justice."

[Argentarino]

"While we are on Constitutional liberties, let's move over to another amendment, the fourth. What are your stances on our current treatment of it? Any candidate may answer."

"In light of 9/11, the PATRIOT Act, and various other policies that we've implemented, we've had a very uncomfortable relation with the Fourth Amendment. National security, or personal liberty? These past few years, we've seen us move closer to national security, but farther away from personal liberty. I believe that, in a time when more and more of our correspondence is through telecommunications, we need to ensure that we treat those communications on the same level as any other evidence that would be under the Fourth Amendment. And I'm not just saying this on a personal liberty ground, but also from a national security standpoint. Imagine if we arrest a terrorist from evidence seized by going through their emails without a warrant through a NSA data gathering program. Any attorney could throw out that damning evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds, and then we'd have to let the terrorist go due to the mistrial. We need to be smarter about this, and I think we need to focus on restoring those personal liberties guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment, lest we suffer another Snowden incident."

[Tallahassee News Station]

What does "enforcement" of the fourth amendment mean, Governor Danders?