Openpolitics Public Interview Questions
I’ve drafted a list of ~ 67 Interview questions to promote perspective and empathy:
Interview Goals:
Promote empathy for people in different circumstances
Foster cross-partisan and cross-generational conversation about values & identity
Promote discussion of the actions that we might be prioritized to help achieve our values and alleviate our fears
Promote intra-family assessment and intergenerational discussion
Promote assessment of local, state, and national issues
Foster reconsideration of divisions by surfacing awareness of “Divide and Rule” and other manipulatory tactics
Promote consideration of the American identity, power structure, and inspirers?
Prompt consideration of ideologies, and their definitions
Promote contemplation of history, empathy for our historical predecessors, and what political courage looks like
Experiment with new media: Substack & CiteIt
Link questions across videos of Interviews using AI?
Foster discussion using Shared documents and
Foster Community conversations to promote empathy & civility
Part 1: Icebreaker Questions
Which of the following possessions would you least want to be without, ranked from most willing to give up to least?
If you aren’t single, how did you meet your spouse/significant other?
Do you know what your name would have been if you were born the opposite gender?
Did you have an alternate name picked out for your children?
How far ahead did you have names picked out for your children?
Was it hard for you and your spouse to decide/agree on a name?
What would be the disadvantages of being a billionaire?
What are the advantages of being “plain looking.”
Did you ever feel as though it would have been advantageous to have been born the oldest or youngest child in your family, or been born the opposite sex?
If you have 1 month to travel anywhere in the world with any number of friends/family where would you go and what would you do?
Would you rather ..
Be famous or talented (and what type of talent?)
Be really good looking or really smart
Be good at:
speaking, or
writing, or
video/music creation
be empathic or exceptionally rational?
be physically “ripped”/have great physical health or have free time?
Be tall or charismatic or empathetic?
Be great at cooking or great at home maintenance?
Be great at negotiation or great at self-discipline?
Communicate “truth” over politeness
Be universally liked or deeply understood by a few?
Be respected but feared, or loved but underestimated?
Know the truth about everything, or believe comforting lies?
Be known for your integrity or for your accomplishments?
Take a stand and lose friends, or stay silent and keep peace?
Have the power to change minds or the power to heal hearts?
Be good at rapping, or good at singing?
Be an African American man in the US if you were 50% wealthier, 30% smarter, and 5 inches taller?
Your “brother” was:
gay or
trans or
blind?
Experience complete equality but no freedom, or complete freedom but deep inequality?
Be remembered for your compassion or for your courage in an unjust system?
If you had to move somewhere else, where would you go?
If you were to be born in any country in the world, but you didn’t know your race, disability, talent, or parents (income, etc), what country would you prefer to randomly be born into? (John Rawls, Veil of Ignorance)
What careers did you consider when you were young? If you went to college, did you consider any other colleges and other majors?
What career would you (have) pursue(d) if money was no object?
Have you pulled any great pranks?
This concludes Part 1.
In Part 2, we’ll cover “National Identity and American Ideals” ..
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Part 2) NATIONAL IDENTITY AND AMERICAN IDEALS:
What does it mean to be “American”?
Do you remember where you were on September 11? What do you think Osama bin Laden was attempting to do with the 9/11 attacks? Did he succeed?
If you could go back and advise President Bush after 9/11, what would you say?
17) If you had 5 minutes to talk with the current President, what would you say?
18) If you had 5 minutes to talk with your state representative, what would you say?
19) What are the 3 most important needs in your community?”
20) What should be done to increase public trust in our institutions?
21) If you had 3 wishes, with which you could create or change any part of the:
constitution,
amendments, or
laws,
what 3 laws/amendments would you change?
22) There’s an old saying, what’s more American than baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet? How would you revise this to describe America today?
Note: Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet were each transformed in the U.S. into social practices, mass-consumed goods, or industrial icons that fit American narratives (community pastime, casual food, home comfort, mass-market automobile).
23) What are the most distinctively American parts of the national anthem lyrics? If the national anthem were rewritten, could it be made more “American”?
24) Ronald Reagan said that a foreigner can’t become a Frenchman, but immigrants can become Americans. What does it mean to become an American?
25) What does the “American Dream” mean today?
26) What would make you feel safe? Where do you feel least safe?
27) What do you think of AI? Do you use it? How?
28) Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever met?
29) Who would you like to have dinner with if you could meet anyone in history?
30) Who are the uniters and the encouragers?
31) How was Mr Rogers able to both encourage, unite, and challenge?
32) If you could provide everyone in the world with paid-for pre-k to college education or paid-for healthcare, which would you choose?
33) What is your experience with the American Healthcare System?
34) What is your experience with the American Education System?”
35) Should there be some sort of national service for young people? (In exchange for college/vocational/home down payment funding?)
36) If you are spiritual, what makes you believe and what makes you believe what you do?
This concludes Part 2.
In Part 3, we’ll cover “Power, Systems, and Governance” ..
Part 3) POWER, SYSTEMS, AND GOVERNANCE:
“How power actually works — and who it serves.”
37) If a small number of countries had a monopoly on tea and coffee, and raised the price to $15/cup, would the US declare war? What if they also controlled chocolate?
38) The British practiced “Divide & Conquer“ in India (and Africa) by encouraging conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The division along religious lines prevented Indians from uniting to throw off the British, making it easier for the British to rule them with a smaller number of British soldiers. In what ways is divide and conquer used in America?
39) What would Americans do if they understood that a “Divide & Conquer” strategy was being used to weaken opposition to oligarchy, while a scapegoating mechanism was being used to divert them against convenient targets?
40) What would the world look like if the United States rethought the desirability of trying to be the dominant world power (hegemon) and engineered a graceful transition to collective security?
41) If critics are correct and the US is trying to go to war to gain influence over Venezuelan and Iranian oil to protect the Petrodollar and bail out indebted American finances, would you favor or oppose regime changes in Venezuela and Iran?
42) Are you in favor of Pete Hegseth changing the Department of “Defense” to the Department of “War?” What do you think the outcome of this will be?
43) Should the US reduce the size of the military, cutting some of 700+ military bases? Why/why not?
44) Is the US a free country? Why or Why not? How could the people become more free?
45) If American polarization were to be addressed, rather than exacerbated, how would the solution change your outlook for the future?
46) What do you think will be the consequences of current levels of US deficits?
47) Would you approve of the US giving up the ‘global reserve currency’ if it would help reshore manufacturing and reduce economic distortions? What if it increased the wealth of the general population and decreased the wealth of the top 10%? Do you see manufacturing returning to America? If so, why/why not?
48) What does “drain the swamp” mean to you?
49) What would you think of term limits/age limits for Congress and the Senate, as well as restrictions on representatives having a second career as lobbyists?
50) Would you vote for a “socialist” like Bernie Sanders or Zohran Mamdani if they would take the money out of politics and drain the swamp?
51) Is “precarity“ (for example: living paycheck to paycheck) seen by the oligarchy as a feature, not a bug, because it reduces the independence and ability of Americans to oppose oligarchy?
52) Have you noticed that our Western institutions seem to disproportionately promote greed, selfishness, narcissism, and sociopathy?
53) When was the best decade and lifestage to be alive?
54) Have you ever noticed that everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge? Knoll’s law of media accuracy | Gell-Mann Amnesia Efffect | Betteridge’s law of headlines) Why?
This concludes Part 3.
In Part 4, we’ll cover “War, Terror, and Moral Definitions” ..
Part 4) WAR, TERROR, AND MORAL DEFINITIONS:
“What counts as justified violence — and who gets to decide?”
55) What does the “military industrial complex” or (MICIMATT) mean to you?
56) What does socialism mean to you?
57) What does fascism mean to you?
58) What does authoritarianism mean to you?
59) What does free speech mean to you?
60) What does genocide mean to you?
61) If you were to put various groups and their actions on a spectrum from “legitimate war” to “terrorism/ethnic cleansing/genocide,” how would you rate various past actions like?
Trail of Tears, etc
Bombing of Dresden, Tokyo
9/11
October 7
Gaza Power Targets
List your own
62) If things got bad, how would you know it had gone too far?
This concludes Part 4.
Next, we’ll continue with Part 5: Historical Perspective and Moral Courage .
Part 5) HISTORICIAL PERSPECTIVE AND MORAL COURAGE:
Who would I be under pressure?
62) Many Historical figures were not appreciated by “normal” people of their time. Are there historical figures you admire? What would you think of them if you were alive at the time?
63) Was Rosa Parks a “troublemaker?” Why did she hold the bus up? Couldn’t she have just gone to the back of the bus and not held everyone else up? Would you have supported her if you were a white person on the bus or a resident of Montgomery, Alabama ?
64) Who are the troublemakers getting into “good trouble” today?
65) Would you participate in the underground railroad at the time of slavery?
66) If a victim like one in the story of the good Samaritan was sitting at the edge of the street/path, would you notice?
67) Would you hide an “Anne Frank” or a trans person if they were in need of shelter?
68) Propose additional questions for others.
Was one of your parents more kind than the other?
Do you try hard to be a kind parent?
69) Propose questions you would like the political/religious “other side” to answer?
Are you a conscientious objector to war or anything else?
This concludes Part 5 of openpolitics.com’s first Questions series.
To see and listen to more content, go to openpolitics.com.
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Additional Questions
Do you have a suggestion for what this questionnaire/interview process should be named?
Do you have suggestions for people who might be interested in being interviewed?
Latest Printable Version: Google Doc: Interview Questions