Now that a week has passed, there is now enough time to process all the thoughts about the political trends I have noticed.
First, let's start off with here in Hawaii
Hawaii
As usual, the Democrats have dominated.
Current governor David Ige won re-election!
Earlier this year, there was some pessimism about his chances to get re-elected due to the miscommunications about the false missile alert.
Since then, people have been satisfied with his handling of the situations related to floods, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions that occurred since then.
His chances to win the General Election were also boosted by the media's usual negligence to cover the candidates from the minor parties (Green Party's Jim Brewer, Nonpartisan's Terence Teruya), as well as the infighting within the Republican ticket.
For the US presidential elections, the presidential nominee gets to pick who his/her vice-president before the election. This way, the president can have an assistant that he/she can easily work with.
In Hawaii, things are done differently. In the primaries, the people vote for governor candidate and lieutenant governor candidate separately. If they winners get along (as in the case of David Ige and Josh Green), that's great. If not, then there's trouble.
For the Republican side, the candidate for governor was a relatively moderate Andria Tupola, who was earlier blasted by right-wing troll Eric Ryan as being "too liberal". For the Lieutenant Governor, the candidate was Marissa Kearns, a hardcore conservative who also thought that Tupola should apologize for being "too liberal". She later blamed Tupola for undermining her by not telling her that she was invited to debate with the Ige/Green team.
This infighting even more made people not want to vote for the Republican ticket? Why would people want to vote for a team that can't get its act together. People rather vote for a team that at least shows a united front than a team that just can't work together.
Because of this Ige won by one of the biggest landslides in Hawaii's history. Not because he's popular, but because the other side was seen as an even bigger joke.
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On the legislative side of the elections, the Democrats still have their majority as usual. In the State House, they are a few Republicans there, as usual. In the State Senate, the 2-years without a single Republican is finally over.
Back in 2016, the lone Republican senator Sam Slom was defeated by newcomer Stanley Chang. So the Democrats had a total monopoly.
This year, Kurt Fevella become the token Republican to join the State Senate.
This was thanks to his opponent Matt Lopresti being caught on security camera stealing his opponent's brochures from a house he was canvassing. A major embarrassment! Especially for someone bragging about how progressive he is and about he's all about "good government"
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Ed Case is now the US Representative for urban Honolulu.
Ed Case expressed skepticism about the Jones Act (the shipping law) in the past.
I really hope he presses the issue in Congress. Whenever Jones Act is in the news, Ed Case needs to have an immediate public response. Continue to speak to the public about how the Jones Act harms Hawaii's access to international trade.
Introduce a bill in Congress to exempt all US-occupied islands from the Jones Act.
Do all that even if it makes enemies with the status quo in Hawaii!
Ed Case is now the US Representative for urban Honolulu.
Ed Case expressed skepticism about the Jones Act (the shipping law) in the past.
I really hope he presses the issue in Congress. Whenever Jones Act is in the news, Ed Case needs to have an immediate public response. Continue to speak to the public about how the Jones Act harms Hawaii's access to international trade.
Introduce a bill in Congress to exempt all US-occupied islands from the Jones Act.
Do all that even if it makes enemies with the status quo in Hawaii!
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There were 2 ballot measures up for a vote this year.
One was to allow the state to collect property taxes (here, it's the counties that do that) on " investment properties" (this wasn't defined) to pay for education.
Every politician promises to do something for education, even when there's not enough money to pay for all their promises.
But to add more property taxes when our cost of living is so high isn't going to get more support.
Because the term "investment properties" was a vague term that wasn't officially defined, the State Supreme Court ruled that amendment invalid before people could vote on.
Being that I have previously worked on ballot inspections, I know that Supreme Court ruling came too late to have ballots reprinted in time.
Even with that, people still voted on that proposed amendment, mostly to tell the world that they are not willing to pay more in property taxes, regardless of the "good cause" that it promised to fund.
Personally, I hate the idea of property taxes. It's one thing to pay taxes on something you bought this year. But to still collect taxes on something someone bought decades ago? Why?
Because of property taxes, many retirees on a fixed income had to give up their property that they bought decades ago in an era when property values were much lower.
Property taxes are just proof that you don't even own the land or the house you "bought" even if you paid with cash!
As far as I'm concerned, while it may be ideal to have taxes be voluntary (I'm sure many people will voluntarily donate money to pay for schools, courts, emergency responders, etc), but if we are going to have taxes, why can't it just be on something you buy now.
If I buy a bottle of juice, I just pay the sales tax once. If I buy some studio equipment, I just pay the sales tax once.
It should be the same for land/home transactions. If I buy it in 2018, I shouldn't have to continue paying taxes on it in 2048! Especially since I'll be 68 years old by then, and I'll have to pay greater expenses on health care and everything else. My income might not be able to pay for the increased property value of 2048 (especially being that demand will still be high for something that will be in even less supply by then).
As for the term "investment properties", it wasn't even officially defined. This worried property owners who rent out additional properties to family and friends. This worried property owners who bought property ages ago, and rent it out just to pay for the current level of property taxes.
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The other ballot measure was for a constitutional convention. That ballot measure appears automatically every 10 years.
There wasn't a massive demand for a constitutional convention. Meanwhile, the defenders of the status quo spent TONS of MONEY on ads claiming that having a constitutional convention will be a threat to labor rights, environment, Hawaiian rights, etc, etc, etc.
I thought all of that was useless fearmongering.
I do think a constitutional convention would be useful and I really regret not pushing that idea more.
For one thing, we definitely should amend the constitution for the following reasons
- reform our primary elections. Make it like California's primary in which people aren't restricted to voting within one political party, and make it so the top 2 vote-getters (regardless of political party) go on the General Election. Learn more at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/08/hawaii-primary-elections-need-to-change.html
- Make it so that the governor's candidate can choose his/her running mate for lieutenant governor. That isn't an option now. As the drama between Andria Tupola and Marissa Kearns showed, we can't afford to have that type of dysfunction in the executive branch!
- Reform our legislature. Maybe one part of the legislature can represent districts (they both do now), and have another part of the legislature be like a parliament in which a political party can have proportional representation (ie. if Democrats have 60 % of all Hawaii resident support, they have 60% of the seats. If Republicans have 20% of all Hawaii resident support, they have 20% of the seats. And if Libertarians have 10% and Green have 10%, then have both have 10% of the seats each. That way all the parties have a seat at the table. That way different ideologies have a voice in the legislature
- Redefine Hawaii's relationship with the United States. A constitutional convention would be a perfect opportunity to discuss whether Hawaii would remain part of the US. The statehood vote was in 1959. Many of us weren't even born yet! Why can't we have an official discussion about our status? Why can't we have at least an every-decade opportunity to vote on whether Hawaii shall remain part of the US?
I'm sure there's more we can discuss at the Constitution Convention. It's too bad we didn't get the opportunity!
The United States
The Senate remained in Republican hands. The House was taken over by the Democrats.
Most of the seats available in the Senate tend to be in conservative rural, overwhelmingly European-American states. This gives Republicans an advantage.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives gives each state a number of seats based on population. So heavily urban states have an advantage, giving the Democrats an advantage there. Also, the suburbs (once a Republican stronghold during the Reagan days) have been increasingly alienated from the Republican Party of Donald Trump, so this allowed the Democrats to gain extra seats.
Now that the Democrats have the House, almost all of Trump's proposals are dead on arrival. That means all of his anti-immigration proposals will not become law! 😊😊😊😊
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The Democrats dropped the ball when it came to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. They need to learn about the Art of Political War! Again, the Democrats waited until the last minute to publicize sexual misconduct allegations of their opponents. They waited a month before the election to reveal Donald Trump's joke about grabbing woman's private parts. Some senators knew about Kavanaugh's allegations in June, but waited until September when his hearings were almost over!
This kind of waiting and last-minute revelations are seen as highly suspicious to the general public. It reeks of desperation. Even if the allegations were true!
As far as I'm concerned, if there are sexual misconduct allegations about the opponent, it should be publicly revealed immediately!
Hit your opponent before he/she gains strength!
The stuff about Donald Trump should've been publicly revealed way before the Republican primaries. The month before the general is too late!
Same with Supreme Court nominees. Any sexual misconduct should've been publicly revealed BEFORE the first hearings! Why wait?
All this waiting only empowered Republicans running for Senate. They got even more seats now! They will be able to pass anyone nominated by Trump now!
(note: the House of Representatives doesn't get involved in confirming presidential nominees for appointments. So the Democrat majority there can't do anything about it)
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Even with the Republicans winning the Senate and various governorships (they might be able to hold on to Florida and Georgia though the results are still in dispute), various states still approved various ballot measures commonly associated with liberals.
Michigan, Maryland and Utah all approved some level of increasing leniency on marijuana laws.
Florida approved allowing most felons (except murderers and sex offenders) be automatically eligible to vote after their sentence is over.
Louisiana now requires unanimous jury decisions to convict.
Arkansas and Missouri approved minimum wage increases. Idaho, Utah and Nebraska all approved of increased Medicare spending. These cases proved that economic libertarianism is NOT popular among conservative voters. Their votes for Republicans has NOTHING to do with "small government" or laissez-faire capitalism and MORE to do with abortion, guns, immigration, and "political correctness".
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Now it's on to 2020!
Donald Trump will continue to benefit from "hey look at me everyone, I'm being politically incorrect".
People want a tough guy as commander-in-chief!
The best bet would be Corey Booker.
No way could Donald Trump out-tough that guy on the debate stage!
Corey Booker also knows how to publicly atone for his past sins (high school groping) while still preserving his tough guy image. It's good to show young males that it's not "soft" to apologize.
Corey Booker could also increase the African-American vote in swing states.
But he can't make any of his "Spartacus" gaffes like he did in the Supreme Court hearings. That would just make him a target of ridicule.
He would also have to show a humorous side that benefitted past presidents like Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton!
He would also have to be careful about any associations with socialism or the Castro brothers (he can't afford to lose Florida).
Stay tuned!
