Being a big fan of Fox News, I generally agree with their points of view. However, recently they described Hawaii as the most liberal state in the nation. I guess from a political perspective you can say that. We have only had one Republican governor in our history and Linda Lingle really was a moderate one at that. Beyond that, our two U.S. Senators and two Represnetatives have always been democrat. Currently our 25 seat State Senate has 24 Democrats with Sam Slom being the only Republican. The State House has 44 democrats and only 7 republicans. So you can call this state the most liberal if you solely base it on politics.
However, if you look at the definition of the word liberal (open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values). Anybody who lives in Hawaii knows that this state is resistant to any change. Any new business that wants to come in gets protested and shut down. The general mindset is to keep things the same here. That is not liberal by definition.
With that in mind, I think that the reason the democrats stay in power has nothing to do with ideology but with the conservative voters resistance to change. How ironic is that?
What really stands out is that if you read the Maui News, you will see lots of people complaining about the County Council. Their continual pay raises is one issue that comes up. Yet not one of them was voted out. Not even the sole Republican Don Couch.
Daniel Innouye served for 49 years in the U.S. Senate. His partner Dan Akaka served for 23. That is not in any way representative of a state that wants change. What I find really fascinating is that the sole Republican State Senator Sam Slom has been in office for 17 years. That tells me that it really has less to do with keeping the democrat in but keeping the incumbent in. People cry for change but are scared to vote for it.
Hawaii is a democrat state. But ironically it is conservative minded voters and not liberal ones who keep it that way. It doesn't seem to matter how poor this state gets either.
"However, if you look at the definition of the word liberal..."
ReplyDeletea better, more specific, and useful definition of liberalism is:
1. believe in "multiculturalism" instead of "e pluribus Unum"
2. believe in secular humanism instead of "in god we trust"
3. believe in "equality" over "liberty"
4. believe in "follow your heart" over "do your duty"
by those criteria, Hawaii most certainly is liberal.
"Anybody who lives in Hawaii knows that this state is resistant to any change"
not "any" change. Hawaii is resistant to changes toward the political right.
Hawaii has been liberal for decades. if it doesn't want to change, that means it wants to remain liberal.
"Any new business that wants to come in gets protested and shut down"
that means Hawaii is liberal, liberalism being anti-business and anti-capitalism.
"the reason the democrats stay in power has nothing to do with ideology"
actually, it has everything to do with ideology.
what programs on fox news do you watch, by the way?
You do make some valid points. I am going by the actual and not the adopted definition. But I know what you are saying. I stand by my point about ideology because if you talk to people one on one about issues, you will find that they are deep down conservative.
ReplyDeleteBTW, are you a conservative, moderate, or liberal? I have to determine if I can have an intelligent exchange or not.