Where There’s Smoke, There’s Usually a Smokescreen
08/15/2012Welcome everyone to the new and expanded General Election season in Hawaii. For the first time, we get to endure 3 months of newspaper, television, radio,and internet political ads. I’m just glad I that I DVR all my TV shows and listen to NPR so I can avoid most of them!
It isn’t that I don’t want to hear what candidates have to say. It’s that I can’t stand the methods that they employ.
- #1: “glorified resume reading” and “lookie, lookie at what Iʻve done”
- #2: “I’m an outsider who will fight for you against the big guys” or “stay with a proven quantity”
- #3: “I care about you but my opponent doesn’t” or “I’m like you but my opponent isn’t”
By now, almost everyone has dispensed with #1 and has moved on to #2. This is where you as a voter need to be wary because outsiders and insiders look an awful lot alike. In the Senate race, you’re going to see Lingle ads asking you to break the Democratic stranglehold of the the D.C. delegation. She will portray herself as the outsider who breaths new life into the Senate. Somehow, with all the RNC and super-PAC money she is getting, her definition of outsider is highly suspicious. Then you have Ben Cayetano who will trot out his rags to riches story and tell you how he has always been the outsider. Again, if you look (and not even that closely) you will see how this doesn’t ring true. Here is a man who was Lieutenant Governor for 8 years, Governor for another 8 years, raised more money than 2 Primary opponents, and who is close friends with Governor Abercrombie. Tell me again how he qualifies as an outsider?
As Iʻve said before, single-issue politics makes me crazy. Unless the one issue is repelling an alien invasion, nothing can be so important that it makes all others irrelevant. In the Mayorʻs race, Mr. Cayetanoʻs campaign was founded on a promise to halt the rail project at any cost. During the debates, he brought out a new issue of fiscal responsibility and the bogey-man spectre of Honolulu being run into the ground by… you got it… rail. He cites the examples of Stockton and San Bernadino which he thinks are comparable to Honolulu. I found this article about the California bankruptcies plus a few more and it seems to me that their situation had more to do with the overall financial health of California and many bad choices by their elected officials rather than a single project like rail.
The part of the campaign that I really dread is when the candidates get into tactic #3. Their television commercials will be filled with multi-racial families and localisms to get you to see how much they are like you. The worst example I can think of is the 1996 mayoral campaign where Arnold Morgadoʻs slogan was “Local Roots, Local Values”. Talk about pandering.
My point here is that voters need to be wary. We live in a world where candidates will say just about anything to get elected. Itʻs going to be a long road to the General Election so be vigilant.
So That's Life? 
This is good. Your best post.
Perhaps another metric are outcomes. What kind of outcomes can one likely expect if a candidate gets elected.?
A lot of ads will make one point or another. This might be par for the course but hardly adequate.
You’re right about single issue candidates. There is a level of intellectual dishonesty with many of them. Regarding rail and Stockton San Bernadino, it would have been useful to work with other rail systems that are much older (the issue of deferred maintenance might not be very sexy but it is relevant), more likely (not insolvent) and similar configuration.
Where there’s smoke, beware of mirrors!