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Why or how do these people keep getting elected?
This is not a rhetorical or snarky question. I just read this whole thread, and I don't get how if these folks continue to be such an embarrassment and act so selfishly and shamelessly, how or why do they get elected/re-elected? Where is the alternative? Where is the media?
Aloha! ;-)
Aloha! ;-)
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It's a continuation of Plantation Politics. Top down. The established powers here control jobs. Union and others. There is a strong memory here from the Plantation days that if you don't vote as instructed you or a member of your family may be punished. So to a large degree the local base falls in line.
What is different now is a large percentage of the population did not grow up in this established way of running things. More independent. But unless these independents get together, get informed and actually turn out to vote the Good Old Boys still hold sway.
The proven method of keeping the independents un-unified is to find an issue and get them arguing about it. Maybe the Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP), maybe Puna Makai Alternate Route (PMAR) maybe banning cheap plastic bags. So far this has been successful BUT the margin of victory has gotten smaller and smaller for them.
So what will happen in 2010? It's really up to you.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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James and Barbara, your comments are succinct and right on target. Rob's description of the plantation system is also valid. It seems that a lot of people hereabouts vote based on old familial, ethnic, or union connections that no longer necessarily look out for their best interests. The current "good old boy" political culture is propping up an economic model based on real estate speculation, development, and old Hilo business interests. This economic model is destroying what is left of the old Hawaii culture and is probably not sustainable. It's ironic that the "outsiders" on the Council are ultimately doing more to preserve local culture than the locals themselves.
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John Rabi said
quote:
It's sad to see how dysfunctional, inept, unethical and corrupt our local government is.
Holy Crap! Did they actually say this is an opportunity for Emily Naeole to learn politics? What is that crap?! [
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Don't we have enough to deal with here by getting gouged when we purchase ANYTHING, furloughs that cut our already lousy pay by 21% and health care that is worse and costs more...do we now have to wipe the Hawaii County Council's bottom? Let them wean off the nipple on someone else's dollar!
(Carrie vents nicely, then with her head on her knees, breathes evenly into a paper bag...)[:I]
Carrie Rojo
http://www.carrierojo.etsy.com
"...So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique." - Bill
Carrie Rojo
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
