Reclaiming the Vision
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The unfinished portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt serves as a reminder that our 32nd President's vision for America also remains unfinished and will be so until all Americans have affordable healthcare, housing, and economic parity as articulated in Roosevelt's 2nd Bill of Rights.
Our broad-based coalition, working to advance progressive issues in Hawai`i, was organized in 1994 and facilitates communications between some 20,000+ politically-active Democrats, Progressives, Independents, and Greens across the state. View the list of issues we support and learn how you can become more involved HERE. View or download and print our brochure, The Democratic Legacy, HERE
On Wednesday June 10, 2009, our feckless Honolulu City Council will hear testimony on three County budget bills you should know and care about.
"Why should you care?
The outcome of this vote could cost you a lot of money. If you own real estate on O`ahu, your property taxes will likely go up again -- only this time, through the roof. If you rent your home, then your landlord will likely be increasing your rent to pay for this. See Ian Lind's observations HERE.
If you want to learn more about our reasoning, go HERE.
So, if you will take a few minutes to exercise your democratic rights (and possibly save yourself some serious money in the future), here's what we recommend you do, and immediately:
Call or email your councilmember. If not known, locate them HERE and tell them;
"Please do not approve the appropriation or spending of any City funds until the federal government has signed off of the necessary environmental impact statement and has issued a Record of Decision on the project.
Please:
Vote 'NO' on Bill 16 CD2,
Vote 'NO' on Bill 16 CD2 FD1 Version A, and
Vote 'YES' on Bill 16 CD2 FD1 Version B."
And that's it! If you do phone and get a recorder, leave the above message. If you email, use the subject "Bill 16 CD2 and proposed amendments"
If you have the time and want to sign up to testify in person or learn more about these complicated bills, go HERE
HID participants are registered Democrats or "Democrats at Heart" and believe that as the dominate political force in Hawai`i, the considerable energies and resources of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i (DPH) should be as much focused upon passing progressive legislation that benefits the entire community as they are upon electing Democrats to office. This was the original covenant, long broken.
Hawai`i Independent Democrats also believe that nepotism and favoritism produce a shameful mediocrity in government, education and services. We believe that we can do better and that we must do better, especially in such perilous times. Please consider joining over 20,000 other Hawai`i progressive voters wanting to "do something" about this sad state of affairs; people who are organizing around important issues across the state as never before.
MORE
UNFORTUNATELY, many eligable voters -- young and old -- have simply given up on our 109-year old Democratic Party of Hawai`i (DPH) as an agent of positive change. After well-over 50 years of political domination, most Island residents understand the fact that the DPH is far-too controlled by the long-entrenched status quo. The 1954 "Democratic Revolution" ended decades of Republican political control in Hawai`i and "produced some of the most liberal reforms in the nation." But, as Jerry Burris, Editor of the Honolulu Advertiser once put it, "In the end, they were victims of their own success." MORE
The official Democratic Party of Hawai`i is HERE. However, the Party does not make any of its 109-year history available on line and we do not have the resourses for such a mammoth undertaking. We will continue to add such documentation here as time permits. - ED
The History of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i
By Marsha Joyner
The history of the Democratic Party is inextricably interwoven within the history of Hawai`i - and until the story is told of our beginnings we only see a portion of the whole. MORE
Prince David Kawananoka and the Birth of The Democratic Party of Hawai`i
By Marsha Joyner
Appointed emissary for the Queen in Washington, D.C., Prince David Kawananakoa was dismissed by the Hawai'i Republican oligarchy as Òornamental.Ó Thus Prince David - one of the founders and guiding lights of the Democratic Party in Hawai'i - became very nearly a footnote in the political history of Hawai'i. MORE
The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred. -- from The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865
Hawai`i Independent Democrats
HawaiiIndyDems@hawaii.rr.com
Voice: 808-988-1708
Fax: 808-988-1777
