Hawaii had several listening posts, one of which was held on Saturday, July 26, 2008, from 9 AM to Noon. This session was fairly well attended, with close to 20 participants, most of whom stayed until noon. One of Hawaii's Delegates to the Democratic national convention attended with his laptop for most of the meeting. He reported that the Democratic Party's Platform Committee has already been meeting for about a year, and Obama's "Listening" posts will have to be reconciled somehow, with what the Platform Committee wants. What follows are my personal notes and reflections of the meeting.

Our host reported that they had held a similar meeting last week, and read a list of some of the concerns articulated there. Several participants from the previous meeting also participated in today's meeting. Many participants were newcomers to political activism, and were inspired by Obama. I had previously met only 3 other participants.

I reminded the group of Molly Ivins' op ed piece published in the March 2006 issue of The Progressive
with the title, Enough of the D.C. Dems, in which she wrote,

As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:

      1. Iraq is making terrorism worse; it's a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.
       2. Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.
       3. Single-payer health insurance.

I used the example of Progressive Democrats of Hawaii, who for the past several years have had a five-plank "S.H.I.P.S." platform of

   * Stop the War,
    * Healthcare for all
    * Impeach Bush and Cheney
    * Public funding of elections, and
    * Sustainable environment.

My point was that we should prioritize our suggestions for the platform, so as to avoid the diffuse laundry list that everyone would soon forget. There was a bunch of discussion about this point. Our host preferred to gather all the suggestions and forward them. In other words, we would not "vote" on the proposed planks, or attempt to prioritize them according to "major issues." That was an appropriate decision on his part. What follows is my notes, which tend to group the comments around major issues. These notes are neither complete nor comprehensive.

Al Gore's Challenge received widespread support, along with the idea of a sustainable environment, one of Progressive Democrats of Hawaii's main platform planks.

Stopping the War also had multiple supporters. The first supporter of this added the national debt caused by the war as a collateral issue. Other major collateral issues included worries that Obama would merely shift the action over to Afghanistan without bringing the troops home. That is, some of us thought that Obama's intention to bring the troops home within 16 months should be extended to include Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Another collateral issue was the misuse of the National Guard and its equipment, using it in foreign wars rather than at home, to help with local disasters, such as Katrina. Someone made the point that National Guard equipment was not only being used overseas, but was wearing out or being destroyed overseas, leaving our state national guard to replace all that equipment.

Universal health care was a major focus of interest and discussion, and drew many comments and suggestions. Most participants favored a universal single-payer system. We also discussed whether the system should be mandatory (Hillary Clinton's model), or should allow people to opt out, or require them to opt in (Obama's proposal). Clearly, this was one of the group's main priorities.

A Sustainable Environment had wide support as well, especially if joined to Al Gore's challenge.

Our Educational System also drew many comments and suggestions. The major issue seemed to be funding for programs such as improving teacher salaries, Head Start, School breakfast & lunch programs, foreign language instruction, and civics classes, as well as infrastructure. There was also a common desire to end or at least minimize funding disparities among districts.

The issues above drew the most widespread, and strongest, support.

There was also support from a number of participants to restore the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the balance of powers among the branches of our government. I feel particularly strongly about this, given Obama's vote for the latest FISA amendments, which granted retroactive immunity to the telcoms and, indirectly, to the President and Vice President. Obama's principal adviser on Constitutional issues, Cass Sunstein has made recent statements that Bush officials should not be prosecuted for their illegal detention, interrogation and spying programs. This puts them "above the law" in a way that is, I feel, unAmerican. I thought that the American idea of justice is that no one was above the law. For more on Sunstein, see Glenn Greenwald's blog on Friday.

There were also proposals to promote Native Hawaiian rights and language. I'm sure I've left out some other things, as well.

In any case, it was a very worthwhile exercise. There was vigorous discussion, and I do hope that "Obama is listening." This was an historic opportunity. Now let's see what Obama does with it!

Bob in HI