 Hi, I'm Marianne Sasaki with Belize Anderson. You're watching Community Matters today. Today we have, what, two highly educated, highly opinionated women who have opinions on literally everything, but I think we're going to talk about the state of the country and the election and your political because the state of our state and of our country. I know. I know. So what's going on? You're smart. Tell me. Oh, gosh, putting me on the spot like that. No, but really, well, let's take a hypothetical by hypothetical. So what if Donald Trump wins, let's say? That's a big what if. That is a big what if. I don't think that's very likely. And I don't know if we can even hypothesize after that because has he really given us anything concrete to go off with? No. And we've never had anybody like him in the White House, so I don't even know how he would treat the White House and treat the office of president. It would be a whole new, like brave new world, right? That has such people in it. Yeah. So what if, okay, so what I want to know is what's going to happen with the GOP after the election? I mean, I think Donald Trump has done a lot of damage to the GOP. Oh, unspeakably so. I mean, it could be argued that he's completely undermined the GOP. Right. And what about the convention or was it, yeah, it was at the convention. They tried to pass that vote and they had a substantial number of people to revoke Donald Trump's candidacy or to challenge it, to challenge the way that the elections had run. And the rules committee just completely overrode that vote even though they had hundreds of supporters. I'm sure they regret that now. Yeah. Because he's taking apart people. I saw Mike Pence refused to endorse Ryan. I was utterly shocked. Ryan didn't unendorse Trump. He just said he was going to put his allegiance elsewhere, not his allegiance, his efforts. Right. We're talking about Paul Ryan speaking in the house. Yeah, exactly. He didn't even say anything against Trump, really. He just kind of stepped back from it a little bit. You know, I would say you're a Republican. Would you say you're a Republican? I am registered as a Republican. I only registered this year as a Republican so I could vote for John Kasich in the primary. Oh, okay. Which didn't come too much. No. It's amazing the people that he beat is just amazing. But, you know, you're my idea of a Republican, you know, fiscally conservative, socially neutral. You think there's a party for people like you? I mean, is there going to be a party for people like you again? I mean, I remember. I like the libertarian party. It's just realistically the candidates that it's field haven't been stellar. No, not at all. I mean, Gary Johnson, I even have a Gary Johnson bumper sticker on my shelf except I haven't put it on my car yet because some of his gaps have been pretty embarrassing. Yeah, he's pretty disappointing. William Weld, on the other hand, I think the ticket should be switched. William Weld was a really good governor and he's really more like the kind of Republican that I remember, which as I said, it's not so involved in social issues like, you know, religion or even guns or abortion. There was sort of morally neutral. It was more about a fiscal policy, a fiscal approach to the United States and a kind of state approach than it was, you know, evangelistic or, you know, so. Yeah, and that's what I think the libertarian parties going for are the disenchanted Republicans who just, you know, can't vouch for the direction that some of the, you know, the social issues have taken. And personally, I'd say I'm not just neutral on social issues. I'm pretty liberal on them. Oh, okay. I mean, I didn't know. So yeah, but that's what, you know, like that's what the typical, I just, your kind of Republican is so rare in the media. Well, see, they're rare in the media that gets out. I have some friends who have tried to express views that are, you know, a little bit critical about Trump and they've been suppressed. Really? Yeah, yeah. And I don't want to go into details on that, but the media is very selective as to what it portrays as a Republican. And I'm sure, you know, there's all this criticism about the Democrat media coming from Donald Trump supporters, saying how unfair it's been towards them, but they need to look in the mirror. Right. Well, you know, it's true that the only kind of Republican that's depicted in the media, which is largely liberal, and I'm a liberal, and I can say that because I'm one of them. They're one of me. I know these people. Is these very, very ultra right wing, very radical, you know. Like what Tom Hanks played on the Saturday Night Live clip. Right. Yeah, right. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, I think there's definitely room for a more, what I think of as standard Republican party, certainly Donald Trump isn't. He's not. He's been a Democrat for most of his political career. I know. I tell you, Hillary's more like a Republican than Trump. Yeah. I swear to God. I swear she is. She's amazing. You know, neutral. Yeah, and it's amazing that so few Republicans will admit that, you know, and her record tests you and even some of her campaign strategies against Bernie Sanders. What is it? Because I don't think... I don't know. The party... I guess the party just wants somebody Republican in office, or I mean, I don't... Yeah. It just... Well, some one... The party wants to have its name on the office, even if its principles aren't, I suppose. Right, right. And I guess it just attempts to the power of groupthink, you know, and of mob mentality, and how that can take over people, and how people want to be on a team so badly that they'll abandon their principles for it. Right. Totally, totally. You know, as far as I can see, Mike Pence and Donald Trump are miles like eons apart, right? I mean, so... Yeah, Mike Pence is kind of your very streamlined Republican. Yeah, right, exactly. He's been a Republican forever. Yeah, Post Ronald Reagan Republican, you know, religious guy, conservative guy. So it's... Yeah, it's just... I just... Every day I wake up and I feel dislocated because I don't know what's going on. The world seems turned upside down. And you know, Hillary Clinton, I'm a Democrat, and I'm a liberal, and I'm not crazy about Hillary Clinton. I think Hillary Clinton is the stole of the nomination. I do, I really think I think the DNC rigged the Democratic nomination. So it's just like I'm living in a different world, you know? And, you know, it'll be interesting to see the turnouts respectively in Hawaii because Hawaii voted so overwhelmingly for Bernie Sanders. Right. And... Will they go to the Libertarian choice? Will they go to the Green Party choice? I think they might have until the last month and all the gaffes of Gary Johnson. I do know some people who are supporting Jill Stein, but not that many. Yeah, that's what I think I can see. I mean, at residents of Hawaii being more aligned with Jill Stein. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I tell you, it's funny about Hawaii because I came from like a real liberal bubble, Manhattan and New York City, and this is a real liberal bubble too. I was thinking as I was walking over here how happy I was to have you because, you know, otherwise everybody just spouts the same stuff. There's nobody's a critical, a unique critical thinker. Everybody's just on the same... Oh, yeah. I was looking at Facebook yesterday and one of the politicians, a very popular local politician, wrote that he had just voted and so he had a stream of, you know, 100 or so commenters saying, yeah, I voted for you. And then a good couple... A good dozen of them probably said blew across the ticket, blew in, you know, bold capital letters. And that's not responsible to not do any research on the candidates and just to vote one party across the ticket because in some races, the typical roles are switched. Like, for instance, it's no secret that I work for a Republican, the only Republican in the state Senate, and he's very strong on environmental issues. Well, Republicans have a bad reputation on environmental issues and his opponent actually voted for the whole Peely development on the West Side, which is, I believe, a nearly 2,000-acre project to develop prime agricultural land. And so the Democrat opponent supported that and Senator Sloan, my boss, opposed that. And so I kind of cringed to think at how many voters who support environmental issues will be voting for the anti-environmental candidate just because of the letter. And actually, you know, Richard Nixon is the president that created the EPA. So there is a little bit of history there with Republicans and the environment. So yeah, you have to take each person as an individual and do an analysis of their positions. Because some Democrats are, you know, just more like Republicans and you really can't... I don't think voting by ticket is a good idea. Yeah, absolutely. It encourages groups, you know. And in Hawaii, you know, where our labor unions are so strong and powerful, I'm afraid that that's going to be happening more than in most places, because, you know, the labor union gives you a ticket that has each choice filled out, generally each Democrat choice. Does it really? Really? Yeah, often. We were surprised to see that Senator Sloan got endorsed by the Star Advertiser last week, which was a big, big statement because, you know, it's usually a fairly liberal newspaper, a very liberal newspaper. But he must be an excellent, you know, representative. Yeah, a senator. Well, yeah, he's an exceptional senator and he's also really... even though he's not as combative as some of the Republicans in the State House, because obviously there are no other Republicans in the State Senate, he holds more true to the conservative platform in general. And, you know, I disagree with some of his platforms, especially on the social issues, but he... you know what you're getting and anyone has to respect that, especially when you get it with the kind of transparency that you do. Right, right. So, you know, I just hope that this stay-in-republican ticket doesn't cost him the election, because it's good, because that costs the whole of Hawaii. Yeah, yeah, I hope not. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back and talk about how historical this election really is. Aloha, everybody. My name is Mark Shklav. I'd like you to join me for my program, Law Across the Sea, on thinktechhawaii.com. Aloha. Thank you for watching Think Tech. I'm Grace Chang, the new host for Global Connections. You can find me here live every Thursday at 1 p.m. where we'll be talking to people around the islands or visiting the islands who are connected in various aspects of global affairs. So, please tune in and Aloha, and thanks for watching. Aloha. I am Reg Baker, and I am the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 in the Think Tech studios in downtown Aululu. We highlight successful stories about businesses and individuals and learn their secrets to success. I hope you can join us on our next show on Thursday at 2 o'clock. Until then, Aloha. Hi. You're watching Community Matters, and I'm here with the Lisa Anderson. We're talking about this very historic election that's coming up on Tuesday. And, you know, I was wondering, you're a different generation than I am, and I have profound feelings about the first woman president, even though it probably wouldn't be my first choice as the first woman president. Is your generation, like, equally excited, or do they just think this is the way... I don't think so. No, it's normal for you, right? Yeah, no, I don't think so, because my generation largely played on coed soccer teams growing up. I didn't play soccer. I played tennis, but my childhood teams were coed in tennis. We, you know, had Jim with the boys and the girls together. Our schools are coed, and I think we just kind of take it for granted. Frankly, I noticed more times growing up that the girls and boys would be separated than when they were together. Right. And I didn't like being kind of considered apart from the boys. I was personally a very good student in math since I was about eight or so, and I kind of resented it when people said, oh, wow, you're doing better than the boys than your girl. Right, I know. That's a stereotype. It's terrible, because I was also... I was equally good in math and English, and I was encouraged in English, but not so much in math. It was like it was an anomaly or something. Yeah, absolutely. You know what I mean? So, oh, well, that's great to hear, because, you know, I still remember, I mean, so much discrimination and so much... I'll give you an example. I always give this example, because nobody ever believes it. I once worked in an office where there was a birthday party, and the gift to the boss in the office was a stripper that came into the office... What was it? ...and stripped. Yeah, this was like 1970... During work hours. During work hours. During lunch hours. Wow. Right. So people like, you know, there's a whole generation, two generations probably, that, you know, there would be horrified... I mean, I was horrified, you know, I was horrified, and you know, I said, you know, I really feel uncomfortable with this naked lady in the office. Yeah. And somebody said to me, I'll never forget it. Oh, Mary Ann, you have no sense of humor. That's what they said to me. How many other women were in the room? There was that... Oh, another woman said that to me. She was the only other woman in the room. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I have a friend from college who did a senior thesis project on women's critiques of other women... Women's critiques of other women compared to men's critiques of women. And the women were universally harsher on each other than the men were. Right. So it's interesting, because she wanted so much to be part of that club that she kind of turned to you to be the outsider to prove that she was part of the club. Right, right. And you know, to be honest with you happily, I've seen a change in that. When I was younger, women executives and powerful women did really identify with the men and weren't so nice to the junior women coming up. But now I see there's like much more solidarity, much more strength. Well, there's just many more women in the workplace. Yeah. So, you know. But I'm delighted that it's not... To me, it's like, wow, what... You know, I can still remember, you know, when women couldn't, you know, get credit and stuff like that. So it seems very historical. But the fact that the younger generation is oblivious, not oblivious, but it's a meaningless, you know, distinction makes me have so happy. I feel like there's a significant change even since 2008 when Hillary Clinton was running against Barack Obama. I think so. That we heard, oh, the first woman president all the time. And now, that's kind of in the back. And maybe, maybe it's because of the tilt that Donald Trump put on the screen. I think so. He's put a whole other spin. But he is a nasty woman. She's not a nasty person. So he's trying to make it about that to some degree. Right, right. That was probably one of his, in my view, biggest gaffes. Because he could have said, my opponent is nasty. He could have said, there's one nasty woman. Yeah, right. That really brought it down to a level that, you know, a level that's become kind of typical. It's shocking, like the things he says about people. Just sort of polite, a polite, not that Hillary Clinton is like so honest or so great, I think, but just in polite conversations. Decency. Yeah! Just none. It's a polling, you know? I mean, even, I know most Republicans, at least most should oppose to how he was harassing, you know, our war hero from the last election, John McCain. Right. And he, and that were from a couple of elections go, but that was inex, that was unexcusable. It was unbelievable. That you, that you're a prisoner of war and therefore you're not a hero. I mean, he's lashing out everywhere. I know. And the racial stuff, the Mexican stuff, it's ridiculous. I know. But you know, he is representing, and I think you and I are very lucky because we're not really in contact, not that we're very lucky, but we're not in contact. He's tapping into this group of working class or lower middle class, white people. I wouldn't even say just men now. I'd say men and women. Well, I have a good friend who I just had lunch with a couple days ago, who's a professor at an elite Ivy League college. And you know, nowadays they're, they have this safe space nonsense going on. I'm going to be frank. It's nonsense. I'll tell you a story after you. You can't dress up as an Indian anymore for Halloween. It's absurd. I know. And so, and my friend is actually a minority on several different levels. He's an Asian-American and he's homosexual. And, and so, you know, you'd think that someone who can fit those demographics would be less critical about safe spaces, but he needs censorship. Yeah. I mean, if you like censorship, then you like safe spaces. Yeah. Yeah. The safe space, and I really think it's discrediting the college institution in general. I think so, because it's not a laboratory of ideas anymore, because you can't really express your ideas. No. You can't. You can't. And there's, and freedom of speech is crumbling away in the environment where it should matter the most. Right. But what Donald Trump's offering is a backlash against that. Exactly. And he phrased it, my friend phrased it so nicely, is a safe space for what? That's right. That's exactly right. They can, they can just, yeah, that's exactly right. You know, you and I have been lucky because based on merit, we've achieved, you know, what you're supposed to achieve, you know, Ivy League education and a certain status and so on. And, but if you don't have that mind, if you don't have that kind of mind that you don't have to offer, you're cut out, you're really cut out in this country. And by 40, I was reading this article that said that, you know, people by 40 sometimes are laid off at white working class people never to get a job again because they just recycle in newer and younger people. So, I mean, somebody has to do something, a jobs program or something to help these people because they're suffering. Do you think though that it's a objective matter, a financial matter that they don't have to do? Because I know, I know, I know. That's a good question. Because I know some Donald Trump supporters who have been on both sides of the economic spectrum who feel disenfranchised even though they have plenty of means to right. Well, I think largely it's an economic question, but I understand the people. Listen, I'm a member of the northeastern elite and they make money. So, I don't even like, that's where I come from. That's where I went to school and I understand they seem like such a closed, like snobby club. So, I would understand why somebody with differing political views, irrespective of economic class would say, I don't want these guys in control. I want something a little more fundamentally, I don't know, I was going to say American, but that's not right. It's hard to define that word these days. I've heard that among college graduates, Hillary Clinton's outdoing Donald Trump by about three to one and for college, for those without college educations, and this is within Caucasians on both sides, Donald Trump has a lead. I forget what the percentage is, but I think they're low information voters. At least 10% have. I think they, for the most part, and that's not to say there aren't educated, wealthy people voting for Donald Trump, but I think, for the most part, they're low, low information. They get all of their information from, you know, they don't read particularly, and they may be from news, maybe Fox News, although you might have Fox News. I'm not a fan of Fox News. Okay. And not, but I don't even think they get their information from Fox News. I don't think they watch news at all. I think they get their information from like stupid people versus smart people. I think this is an emotional race on both sides that who do you identify with, and almost they're mannerisms and they're in the actions. I think that's more important than this race, even than the bare facts. But you know, I don't want like, I don't want somebody like Donald Trump to represent this country, somebody with mannerisms like that and like the vulgar event. But on the other hand, I don't want someone who can relate to somebody who understands the plight of people that haven't been completely fortunate in the system and who need help or something. They need something. But how could someone in that position work their way up to becoming a major candidate for president? Yeah, those days are gone, I think, which is unfortunate, really, because you know, Nixon was the president that I can remember that actually was born in modest circumstances, or maybe Bill Clinton, I guess also, but I don't think you can do it. I don't think you can do it anymore, like, you know, be like Abe Lincoln be born in a log cabin and become president. I think you need to be a part of like, you know, a money, a certain money delete, you know, because it's too expensive. They're like, I think Bernie Sanders came pretty close. Yeah, but the system was rigged against him. It was totally rigged. It was totally rigged against him. Like, I, you know, my husband, he says these things to irritate me, but he's like, oh, you know, Hillary Clinton didn't really have to run. She just called in a few favors and then she was going to be the nominee. You knew that, right? Going in. And it sort of seems like that, you know, what's going to happen then? I hope Tim Cain's prepared. Yeah, but I'm not a big, such a big fan of his either. So, but yeah, I hope Tim Cain's prepared because he has a very good chance of being the next president of the United States. I mean, because I think the FBI actually, it's not a trumped up thing they're doing. It's to use a word. I think they actually have legitimate reason for investigation. You know, I don't think they're doing it just as a political action. Like a lot of liberals think, oh, they're just doing it for politics. But I don't believe that. I don't... What do you think about the timing of this recent release of emails? I think that's interesting. I think Comey, it is one of two things. Eva Comey is like the most upstanding guy of integrity who could not let this go on without exposing it. That's one vision of Comey I have. And another vision of Comey is somebody who is in cahoots or with the elite of the Republican Party to undermine the election in whatever way he can. I lean toward integrity. But just because you have integrity or you think what you're doing is right doesn't mean it's right. Right? But I have a feeling that he was genuine in his desire to be... Well, whether or not it's right or not if your intentions are in a... Right. in a meritorious direction. I don't think he was put up to... You know, I don't think that was really necessarily a political move. I think it was a not well thought out move maybe, but I think that he felt that it was something that he had to do because he certainly put himself under the microscope, right? I mean, there was no reason for him to do that really. Yeah. So, you know, I heard a funny joke about the Clintons. I think this is such a funny joke. So my boss is a Republican. We talk all the time. And he's always talking about how the Republican... Is he a Trump supporter? No. Oh, my God. Is he a Trump supporter? I'm not sure. Well, in Hawaii, it hardly matters because of how the electoral college works. Right, but still. But still. So he always says that the Clintons are like the mafia. You know, they have fingers in everything. They're like a big criminal conspiracy. He used to be a prosecutor. So I said, you know, if the Clintons really had power, Anthony Weiner would be dead. They'd have gotten rid of him a long time ago. I don't know how to respond to that politically. No, I know. It's just a funny joke. I'm only saying it jokingly. But I mean, really, he's been such a thorn in their side. And now with the emails, it's just... And how ironic that it was on his computer. Yeah. I mean, just... It's icky. This is a very icky election, I would say. That's my political commentary for this election. So... You know. Okay. Okay. So... Okay, so... I assume you're voting for Clinton, right? You seem more... I have to say. I mean, you're not obligated to say. Um... Should I say? Should I say? Yes, for various reasons I'm voting for Clinton. Because she's a Republican. So... Well, that's not the reason why I'm voting for Clinton. But... And I am too, and probably for the wrong reasons. Lisa's probably voting for the right reasons, and I'm probably voting for the wrong reasons. I believe in my reason, and some people know what that reason is. Okay. And we thank you for joining us today at Community Matters. We're Lisa Anderson and Mary Ann Sasaki, which will be a good weekend. And vote! Vote, yes. Vote. I might do that today, actually.