 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Happy Aloha Friday and welcome to Perspectives on Global Justice Think Tech Hawaii program. This is your host Beatrice Cantelmo. Today's episode is devoted to democracy and we will have a very special guest with us, Laura Nevitt, Executive Director of the Democratic Party for the State of Hawaii. Join us in this exciting and candid dialogue about the State of Democracy in the U.S. under the Trump administration and about what the Democratic Party of Hawaii is up to and much more. On that note, welcome to our show, Laura. Oh, for having me. This is fantastic. Absolutely. So to all viewers who do not know much about you, just give us a little blabber. I will try to keep it short. So my name is Laura Nevitt. I came here in February to take over as Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. First time, they've had a full-time paid Executive Director in forever. So finally, decided to put some resources into that. So that's kind of exciting. I come out of campaign work. So I really have spent 20 years doing political campaigns, candidates, progressive Democratic candidates, and issues all kind of all over the country. I've worked in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Michigan and Louisiana and Washington States and Ohio and Iowa. So kind of been all over doing primarily like as a candidate, we're going to electing Democrats to office and a couple of issue advocacy pieces. So kind of this is my life and what I've done and love party politics. So that's kind of my passion. It's where I come from. And when Athens lost election, I was kind of horribly devastated by a loss for many reasons, not just from a party standpoint, but from a gender standpoint as well. I kind of crawled into a bed after election day and I think we've had a month to crawl back. A million of us. I thought it was dead. And it's the ones. Even after, yeah, and so we took about a month to crawl back out again. And when I kind of looked at what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to go work for a party, a state party, instead of going back to campaign work. So Hawaii just ended up coming up on my list, looking for an executive director. So I applied on a lovely whim. And lo and behold, they decided to hire me. It's been quite a joyous ride. I love being here. I love our members. I love the work that we do. And we're really in a state of trying to rebuild a state party that this is going to sound really strange. But because it's so blue here, it's an inactive party. They just haven't felt the need that they need to because what does it matter? We elect Democrats either way. And so trying to figure out how to move members into action around legislation or just helping, you know, the rest of the country. We did phone banking into congressional districts that were special elections this past year and trying to get people used to actually doing stuff again. So that's kind of where we're at. Very exciting. So well, let's talk a little bit about the Democratic Party's role with regards to not only working with constituents, but also elected representatives right now who are Democratic, but are they really not embracing Democratic values and bills and... Exactly. Well, this is the challenge, right? So you have what most people don't understand is while elected officials run as Democrats, we don't own them as a party, right? They run as a Democrat, but they are elected by their constituents. And so they really answer to that constituency because that's who left them. Our work is, you know, to grow our membership, have our members be someone that push on elected officials. We have legislative priorities that are important to us. And so, you know, we hope that as you're going to run as a Democrat and put a D next to your name that you're going to carry our mantle of what's important to us. That doesn't always happen. But when you don't have an active membership, there's no, right? Accountability away from... You know, that push and pull kind of has to happen. In a healthy democracy, you would have lots of things. You would have an active Republican Party. You would have active members. You would have elected officials that you're in conversation with. And you're all working together to kind of come up with good policies that affect people's lives, right? And in Hawaii, it's an interesting thing. While, you know, Democrats own the majority of elected seats, you've kind of lost the active membership in the Democratic Party, like I said, out of this sense of apathy. Like, why should we bother a Democrat that gets elected either way? And so that... And you certainly don't have an active Republican Party at all, right? They hold four seats in the house and that's like it. And so, you know, this loss of kind of tension that was what to me drives conversation, drives the ability to kind of push someone, whether it's an elected, you know, on whatever level to say, you know, hey, this is, you know... And so we're trying to change that. We're trying to change that We're having better conversations with our elected officials. We're engaging our members. We're holding discussions and forums around issues as we get ready to go into a legislative session, right? Teach our folks how to like track legislation that they're interested in, you know, make sure you're in contact with your legislator, know how to get in contact with them, all those kinds of things, you know, which stuff that has not been happening over the years. So it's really back to the basics, which for me is kind of fun. It's about teaching people how to be civically engaged again, right? So at that core, that is fundamentally what we should all be doing anyway, right? And to me, in a true democracy, that's how you understand what people want, what the majority want, and that's how we should legislate. And so, but if you don't have that happening, you then end up legislators just kind of doing their thing. And so we as a party have to be better about them hearing from our members. And then an election time that we're out helping them get elected or not, right, depending on, and we're out knocking on doors and we're talking to our neighbors and we're having conversations. And this is what the Democratic Party is about and support, right? So all of that stuff kind of has to get re-activated with the Democratic Party in Hawaii. So sounds like you're going to be very busy. I am very busy and inspiring. It's in a good way. It's the work that I like to do. And in some ways, it's better for me no longer not to advocate for a specific candidate, but really, I'm advocating for democracy. I'm advocating that we be an engaged community around issues that are important to us. So let's talk a little bit about the core priorities that the Democratic Party holds right now. Oh, goodness. Well, we actually have, you know, we have a platform that we vote on every two years at our state convention, which will be happening next year. And so that's an ongoing thing that, you know, if you wanted to go to www.HawaiiDemocrats.org, you could look up our platform of resolution. And those are things that we fight for at a legislative level. Generally speaking, you know, we're about social justice and taking care of people and making sure that, you know, there's equity across the board for folks that are disenfranchised and doing that kind of work and making sure we're taking care of our Kapuna and, you know, our native Hawaiian family and doing all those kinds of things. So it's really, you know, a lot of, if you look at that platform and those resolutions, it really is about taking care of each other and making sure we all have opportunity and access to everything equally that there's, you know, trying to strike a balance. And so that's generally. So you just moved here on February. And I think sometimes it's really nice to have an outside and fresh look of Sutton's data. I'm also not from here. I've been here for three years now. What was it about Hawaii that you thought was together? And what's the reality? Oh, what are the things that you found? They're like, oh. Well, I think anytime anybody applies for a job in Hawaii, it really is like, oh my god, I could go work in Hawaii. Like it's this dream, kind of this idea of a dream place. You're going to go be in a tropical paradise, paradise, right? I know. However, that exactly. So you're like, why, you know, why wouldn't I do that? Right? That'd be awesome. And some of that is true, right? And it's certainly in terms of weather and, you know, being on the ocean, you know, those are the things for me and I'm very much affected by my surroundings. So I love that and that I can be outside every day. I come from Minnesota. So this time of year, we would be starting to get cold and layers would be happening and the start to shut the windows and the doors and the things. So I love that I don't have to do that. But the things that I that I found one that were the same anywhere I've been, like I said, I've lived in many different states. It's kind of the inside politics that happens. Party politics is kind of interesting and kind of the factioning and everybody thinks that they're, you know, we're way different than everybody else. And the reality is, I mean, in that, in that arena, you're not right. That is politics is politics. I don't care where you go. So, so we're right on the cuff. Right now, you're right where everybody else is. I think the downside, like I said, is the inactivity over the years has caused some inability to have probably some real political push where you would in other places. But that's, you know, something you can fit, you know, totally fixable and with work and building, you change that. And that's what we're working on. And that's really exciting to see happening as members are like, I just had a district chair in the other day and we've been putting together these manuals to like, because another one thing I heard when I caught here is like, we don't know what we're supposed to do. Like, nobody's told us what we're supposed to do besides show up for meeting. And even that, we're not really sure. So we actually said, okay, let's work with that. Let's give you instructions, right? So we put together, you know, we put together these binders that we're getting ready to actually pass out to all our districts that, like from a constitutional bylaw standpoint, here's your job duties. If you get elected as a, you know, let's say a district treasurer, like, what is it you're supposed to do? What are you responsible for? Right? And then here's some best practices, right? So giving them some guidelines and we go through the entire state party structure and like, lay it out for them. And then we're giving them stuff about why you should organize and how to organize in your community, right? And then just contact information for their state central committee and their state legislators. And they're like, you know, so it's kind of this really good resource that they can have in their district that they can use if they have questions that, you know, and I was just going through this with a district chair and they were just like, oh my God, this is fantastic. Like, oh my God, this is kind of, you know, we're really back to basics, but sometimes you got to do that. That's just the nature of the beast. You kind of, when apathy happens, that's you got to go back and start over. Well, the part of the apathy also has a lot to do with complacency, you know, when you feel so secure, you know, that nothing is going to change for much more so that it may not change for the better either. You just kind of put all that. And so then those very basic knowledge, you know, gets lost in the trenches. I actually have a suggestion for you. I'm Wisconsin, you know, I lived in Madison. And one of the things that the community did a lot was walking with the kids, starting an elementary school level. Yes. To not only help them understand how the entire process works, what is the role of each representative. And also what they could do. So even though they can't vote, I mean, it's an amazing practice to how to be able to go back to civics 101 in school, which they stopped teaching a long time ago. The challenge is most schools don't want a partisan group to come in. So we don't often get to go do that because they don't, that makes them very uncomfortable because it feels too political. So about, you know, there's working with like legal women voters and other organizations that are non-profits. Oh, bipartisan, perhaps. Oh, that's what I said, you know, how you get around that is go ahead and invite the Republican executive director or Republican chair, whatever, and have us both come in and talk about the difference between parties. But because really it is, it's about how do you engage in this. We know that the earlier you can teach someone to be participating and voting, if they can get them right out of the gate, they become lifelong. Right. And they have to grow up in a family where it's an important aspect of, right. Exactly. Like I grew up, my dad wasn't particularly political, but I just always remember him, you know, you always wouldn't vote it. They never talked about it per se, but just even the act that I knew every year, like this was, it was voting day. So I remember on my 18th birthday, I was off and cut my college. And while having never, like my parents, he never took me to the voting booth, but I just remember that my first 18th birthday, I got to go vote like, I got to go vote. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. And I'm just having that thing like, I don't remember anybody explaining that to me per se, like explicitly, but I just was like, it was just because I grew up in a family where like voting was what you did, right. That's wonderful. It was just part of life, right. So the sooner you can get folks to do that. So yeah, anytime you can get to kids early. Absolutely. Especially if they grew up in a family where their parents don't vote. So you have to get at them some other ways. So we're going to take a quick break and be right back. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2pm, I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science. You care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for a likable science. Welcome back to Perspectives on Global Justice, Think Tech Hawaii. This is your host, Beatrice Contelmo. And we're here with Laura Nevitt-Nevitt, executive director of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. So here we are talking about democracy and voting, which is something that, you know, it comes so naturally. And yet so many people don't vote. Right. Or disengage politically. And we often forget how much we can take that for granted. Because of the privilege of living in a democratic country, I grew up, my former TV years, I was spent in Brazil. And so until 1985, it was under a military dictatorship regime. And so we had no democracy for decades, like the most old decades. And I remember as a child, being in awe and admiring democratic countries in the United States, being one of those countries that I so much aspired, that our country in Brazil would be more like in terms of democracy. And I think my generation, everybody was just so pumped and ready to be on the streets, to be civically engaged, to finally be able to learn about democracy and to be able to vote. You know, I was able to vote at the age of 18 for the first time. So proud. Like to think about my mother and my father, where they really never had a chance until 85 to really vote. And it's a huge thing. Well, I think, you know, we need more people like you in our lives, like where they come from places. I was before, while we were breakers, telling you we have an intern at the office who's from Tonga. And they just switched from being a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy. And so part of why he came to intern when I, you know, he's a student at BYU, which is why I kind of was like, interesting, not generally known to be Democrats. So I saw with it one day and was just like, okay, I kind of have to ask, like, what made you want to come, you know, intern at the Democratic Party of Hawaii, given kind of political, right? Not that I want to make an assumption about all, you know, BYU folks, but generally they tend not to. And so he said to me that he's like, yeah, you know, I'm from Tonga, this thing happened, they're in their first year of transition. And he is just passionate about wanting to be able learning everything he can about democracy. Because he, when he's go, he'll go home, he's in a senior year, he'll go home. And wanting to really make sure it sticks, right? That they, that, you know, we can continue a democracy. And when he said, you know, when I researched kind of both political parties, it ended up being kind of a no-brainer about which one more embraced that ideal than the other. And so I was like, wow. I was like, okay, that's, I mean, talk about inspiring. I mean, those are the things I get to do every day. We recently met with a bunch of wonderful gentlemen from India who came over through the state, through a leadership program through the state department, and so got to sit and talk with them about how democracy works in their country and the gender. You know, they were talking about the idea that they're actually trying to pass legislation that minimally requires that 33% of their parliament be women, right? With a goal of getting to 50 at some point. And so we talked about, you know, that how that was different from a country like America, where we're one of the only industrialized countries to have never have elected a woman as president. So let's talk about that. You know, it's an interesting, I had last year an opportunity that I kind of got to live in both camps for a while. So I, lots of very dear friends of mine, Hillary supporters. I was never an anti-Hillary. I've admired her for years as a woman in politics, not that I've ever experienced anything at the scale she has. I at least understand where that comes from, that misogyny in politics. And so it's a struggle, and so it's hard. So I've always just really that her fortitude is amazing. But I ended up going to work for Bernie Sanders for a while. And didn't, I last, I was there for about six months. And ended up having, I hate to say it, because I don't want anybody to think this is like Bernie's fault in particular, but mostly because of the people he tends to hire had probably one of the worst experiences on a political campaign I've ever had. So, and really had a gentleman who just some horrible crazy stuff. So kind of left that after having built up kind of the Bernie movement in Minnesota, and kind of basically having it ripped away from me in some pretty bad ways. But I think kind of kind of quietly left the scene for a while, because I didn't want to, you know, people who were supporting one other candidate support, you know. Again, whoever's going to inspire you to be engaged, I want you to do that, right? But I in the end kind of came back to Hillary because a lot of it around gender politics that I just really as much as I kind of appreciate the economic inequality message Bernie had. He never understood, Ronan only understood, but didn't seem willing to really be able to connect how gender and race impacted that inequality. And he really kind of wanted to erase that from the equation and really just said if we, if we fixed income inequality, that would fix everything. No, there's so much more to that. And I was just like, no, it actually doesn't. Yeah, you can't. I as a woman cannot disconnect my gender and what happens to me as a woman and how it impacts how much money I can make. I cannot separate those two things. As a woman of color, I'm sure that you even have the added, right? Oh, yes. And I didn't even go into it on top of it. So it was really hard to like talk, to like get his supporters or even, I think he understood it in some ways because he didn't, he didn't up surrounding himself with a couple of really amazing women like Simone Sanders and a couple other people, but generally he always seemed to kind of miss the mark on that piece. And so for me, ultimately, because I felt like he really couldn't get there. I just, in the end, and I am, you know, also felt like in the end, he really was about, because when he started the campaign, one of the reasons I could be supportive was, we have to make sure a Democrat wins the White House. That's how we started. And at the end it became, it was about Bernie winning the White House. And that and just kind of the gender stuff I realized I couldn't. I kind of came back. And then she went on to win the nomination. And I just honestly, I was one of those people that I'm like, having watched Donald Trump, who's like, I just, there was a piece of me that I honestly just was like, there's no way. No bias. There's no way that we could elect this man, given all of the stuff we knew about him, especially with the, you know, the tapes about the sex scandals. Oh, the kind of sojourney. And I was like, there's no way that we will elect. I mean, just as a country, I just couldn't. And so, you know, so when he ultimately did win, like there were two things, it was just the loss itself. But it also was the gut punch of a country saying to millions of women, it was more, more important that we elect, that I don't know, I don't know how to phrase this in the right way, so this might not come around. But the idea that like, we still couldn't elect a woman and so no matter how qualified and awesome and whatever she was, there, you know, when our choices were this woman and this horrible man, we went with the horrible man. And I just don't underthink a lot of people, whether you voted for him or not, understood the impact really of that. And mostly because we live in still horribly misogynistic society. Very patriarchal society. Very patriarchal. And, you know, I thought about back in 2008 when Obama and Clinton ran, and I said to folks that, I'm like, we will go with Obama because we will elect a black man before we elect a woman. And so, but I thought, you know, in at least that step, the next step, maybe we'd be okay, but instead we would even farther backwards as a reaction to kind of that. And sadly, we're all going to pay the price for that, right, in ways that I just don't even think, I mean, we're even seeing it the last couple of days. Every day, it feels like, is an onslaught on our freedoms, on democracy, our constitution, our country, everything we value. This man and this administration and this GOP Congress just have no regard for whatsoever. And it's more important for them to stay in power and pass tax reform for their rich friends than it is to actually take care of people, the average person. And I think like one of the positives of the despair of Trump administration, whether, even if you are a Republican supporter, is that the policies are impacting people across parties. I mean, and so at the one level, I hope that there will be chances for reparations where both parties will have to work in the bipartisan level, which I don't know if it's possible under this administration. But it's also igniting people who were either complacent about being civically engaged or who were involved, but maybe go a step further. And really looking that this is so beyond the gender issues, which is big. I mean, women are being so attacked under this administration, but so minorities, so immigrants and the poor, the middle class, there's really not much to call. And I think in some ways, you want a glaring example of all of that. Just look at Puerto Rico, you have Florida and Texas who experience the same devastation and you look at the different responses. And to me, that is purely one. I think we literally have people in Congress and our president who don't understand that Puerto Rico is actually part of America. But I think it also has more to do with their brown people and we don't care. And so it's the part of institutionalized racism and how government parties can continue to reinforce that pattern and not wanting to revisit it and fix it. Because it's not a problem to those who don't see it and don't want to see it. It doesn't have anything at all, so why do I care? And it's very hard. I can't believe how quickly our show ended. Please do it, I would love to have you back as many times as you wish. Bring guests along, let's have live conversations about this. Bring a Republican. I don't actually know nobody here though, it's just really funny. I actually know a couple back in Minnesota, but I haven't run a conversation. Oh, we can connect with them on social media and really have good forums. But I mean, thank you so much for bringing us so welcome, sister. I don't know, so that concludes another episode of Perspectives on Global Justice. Think Takawaii. Thank you so very much our viewers for watching us today. I hope that this program was inspiring to you. Plug along and be engaged, be involved and see you next Friday. Ahui ho.