HOOSER: 2025 — Time to pivot

Where were you, “Pop Pop”? Where were you in 2025 when it started? Did you fight back or did you look the other way? Did you help build the walls or did you help tear them down?

That’s the question our grandchildren will ask when they look back at the dark history of this particular moment in time.

Someone said to me recently, “Stay calm, it’s just a storm, it’s normal to expect some disruption when there’s change at the top. Soon it will pass, and things will settle down.”

“Expletive you,” I said. “Shutting down Medicaid even for a few hours has tangible implications — people die when denied treatment or if treatment is delayed because of games played by the powerful and privileged.”

This is not normal, my friends, and it will not “soon pass” or “settle down.”

Normal is mutual respect, compassion, empathy, collaboration and inclusiveness. Leadership that belittles, mocks, blames and targets people just because of their appearance, the language they speak, the size of their bank account, or who they love, is not normal or acceptable.

Normal is a gradual transition of change, not pulling the plug on people’s lives. Normal is not the overnight total disruption of health, hunger, education and countless programs and initiatives in place for decades.

Normal is following the law. Normal is bringing contrasting opinions to the table, reaching consensus, then implementing a plan — not eliminating gatekeepers in the middle of the night, while giving your power-crazed narcissistic friends keys to the national Treasury.

Normal is appointing qualified professionals with actual experience in the subject matter they will be managing. Normal is appointing people whose public record is largely devoid of illegal, immoral and unethical behavior.

In no way, shape or form have the past two weeks been normal.

What we’re witnessing, and largely acquiescing to, is the dismantling of our democracy.

In its place will be a blend of plutocracy, oligarchy and kleptocracy — look it up.

My cynical friends say the rich already run the world, a few of the very richest are pulling all the strings, and corporate America is already robbing us blind.

And you know what? I’m not gonna argue with them. But it’s never been this bad, and it’s gonna get a whole lot worse.

This is when I pivot from hiding under the covers crying tears of OMG, to looking all of you in the eye and asking, “So what are we going to do about it?”

Feels so much better after the pivot.

My own default position is to always, first and foremost, think global and act local — and I encourage you to consider doing the same.

We must vigorously support our lawmakers at all levels who are unafraid to put people and the planet first, and vigorously oppose those who sell us out.

How do we regular folk, without money or access to the halls of power, fight back?

With our voices, our votes, our bodies, and yes our pocketbooks.

Those of us in blue states must stay close to our representatives in Washington, thank those willing to stand up and be counted, and condemn those who straddle the fence or hide quivering in the shadows.

We must reach out to friends in red states and encourage them to do the same.

But as Nina Turner, a true champion of democracy says, “Any ole blue won’t do.”

We need to support and elect people, both locally and nationally, who will fight for us.

We cannot just hunker down and wait, hope and pray for things to get better.

We must take action — in the courts, on the streets, at the ballot box, and in the halls of government. We must shout our message from the rooftops, and protect our most vulnerable friends and neighbors.

Enough already. Let’s do it.

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Gary Hooser served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kauai County Council. He presently writes on Hawaii policy and politics at www.garyhooser.blog.