Conventions had relevance to isle voters

Pity the poor undecided voter. The 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions have concluded, leaving voters to choose between two starkly different political visions — with eight more weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

While the conventions took place on the other side of the country, their messages resonate here. In Thursday’s debate between U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono and former Gov. Linda Lingle, the two candidates for U.S. Senate echoed some of the arguments made by their respective parties, although with important differences.

Lingle accused her opponent of being weak and ineffective — much like Mitt Romney, who lamented that President Barack Obama had "disappointed America." Hirono warned that Lingle would follow the GOP playbook, which Obama described as "the same prescription they’ve had for the last 30 years" — enriching the wealthy and Wall Street at the expense of the middle class and the poor.

This is rhetoric, but behind it lie critical and substantive policy differences. And it’s mild stuff compared to the brutal, ignorant caricatures that have plagued this presidential campaign. No, Obama is not a secret Muslim with a hidden strategy to destroy America by turning it into a European-style socialist state. Romney is not a robotic vulture capitalist who wants to mortgage America’s future to rapacious business interests while destroying the middle class. Both are honorable men who want to improve this country; but their solutions are considerably different, and they will affect Hawaii as much as anywhere else. Voters must look past the campaign sound bites to make an informed decision.

For example, keeping health care affordable as our population ages makes the future of Obama’s Affordable Care Act a crucial choice. Hirono would preserve it; Romney would repeal it; Lingle would significantly modify it.

On defense, the Republicans would increase defense spending, but don’t say how; Obama would limit spending, even while his Asia-forward vision would put more troops and hardware in Hawaii while winding down U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, where many Hawaii-based forces are deployed.

On energy, Romney would double down on fossil fuel development, easing regulations and opening up more federal land to oil exploration. Obama would invest more in clean, renewable energy — a closer match to Hawaii’s goals of going 70 percent green by 2030, an initiative championed by Lingle.

Of course, the biggest economic headache is the lack of jobs. The federal government’s August employment report showed nonfarm payroll employment rising by 96,000 — a disappointing figure for economists, who were expecting 125,000. The jobless rate inched down to 8.1 percent, a decline attributed to more unemployed dropping out of the work force.

It’s just the sort of big, intractable problem that requires strong action. Instead, we get more rhetoric. Jobs legislation from both parties sits idle in Congress while party leaders hurl brickbats at each other. For Democrats, the Republicans are obstructionists who have blocked key elements of Obama’s American Jobs Act. For Republicans, anything that sounds like stimulus is a non-starter.

The larger debate is over the proper role of government. Obama points out, with some justification, that government can be a positive agent for change. Hiring more teachers, firefighters and police officers, as well as investing in infrastructure projects, could put a big dent in those jobless numbers. Romney and the Republicans respond that raising taxes on the affluent to pay for his jobs plan would cripple the so-called "job creators." These arguments are more than academic in Hawaii, which has a large number of government workers and organized labor in the construction trades. Unfortunately, this political stalemate won’t be broken before election day; voters will have to choose their preferred option.

While the fireworks from the conventions have faded, the struggle for the undecided voter rages on. The best voter is an educated one, so it’s fortunate that Lingle and Hirono have scheduled four more televised debates: Oct. 8 on KHON; Oct. 16 on KITV News; Oct. 18 on PBS Hawaii; and Oct. 22 on Hawaii News Now. If last week’s debate was any indication, they should be worth watching.