From the First Congressional District to the House and the Senate to the lieutenant governor's race, many of the most pivotal elections of this year will be decided within Democratic Party’s primaries.
We’re a heavily Democratic state. I know that. You know that. We know that.
I’ve often wondered how that came to be the case. To answer that question, my default setting is history. History gets you answers if you know where to look. It’s not for nostalgia’s sake alone that history is useful. More often than not, history reveals the true location of present-day problems.
In a local history class, you’ll be taught (maybe) that there was a Democratic ‘Revolution’ in November 1954. It was like the local version of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Rural Democrats organized by the ILWU from across the Neighbor Islands combined with urbanite Democrats in Honolulu to successfully seize control of both houses of the Territorial Legislature.
The Democrats established a beachhead in the Legislature, one that they steadily reinforced until they effectively consolidated control over all branches of state government in the ’60s. Such consolidated power is where we are likely to remain in 2026.
So 1954 is the beginning of that history, but what made the Democratic Party so appealing in 1954?
To answer that question, I started to search for a document that’s not easily findable online. In fact, finding the document required me to scan newspaper archives in the hopes of finding a stray copy printed in an edition.
Even seasoned politicos have never read the document. However, I’d argue it remains one of the most political documents in the last century of Hawai‘i’s history.
It’s a statement that rationalizes the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i’s right to power and their vision for the future, at least in 1954. The future, in 1954, was full of so much promise. There was so much to build in Hawai‘i.
It is the 1954 Platform of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i. I found a copy, which I’ve transcribed and left here.
It’s a bombastic document that hails the Democratic Party as “the greatest political party in the world today.” I don’t know if I’d agree with such a statement, or whether even Democrats would agree with such a statement today.
Beyond that one bombastic statement, however, I was surprised by the document’s tone. It is not about a person’s rights alone, but what a person is expected to be able to do with the rights they attain. People should be able to get an education, work a decent job, have a home, and start a business. In 1954, the Democratic Party wanted to make it easier for residents to do those things. The Democratic Party wanted to build a Hawai‘i where people would be able to live the lives they deserved to live.
The platform of 1954 makes commitments on statehood, taxation, small business and home ownership, land ownership and economic development, education, labor, home rule, the rights and obligations of individuals, and health and welfare. Some of the commitments feel especially relevant to a young person concerned with the viability of Hawai‘i as a place with a future.
Many sections feel foreign, if only because their ideas seem to run contrary to the general state of affairs in our time. On small business and home ownership, for instance, it pledges to “provide financial assistance from the Territory to encourage” small business, independent, farming, ranching and home construction. It also pledges to “repeal existing laws which discriminate against” small-scale enterprises.
Government needed to let small business boom. People deserved to be able to build homes. Fallow agricultural land needed to be brought into production by local people.
It’s a document built on a person’s access to opportunity – and their ability to build out a better place. Such sentiments are not partisan, and perhaps that’s where the Democratic Party Platform of 1954 is not a very partisan document.
1954 remains important, if not for any particularly romantic reason. The 1954 Democratic Party Platform is therefore refreshing because it is not a romantic document. It is idealistic, but as a political proclamation, it is also measured.
You may not be a Democrat. However, any resident of Hawai‘i is the figurative (and even literal, for a few) descendant of the Hawai‘i imagined in the words of the 1954 Democratic Party Platform. Our politics, culture, economics, and society is framed by a party which came to power in 1954 on the principles of that platform.
The 1954 Platform is concise. Perhaps it also remains a vision for Hawai‘i’s future. The current platform of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, in contrast, is nearly three times as long as the 1954 platform.
The 1954 Platform was a sober and responsible document. Hawai‘i would benefit from such sober and responsible concision in 2026.
Perry Arrasmith can be reached at hello@perryarrasmith.com.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
