Six-year-old Mary “Dodie” Brown holds a copy of the 1959 special Hawaii statehood edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
George Bacon/Hawaii State Archives
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George Bacon/Hawaii State Archives
When Arthur Roland Kam thinks back to 1959, he remembers how everyone around him felt a huge political shift as Hawaii became the country’s 50th state.
“For a Hawaiian citizen, it was great because it had been a long time coming,” Kam describes. He was 28 years old, working for Pan Am on the island of Oahu.
“It was a big moment in my lifetime, to know that we are part of the union now,” he says of the pride he felt. “To me, it was a moment to cherish. Now, we have a star on the flag. And that star is Hawaii.”
But as the years have passed, many Hawaiians began to mark August 21, the anniversary of statehood, with solemnity, reflecting on the history of the United States’ seizure and colonization of the Independent Kingdom of Hawai’i.
“There were benefits and protections that came with statehood, but there’s still a painful aspect to the whole history of Hawaii and its overthrow, annexation and statehood,” says Sen. Maisie Hirono, D-Hawaii. “There are a lot of people who do not consider [today] as a time of celebration because of the painful history,” she adds.
Hawaii’s journey to statehood was a complicated one, marked by a series of political calculations and maneuverings in Congress that were amplified by undercurrents — and very often overt displays — of racism.
That story resonates today in the political disputes over the prospect for statehood for the District of Columbia, which has faded from headlines but not disappeared entirely after a push by House Democrats earlier this year.
They called it an issue of justice and fairness; Republicans called it an attempted power grab.
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., for example, said this month that she worries that if Joe Biden is elected president and Democrats gain a governing majority, they’ll try to make states of D.C. and Puerto Rico. McSally implied the territories’ racial makeup would mean they’d likely be easy seats for Democrats to keep and hold.
“We’d never get the Senate back again,” McSally said of the GOP.
Hawaii’s fraught path to statehood
Race and its implications often are subplots in a state’s accession.
In 1893, the monarchy of Hawaii, under Queen Lili’uokalani, was overthrown by white settlers. Five years later, the U.S. annexed Hawaii despite local opposition and protests.
Petitions for statehood began in the first twenty years of Hawaii’s territorial status, a process that intensified during the 1930s when sugar interests were threatened by Congressional legislation and the powerful sugar lobby got behind the statehood cause.
“The pressure from within Hawaii for annexation was from an economic elite of Europeans and European Americans seeking economic, political and military protection,” says Roger Bell, author of “Last Among Equals,” which documents the history of Hawaii’s path to statehood.
“The criteria for statehood the Congress imposes include that the population of the territory seeking statehood must demonstrate that they are sympathetic to and imbued with the principles of what Congress called ‘American democracy,'” Bell explains. “In other words, that they were Americanized politically and culturally.”
During World War II, Hawaii’s majority nonwhite population was regarded with suspicion, asked to demonstrate its loyalty to the United States over Japan. But fears over disloyalty faded after the war, in part because of the heroic efforts of the Japanese-American-led 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Susumu Ito of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit comprised of Japanese Americans from Hawaii which became the most decorated unit for its size and service.
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Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
Statehood efforts accelerated again following the war, but not without new political and racial roadblocks.
In the mid-1950s, Hawaii shifted from being Republican to largely Democratic, which prompted Democrats to increase their push for statehood efforts for both Hawaii and Alaska, another Democratic territory, hoping to boost influence in the Senate by four votes.
Senators from the south flatly rejected statehood.
“The profile of Hawaii racially and culturally was a threat to the rigid patterns of race relations in the American South and to the southern way of life, which was a euphemism, of course, for protecting segregation,” Bell describes.
Some senators were transparent about their motivations in keeping the prospective state out of the union.
Admission of Hawaii would mean “two votes for socialized medicines, two votes for government ownership of industry, two votes against all racial segregation and two votes against the South on all social matters,” said Sen. James Eastland, D-Miss.
A group of supporters of statehood drive through the street in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 13, 1959.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Perhaps we should become the United States of the Pacific and finally should become the United States of the Orient,” said Sen. George Smathers, D-Fla.
Efforts stalled, which frustrated then-President Harry Truman, who observed privately that many southerners “still have that antebellum pro-slavery outlook.”
“The main difficulty with the South is that they are living eighty years behind the times and the sooner they come out of it, the better it will be for the country and themselves,” he wrote in a 1948 letter.
Seven months before it would officially become a state, the Republican County Committee in Hawaii sent petitions to Congress for statehood.
“Our people have willingly and patriotically accepted and complied with any and all national requests, mandates or patriotic obligations required from all American citizens; be it in peace, or in war,” it reminded Congress.
President Dwight Eisenhower helps unfurl the new 50-star flag on Aug. 21, 1959 after signing a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th state of the union. At right is Daniel K. Inouye, Democratic congressman-elect from Hawaii.
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Byron Rollins/AP
In 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation making Hawaii America’s 50th state.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the “Apology Resolution” passed in Congress, which “apologizes to Natives Hawaiians … for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii … and the deprivation of the rights of native Hawaiians to self-determination.”
Not just Hawaii
Before the Civil War, two states were generally admitted to the union at the same time in order to prevent one party, and thereby the divided north and south, from gaining a political advantage.
“You had, up through the 1850s, this idea of balancing: that one state would come in as a free state and one state would come in as a slave state,” says Paul Frymer, professor of politics at Princeton University and author of “Building an American Empire.”
Following the Civil War, the dominant Republican Party looked westward to seize land and break it into states they believed would be Republican.
In what Frymer describes as one of the “biggest hang-ups at the end of the 19th century,” the last two states on the continent – New Mexico and Arizona – vied for statehood.
“Arizona was always settled by more whites than New Mexico was,” Frymer explains. “They both pushed for statehood, but there was more support for Arizona. And here you see both partisan politics, with two parties fighting over what would constitute a state, and then racial politics.”
Much of the statehood debate over New Mexico, which had joined the U.S. as a territory in 1850, hinged on race.
“The conversation in Congress was, ‘Was the state white? Was there a majority white population? Was there a large enough white population that spoke English?’ All of these types of terminology were applied to what was largely an indigenous and formerly Mexican population,” Frymer says.
Republican Sen. Lot Morril of Maine went so far as to call New Mexico’s residents “Indians — the men that we hunt when we have nothing else to do in the summer season.”
Statehood for New Mexico failed to pass until 1912, when Congress felt satisfied the population was “American” enough.
Will there ever be more stars on the flag?
Puerto Rico’s governor’s race in November may bring with it a renewed effort to embrace statehood efforts. Former congressional representative Pedro Pierluisi defeated Gov. Wanda Vázquez in the primary election and is a supporter of statehood.
But strong Republican opposition in Congress and the White House dooms any movement on that legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told TV host Laura Ingraham last year that any Democratic push for D.C. statehood is “full-bore socialism on the march in the House,” a comment that critics felt hearkened back to justifications for keeping Hawaii out of the union.
President Trump has been even more explicit about his reasons for opposing D.C. statehood, telling The New York Post: “Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No, thank you. That’ll never happen.”
A day before the House passed the legislation, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, issued a speech on the Senate floor categorizing statehood efforts as a power grab by Democrats and seemingly dismissing the value of District residents.
“Yes, Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population, but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing,” Cotton said. “In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state.”
His comments prompted outrage on social media, with many pointing out the civil rights implications of the district’s lack of representation. The city has been majority-minority since the 1950s and of its over 705,000 residents, 46% are Black.
But Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., says he views the push for statehood as purely political.
“If your interest is solely to be able to vote for representatives in Congress, you could have retrocession occur,” he says, referencing small efforts in recent years to cede the city’s land back to Maryland, a plan that would not change the number of senators.
“I think the most telling political thing is that when the retrocession bill to Maryland was introduced 10 years ago in Congress, no Democrats co-sponsored it, which belies the fact that the goal is a political goal, because if the goal was just representation then retrocession to Maryland would work,” Harris says.
Harris says even if Democrats win back the Senate and the White House this November, D.C. statehood is far from guaranteed.
“The constitutionality would immediately be argued,” he says. “I think the Supreme Court will ultimately agree that this is an issue of changing the Constitution because the federal capital city is described in the Constitution and the authorities over that capital city.”
It’s the kind of opposition Sen. Hirono expects.
“I think there will be a lot of Republican resistance to having any state that will create more seats that would go Democratic,” she says. “Especially now in this much divided political environment.”
Frymer, of Princeton, says if the tables were turned, and D.C. was a Republican stronghold, it’s unlikely the Democratic party would be rushing to grant statehood.
“No party wants one state to come in that’s going to boost the other party. That’s why historically, both parties have looked for some type of balance,” he says.
“To me, this is one of those issues that historically will be resolved. The pressure is going to continue to build and build over time. The question is, when will the moment occur that the United States finally embraces it?”
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Outside of sports and a “Cold front coming down from Canada,” American news media only report on Canadian events that they believe are, or will be, influential to the US. Therefore, when Justin Trudeau’s announcement, having finally read the room, that Canada will be reducing the number of permanent residents admitted by more than 20 percent and temporary residents like skilled workers and college students will be cut by more than half made news south of the border, I knew the American media felt Trudeau’s about-face on immigration was newsworthy because many Americans would relate to Trudeau realizing Canada was accepting more immigrants than it could manage and are hoping their next POTUS will follow Trudeau’s playbook.
Canada, with lots of space and lacking convenient geographical ways for illegal immigrants to enter the country, though still many do, has a global reputation for being incredibly accepting of immigrants. On the surface, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver appear to be multicultural havens. However, as the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good,” resulting in a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which you can almost taste in the air. A growing number of Canadians, regardless of their political affiliation, are blaming recent immigrants for causing the housing affordability crises, inflation, rise in crime and unemployment/stagnant wages.
Throughout history, populations have engulfed themselves in a tribal frenzy, a psychological state where people identify strongly with their own group, often leading to a ‘us versus them’ mentality. This has led to quick shifts from complacency to panic and finger-pointing at groups outside their tribe, a phenomenon that is not unique to any particular culture or time period.
My take on why the American news media found Trudeau’s blatantly obvious attempt to save his political career, balancing appeasement between the pitchfork crowd, who want a halt to immigration until Canada gets its house in order, and immigrant voters, who traditionally vote Liberal, newsworthy; the American news media, as do I, believe immigration fatigue is why Kamala Harris is going to lose on November 5th.
Because they frequently get the outcome wrong, I don’t take polls seriously. According to polls in 2014, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals were in a dead heat in Ontario, yet Wynne won with more than twice as many seats. In the 2018 Quebec election, most polls had the Coalition Avenir Québec with a 1-to-5-point lead over the governing Liberals. The result: The Coalition Avenir Québec enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 74 of 125 seats. Then there’s how the 2016 US election polls showing Donald Trump didn’t have a chance of winning against Hillary Clinton were ridiculously way off, highlighting the importance of the election day poll and, applicable in this election as it was in 2016, not to discount ‘shy Trump supporters;’ voters who support Trump but are hesitant to express their views publicly due to social or political pressure.
My distrust in polls aside, polls indicate Harris is leading by a few points. One would think that Trump’s many over-the-top shenanigans, which would be entertaining were he not the POTUS or again seeking the Oval Office, would have him far down in the polls. Trump is toe-to-toe with Harris in the polls because his approach to the economy—middle-class Americans are nostalgic for the relatively strong economic performance during Trump’s first three years in office—and immigration, which Americans are hyper-focused on right now, appeals to many Americans. In his quest to win votes, Trump is doing what anyone seeking political office needs to do: telling the people what they want to hear, strategically using populism—populism that serves your best interests is good populism—to evoke emotional responses. Harris isn’t doing herself any favours, nor moving voters, by going the “But, but… the orange man is bad!” route, while Trump cultivates support from “weird” marginal voting groups.
To Harris’s credit, things could have fallen apart when Biden abruptly stepped aside. Instead, Harris quickly clinched the nomination and had a strong first few weeks, erasing the deficit Biden had given her. The Democratic convention was a success, as was her acceptance speech. Her performance at the September 10th debate with Donald Trump was first-rate.
Harris’ Achilles heel is she’s now making promises she could have made and implemented while VP, making immigration and the economy Harris’ liabilities, especially since she’s been sitting next to Biden, watching the US turn into the circus it has become. These liabilities, basically her only liabilities, negate her stance on abortion, democracy, healthcare, a long-winning issue for Democrats, and Trump’s character. All Harris has offered voters is “feel-good vibes” over substance. In contrast, Trump offers the tangible political tornado (read: steamroll the problems Americans are facing) many Americans seek. With Trump, there’s no doubt that change, admittedly in a messy fashion, will happen. If enough Americans believe the changes he’ll implement will benefit them and their country…
The case against Harris on immigration, at a time when there’s a huge global backlash to immigration, even as the American news media are pointing out, in famously immigrant-friendly Canada, is relatively straightforward: During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal Southern border crossings increased significantly.
The words illegal immigration, to put it mildly, irks most Americans. On the legal immigration front, according to Forbes, most billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name three, have immigrants as CEOs. Immigrants, with tech skills and an entrepreneurial thirst, have kept America leading the world. I like to think that Americans and Canadians understand the best immigration policy is to strategically let enough of these immigrants in who’ll increase GDP and tax base and not rely on social programs. In other words, Americans and Canadians, and arguably citizens of European countries, expect their governments to be more strategic about immigration.
The days of the words on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal’s lower level, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” are no longer tolerated. Americans only want immigrants who’ll benefit America.
Does Trump demagogue the immigration issue with xenophobic and racist tropes, many of which are outright lies, such as claiming Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets? Absolutely. However, such unhinged talk signals to Americans who are worried about the steady influx of illegal immigrants into their country that Trump can handle immigration so that it’s beneficial to the country as opposed to being an issue of economic stress.
In many ways, if polls are to be believed, Harris is paying the price for Biden and her lax policies early in their term. Yes, stimulus spending quickly rebuilt the job market, but at the cost of higher inflation. Loosen border policies at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was increasing was a gross miscalculation, much like Trudeau’s immigration quota increase, and Biden indulging himself in running for re-election should never have happened.
If Trump wins, Democrats will proclaim that everyone is sexist, racist and misogynous, not to mention a likely White Supremacist, and for good measure, they’ll beat the “voter suppression” button. If Harris wins, Trump supporters will repeat voter fraud—since July, Elon Musk has tweeted on Twitter at least 22 times about voters being “imported” from abroad—being widespread.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow, Americans need to cool down; and give the divisive rhetoric a long overdue break. The right to an opinion belongs to everyone. Someone whose opinion differs from yours is not by default sexist, racist, a fascist or anything else; they simply disagree with you. Americans adopting the respectful mindset to agree to disagree would be the best thing they could do for the United States of America.
PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.
“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”
Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”
The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.
Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.
In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.
But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.
“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.
