By John Zogby
Yes, I do get to go to nice places.
I was honored recently to serve as one of three keynote speakers at Hawaii’s New Horizons for the Next 50 Years conference sponsored by the 50th Anniversary of Statehood Commission. My job was to examine the future of the U.S., take a look at how Americans view Hawaii, and share my analysis of how residents of our 50th state see their own present and future.
First, and not surprisingly, 77% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Hawaii. Actually, we measured views of other states and none came even close. When asked, “what’s the first thing that comes to mind” to describe Hawaii, respondents said, “paradise”, beauty”, and sunshine”. But enough did cite “expensive”.
During the daylong conference there was a very high profile demonstration against statehood. This brought together an interesting and spirited coalition of natives (who feel that their identity, culture, and livelihood have been hurt) anti-taxers, and green anti-growth activists. But according to our survey, 64% of Hawaii residents said that they felt statehood was positive for Hawaii. Only 13% said it was negative and the remainder said neither or not sure.
One of the most intriguing findings for me was that 42% of Hawaii residents said that in 20 years from now, in terms of demographics, Hawaii will look like the nation as a whole instead of the rest of the U.S. looking more like Hawaii. Our 50th state has always been our most diverse and the evidence suggests that as many mainland residents move to Hawaii (where non-native born residents represent almost half of the state), many states, and the nation as a whole, are achieving higher levels of non-white populations.
One in four residents of Hawaii feels that their votes don’t matter and that the mainland doesn’t even care what they think. But this is the state that suffered the worst attack on American soil and in just 50 years statehood has given us a President.
