HCR192

WHEREAS, the United States of America was conceived in liberty and established as a government that derived its powers from the consent of the governed; and

WHEREAS, the United States of America was the first modern republic granting its citizens the power of self-determination through democratic elections; and

WHEREAS, throughout its long history, this nation has grown by empowering and expanding fundamental voting rights to all its citizens, regardless of race, gender, or social or economic status; and

WHEREAS, in 1964, seventy-seven percent of Americans had trust in their government and over sixty-four percent of Americans who were eligible to vote, voted in the presidential election to choose government leaders and priorities; and

WHEREAS, in 2019, trust in government has fallen to seventeen percent and just fifty-five percent of Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election; and

WHEREAS, the rapidly increasing influence of money in politics has led to elections frequently being won on the basis of the amount of dollars spent on advertising, rather than the merits of the candidates or issues being debated; and

WHEREAS, the growing pressure of special interests and their lobbying influence at the Congress of the United States of America frequently decides issues against public opinion and the will of the people; and

WHEREAS, the increasing prevalence of disinformation campaigns and fake news spread by foreign nations and domestic entities have begun to influence the outcome of democratic elections; and

WHEREAS, efforts to limit the ease and ability of citizens to vote has restricted participation and disenfranchised countless voters in many states; and

WHEREAS, politicians frequently seek to capitalize on the public's growing cynicism, rather than strive to restore faith in government and the rule of law; and

WHEREAS, deepening partisan divide and political polarization increasingly decides issues based on political gain, rather than public interest, which forestalls a productive exchange of ideas within civil society; and

WHEREAS, these growing challenges have threatened and diminished the ability of citizens to participate in the democratic process and meaningfully self-govern, leading to an erosion of democracy; and

WHEREAS, each year, the Economist Intelligence Unit releases a "Democracy Index" which categorizes each county in the world as a "full democracy" in which basic political freedoms and civil liberties are respected; "flawed democracy" in which free and fair elections occur with some issues and there is a respect for basic civil liberties, but there are governance problems and low levels of political participation; "hybrid regimes" which have regular election fraud, issues such as harassment of the media and government corruption, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies; and "authoritarian regimes" which have no democracy or where the conventional institutions of democracy have no meaningful significance; and

WHEREAS, in 2016, the "Democracy Index" from the Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded the ranking of the United States government from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy", in part due to the extremely low levels of popular trust in government, elected representatives, and political parties; and

WHEREAS, since the downgrading, the ranking of the United States government as a democracy has continued to drop; and

WHEREAS, the United States of America was recently rated twenty-fifth in the world by the "Democracy Index"; and

WHEREAS, the dangerous disenfranchisement of American citizens and erosion of democracy threatens the very fabric of this nation and the democratic principles on which it was built; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2020, the Senate concurring, that the people of the United States are urged to participate in elections and prevent erosion of the democratic process; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that every citizen is urged to educate themselves on the issues most important to them, register to vote, and participate in the democratic process; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that every measure should be taken by the federal government, every state, and most of all by every citizen, to ensure that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the Governor of each state of the United States.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Democracy; Democratic Process; Voting

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	192
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII