For those who don’t know, Michelle Wu, is the 37-year-old Taiwanese American Harvard law graduate who was recently elected mayor of Boston. Her slogan is, “Out with the old in with the Wu!” At a time when mainland Asian Americans have been under physical and verbal attacks, her ability to rise from humble beginnings to become the mayor of one of the most important U.S. cities is unprecedented.

With her commitment to renewable energy “moon shots” and social justice, the former Boston councilwoman is public-service oriented. One of her first acts was to make the bus lines that carry workers from the poorest neighborhoods in Boston free to riders for two years. Instead of subsidizing the wealthy through tax credits — as renewable energy is done in Hawaii — her position has been that government subsidies should ensure social and energy equity for everyone. She brings in top talent. Her goal is not to just spend money on local government, but to fundamentally rethink it. Not to accept a decline in the everyday quality of life as the new normal, but to challenge her fellow citizens to improve it.

In past years, Hawaii Democrats had leaders similar to Wu, such as Patsy Mink and William Richardson. They were leaders who put the needs of ordinary people first. Like Wu, they were public school graduates (unlike many of today’s private-school-educated Democrats) who had known personal suffering. Wu took care of a mother who is mentally ill. She struggled to operate a restaurant.

Today in Hawaii, the issues do not break down on the basis of Republicans vs. Democrats, but often, on who generates the most money from donors. A recent poll indicated that leaders for the governor’s race are supporters of the ongoing rail project. The other issues the Democrats are concerned with have to do with climate change and environmentalism that skew heavily toward the upper middle class. Ordinary people feel overlooked, ignored and taken for granted.

When former President Barack Obama and his associates were recently criticized for being able to receive a legal benefit not easily available to everyone else — a special legal loophole to build a seawall — elected Democrats shrugged.

There are new proposals for massive affordable housing at Aloha Stadium and $600 million for the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Some have questioned how these old-style segregated housing projects, that concentrate the poor far from areas with rising property values, are in line with traditional Democratic ideas.

Despite repeated pronouncements of equity and 1950s-era Hawaii Democratic Party accomplishments by local politicians, the Aloha State has become a modern “Squid Game.” Because of a lack of low-income rentals, mental health services and good ideas, our houseless live at the edges of our streets and peripheral vision. Our elderly and mothers with young children often walk in fear in public spaces.

My neighbor said this: “Today we have to choose between Republicans like Donald Trump, who we don’t like, and Democrats who pretend to care.”

Is it any wonder that voters are now sometimes choosing independent business people, such as Mayor Rick Blangiardi or Vicky Cayetano, who is a running for governor as an underdog, over establishment Hawaii Democrats?

We currently don’t have a young Michelle Wu to lead us to a better day. What we need are Democrats who don’t believe that the extreme inequality in Hawaii is the natural order of things.

Michael Markrich is owner of Kailua-based Markrich Research and a freelance writer.