I track the state of Twitter, now called X after its takeover by the imperious and conspiratorial Elon Musk, by occasionally checking the feed of Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, among the most social-media savvy in Congress.
Schatz retreated some when Musk loosened standards and there were concerns about hate speech, but he’s back to tweeting away after no other platform provided the same ability to be in the political conversation.
“I still find it to be a way to make myself accessible … but it’s just a mess with the bots and foreign actors and the nazis,” he said.
Especially popular are his “I’m on a flight ask me anything” sessions, which I’ve written about before. On long flights he invites his 390,000 followers to throw him any reasonable questions.
“I don’t think any other senators do it,” Schatz said. “Most have communications teams that would find that too nerve- wracking.”
A robust session on a recent flight back to Washington drew questions and answers that were candid, mostly civil and occasionally fun. A few samples:
>> What’s the feeling among D senators on Kamala’s chances? “I don’t trust happiness. We feel good but it’s still a legit toss up.”
>> PR and DC as states. y/n? “Yes.”
>> I heard homes in Hawaii are now cheaper than the mainland? True? “Um no.”
>> Any hope we can get rid of the filibuster next term? “Let’s just say we need to codify Roe w 51 votes.”
>> If I want my dollar to have the most impact, do you think I should donate to Brown, Tester, or Allred? “I can’t do that one sorry l’m still a politician.”
>> Would you ever run for POTUS? “Definitely not under any circumstances.”
The latter gives Schatz his X appeal and growing influence in the Democratic Party: He’s a respected policy wonk not jockeying for higher office.
Long a force on climate issues, Hawaii’s exodus of young people is increasingly turning his thinking to housing.
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein had Schatz on his podcast last month and praised him as “a very influential policy voice” and “one of the Democrats in the Senate doing the most work” on those issues.
Schatz told Klein that Hawaii’s affordable housing shortage points up an outdated mindset among fellow progressives who he believes are overly attuned to preservation and allergic to construction.
He said community engagement can’t be twisted to enable “a few people who already have homes to hijack the whole process above the needs of the many.”
Schatz said Democrats risk losing financially struggling young progressives if they think it’s fellow progressives who are preventing them from making a living.
Schatz lauded long-standing progressive environmental safeguards for “stopping bad stuff,” but said that “the new progressive movement is not just about stopping bad stuff, it’s about building good stuff.”
He called on Democrats to clear the immense state and county regulatory thicket to get housing projects done.
“Housing is not that damn complicated, we just need to make it easier to build it,” he said.
“There is nothing progressive about stopping your neighbors from being able to live in the state of Hawaii.”
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
