State Rep. Gene Ward took issue with my recent dark view of our state and country’s discord and sent a thoughtful note arguing that “America is bigger and stronger than all of the wrinkles, disputes and differences between us.”

“We are made of resilient people,” said the veteran Republican lawmaker. “Democracy is self-correcting.”

I’ve believed this all my life, and still want to, but it gets tougher.

Loss of buying power, a crushing public health crisis, perilous international conflicts and crooked politics driven by self-interest strain our resiliency. Guardrails that protect democracy are falling.

Amid shocking local corruption that’s seen top law enforcers, elected officials and regulators indicted and jailed for fraud, bribes and other offenses, Hawaii’s 2022 election could have been a watershed in correcting local democracy.

We’re electing a governor and lieutenant governor, a U.S. senator, two members of the U.S. House, all 76 members of the Legislature and the majority of the Honolulu City Council.

But it’s widely been described as a snoozer with little meaningful talk of change.

Most candidates with a reasonable chance are establishment figures who get their endorsements and financial support from the same powerful business interests and labor unions wanting taxpayer dollars directed their way.

The corruption that underlies our state’s troubles is barely mentioned as top candidates join the national shouting over abortion and guns.

Democrats who presided over most of the wrongdoing in this one-party state have scant interest in bringing it up.

Republicans offer little solution other than to elect more Republicans to achieve “balance,” a tough sell given GOP tactics nationally that hardly reflect ethics.

Voters, who mostly skipped the primary election, get blamed for enabling the corruption with their apathy, but the fact is there were few credible choices for change on the primary ballot, and it’ll be only slightly better in the general election.

People are feeling more beaten down and powerless than apathetic. The danger is that corrupt government will become accepted as just another price of paradise, along with the high cost of living, ratty roads and poor schools.

Most simply struggle to get by the best they can; many with the means are leaving and taking their chances with the craziness on the mainland.

Local democracy won’t self-correct without a push from the governed.

It requires reformers of all stripes to forget about left and right for the moment and come together around the one thing they agree on: effecting more honest and competent government. The ideology will balance out from there.

It’s about committing to the hard work of finding and supporting true reform candidates who can be trusted to put the public interest ahead of moneyed private interests.

It means turning special-interest support from a golden ticket to a liability by widely disseminating information about which interest groups are backing which candidates and what they get for their money.

Democracy may be on the ropes, but it’s out for the count only if we give up on it.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.