This is how the game is played:

A day or two before the annual State of the State address, news outlets start to guess at what the governor is going to say. Of course, it’s not really guessing because those on the inside purposefully leak topics to reporters, perhaps to gauge the public’s reaction while the speech is still in draft form.

It’s not like there are ever any earth-shattering surprises, of course. Affordable housing, cost of living, public safety, Hawaiʻi is the best place but we have to do better, etcetera. But part of the game is to build anticipation for something to get mad about.

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Then, on the day of the State of the State, that awkwardly named update/pump up speech the governor is required to give every January, a joint session of the Legislature convenes along with every past governor who feels like dressing up and leaving the house that day. (Hey, where’s Linda Lingle? She was governor for eight years yet somehow she’s slipped into the “Oh yeah, I think I remember her” category.)

The governor delivers the prepared speech, but as soon as it’s over with the obligatory “Mahalo and aloha,” everyone starts throwing fruit.

Not literal fruit, thankfully, but the figurative slimy rotten mangoes that make up the coverage of the speech.

No matter what the governor says, he leaves out something important.

No matter what plans are announced, they’re always lacking details.

This is how the game is played.

The headlines from stories about the SOTS this week included:

“Hawaiʻi governor highlights ‘greatest hits’ in third State of the State address”

“Governor covers familiar ground in State of the State address”

“Green Tells Us What He’s Done But Not What He’ll Do”

“Hawaiʻi governor ignores President Trump in speech, but prepares for federal cuts”

One reaction story to the speech began with: “New tonight, the governor admits Hawaiʻiʻs housing crisis was exacerbated after the Maui wildfires.” 

Admits? That’s a loaded word. Green said he requested $350 million to be dedicated to the ongoing Maui wildfire recovery effort. Of course Maui fire survivors say more needs to be done, and they’re right, but the story was set up as a “gotcha.”

What’s the point of politics if all we do is poop all over everything and people are judged not by action but by reaction?

I’m pointing out this obvious pattern of no good coming from an obligatory, and in this case, pretty solid and thoughtful, speech, but of course I’ve played the game myself. The farcical, overheated and yet extremely superficial nature of current American politics has made the tradition of shooting down the State of the State look a lot less like noble journalism and a lot more like clickbait.

Green led the state through the first year after the Maui wildfires, arguably the worst crisis to hit these islands since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He’s trying different things to deal with the homeless epidemic by building kauhale communities of tiny shelters. He’s on the right side of shutting down the Red Hill fuel tanks and has a plan to make possession of aerial fireworks a felony. There’s not much to poop on, folks. The speech was no tear-inducing, spirit-soaring, call to greatness, but it was solid.

It’s hard to report on solid. We’re all used to consuming the journalism version of Hot Cheetos.

When the news doesn’t make us mad, we hardly even taste it.

One thing that stood out in Green’s speech Wednesday — besides his occasional shakas, shout-outs and braddah-braddah head nods at certain people in the audience — was the way he started the speech. Protocol dictates that the first person mentioned in the welcome salutation is the Speaker of the House, followed by the Senate President, then the former governors, Supreme Court justices, Hawaiʻiʻs congressional delegation, and so on in descending order of importance.

However, for the last three years, the first name the governor has said, before any of the dignitaries in the audience, was that of his wife, Hawaiʻiʻs first lady Jaime. I don’t think anyone has jumped on that breach of protocol, but it seems progressive, if that’s a word we are still allowed to use without getting put on a deportation list.

Everything around us is cuckoo but here’s a leader who sincerely appreciates his partner, the person he has said is his most trusted counsel. That seems, as GenZ likes to say, wholesome.

But back to the game of Hawaiʻiʻs governor giving a speech and then everyone, including political opponents, tearing it apart like carrion birds It’s not going to change. That’s just how things work.

Certainly, we always have to be makaʻala (vigilant) for our elected leaders and call them out when they misstep or mislead, but maybe it doesn’t have to be so automatic. I guess I’m writing this to remind myself most of all.