The Trump Watch, available online for about $500, shows that when it comes to stopping illegal fireworks, there’s a little Donald Trump in all of us.

Like the watch itself, that resemblance is all about time, specifically, three kinds of time. One is Trump Watch Time. The others apply more directly to Hawaiʻi: “Calvin Time” and “DKI Time.”

The present attempt to stop fireworks involves an uneasy mix of all three of these, and that’s what makes the issue so hard — harder and less likely to succeed than meets the public and the local media’s eye.

The Trump Watch

Just a day after Donald Trump’s latest inauguration, before he even had a chance to deport anyone, he was back on the airwaves selling his namesake watch with its “200 grams of gold, 100 diamonds. Who doesn’t like diamonds?” That model goes for $100,000.

Trump politics is as gaudy and glitzy as the Trump Watch. It’s all about time, and time means right here, right now!”

The new, redesigned White House website says, “AMERICA IS BACK.”

“Pent up energy,” one of his staff calls it.

“My recent election,” ”Trump said in his inaugural, “is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal.”

Right here. Right now. No stopping us.

As if “the time is now” means that “now” can actually happen now, like by the time you get up tomorrow morning.

Trump isn’t on a mission. It’s a crusade. So is the struggle to ban fireworks. That’s powerful in some ways, crippling in others.

Think of the fireworks struggle as a mix of the three kinds of time, each with its own watch.

The Calvin Watch

That’s Calvin Say, not Calvin Klein.

In fact, the Calvin timepiece is the opposite of style and flash, indicating a political style as different from Trump as it gets.

Say, who recently retired from elective politics, held office for almost a half century — first in the state House, then the Honolulu City Council.

The Calvin Watch could use as its masterworks his own words about making policy: “You got to be consistent every year trying to chip at it, chip at it, chip at it.”

A Calvin Watch would be a sturdy Timex with a simple leather band, like the one your old shop teacher or school nurse wore.

Much more tortoise than hare. A cautious leader, not a charismatic one.

Congressman Ed Case describes Say as the last of the old boys’ network. It’s easy to make fun of this unsexy stolidness — cutting deals in private — yuck. But no-drama politics has its advantages.

If fireworks lawmaking had followed Calvin Time, legislators over the years would have chipped, chipped, chipped away at the problem. Always unwilling to stick their necks out too far, but also keeping in mind that fireworks could blow up in their face.

Except that’s not what the legislators over the years have done.

Instead of consistently chipping and observing, they tippy-toed around the issue, daintily dipping their tootsies into the water just a wee bit, hoping that would make it go away.

Of course, it did not. Once the fireworks crusade began with the fatal Salt Lake explosion, Calvin Time disappeared, overwhelmed by the anger and urgency along with the misplaced belief that things can get better right here right now.

Sometimes instead of that sturdy Timex that “takes a licking and keeps on ticking,” the public demands a powerful Rolex that does a lot of things at the same time.

If you believe the fireworks problem should and can be solved right now, there’s no more time for the cautious accretions of Calvin Time.

So, what’s left? Another form of business-as-usual that’s more enduring.

The DKI Watch

The DKI Watch takes its name from Hawaiʻi’s late senator, Daniel K. Inouye.

Actually, the senator himself did not operate according to DKI Time. But since he was known as the godfather of Hawaiʻi politics, he needs to take some blame — and praise — for the behavior of his offspring because Hawaiʻi policy-making runs on it.

DKI Time, which is in the space between outmoded Calvin Time and outrageous Trump Time, has stepped in.

DKI Time is another name for Hawaiʻi political time, which I once described as “vaporous, surreal, opaque, ghostly and mysterious.”

The DKI Watch face wouldn’t be a predictable circle of numerals, moving from 1 to 12. It wouldn’t be a circle at all.

Instead, the face would be a replica of a Chutes and Ladders game — all mixed up, up the ladder of progress when suddenly you’re slipping down the chute, nowhere near where you wanted to be. You know where you are, just for the moment, then anything, often bad, can happen.

Up and down, up and down. Unanticipated delays, trumpeted deadlines that are missed, surprises from the bureaucracies that are supposed to make things work.

The public typically blames this on incompetence or corruption. Understood. But don’t rule out the natural surrealness that politics and life bring to the table.

Given our history, the fireworks issue will likely end up going up the ladder, then down the chute, up and down as things go sideways.

You can’t imagine this? Why not?

There are many examples of government agencies that can’t or won’t hire the personnel necessary to do their jobs.

The police are understaffed. There aren’t enough teachers. Honolulu’s Department of Permitting and Planning, which has been working extraordinarily hard to speed up building permits, continues to be understaffed and just last week found out that its important new software will not be ready on time.

All of a sudden all these typical constant problems are going to — woosh — disappear because the public is so angry? Really?

Fireworks: Crusade and Marathon

The fireworks issue has become a crusade filled with pent-up energy and the powerful belief that the time is now. But heat is not light.

Getting the Legislature to pass good bills is far from the same as making the laws work. Feeling good is not the same as making good.

Donald Trump is absolutely sure that everything he wants to happen will happen.

End of story.

Fireworks opponents have to assume that everything they want to happen may not happen because the real work starts after the laws are passed and the speeches are made.

Beginning of story.