Last Sunday Civil Beat published a valuable “Voter’s Guide to the 2026 Legislative Session and Beyond.”

I’m going to supplement that by adding something broader — citizen political engagement and the need to be part of groups to make this engagement possible. Kind of a missing link.

The best and easiest way to be politically engaged is by being part of groups and social networks.

Typically, the big concern is voter turnout, but we also need to be concerned with engagement turnout. That’s where groups come in.

Here are four ways that being involved this way makes it easier to be politically engaged. Don’t think of engagement as an obligation or chore. Think of it as a gift.

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Take Encouragement From Others 

The mechanics of voting are not complicated. Yet many eligible voters, sometimes close to a majority, don’t vote. Something keeps non-voters from carrying out this simple act.

Shaming non-voters generates lots of emotion, but that’s about all it does. Much anger, little insight.

Instead, see non-voters as disengaged. But the biggest problem is not lack of voter engagement but the lack of citizen engagement that in turn makes people likely to vote. How do you get more citizen engagement? By getting people to be part of groups.

Being around people who talk about the broader world makes a person more aware and engaged. 

There is lots of research showing this. For example, knowing that people who you are connected to are voting makes it more likely that you will vote too. If your neighbor votes, you are more likely to vote.

The Power Of Groups

Voting may be the essence of democracy, but voting itself is fragmented and isolating. It involves millions of individuals acting alone in the privacy of their home or voting booth.

The theory is that the sum total of votes has a direct effect on how elected officials act. I’ll summarize the decades of research on whether things work that way: not necessarily. Other forces are involved, passion and access being two important ones.

Politics is much more than a public opinion contest. Groups of all kinds — not just formal but also social networks, move things forward and build coalitions. They have resources and get access that individuals don’t have.

Sure, you can pick up your phone and call your legislator. But many people, even those with strong opinions, are reluctant to do that. Besides, articulate and passionate as you may be, you’re just one person.

The Legislature may be known to some as the “People’s Palace,” but for most people, access seems so formidable.

Lobbyists are professional locksmiths with keys to this palace. The problem is that they are privileged. They can get in and know how to do things once they’re inside.

That’s their job. That’s not you. 

The kinds of groups and social networks you are engaged with can balance the scales. There is safety in numbers, from big numbers like labor unions to a group of angry friends and neighbors. This safety gives you a better chance of exercising your passions and overcoming the density and confusion of legislative business as usual.

New Ways Of Politicking

Here is a great example. In the late-1990s our legislators were considering a bill that many Hawaiians thought would reduce Hawaiian gathering rights. So they organized protests at the Capitol, including hundreds of hula dancers, cultural practitioners as well as many others.

The Senate killed the bill.

A solitary person obviously can’t do this alone. It’s hard to disrupt if you are marching around and through the Capitol accomplanied only by a homemade sign.

Disruption, interruption — whatever you want to call it — can be a great tool. It is time honored, legitimate and constitutionally protected. 

Protests like this can be a useful tool for giving individuals a chance to combine with others, an outsider’s weapon to overcome the power of insiders: moving your feet, feeling the energy, picking up some of the passion and insights of others around you.

There are very dramatic ways to do this, like the successful protest on the Mauna Kea that stopped the Thirty Meter Telescope. That was true civil disobedience, and it worked.

It succeeded because of a combination of organization, passion and discipline.

Just one kupuna, no matter how cherished, standing alone on the road to the telescope site would have had no impact. Besides, no matter how strong you feel about an issue, going at it alone is scary. Again, safety in numbers.

Protest is your First Amendment right. Unfortunately, that right does not include a place to park near the Capitol. So take a bus, or in the spirit of group engagement, carpool.

It Takes Numbers To Monitor Issues

Passing a law is just a tiny part of the full story. None of that matters unless the law is implemented.

Good luck. In fact, the road to getting a law to work is long and winding, a pathway may never get cleared at all.

Sometimes circumstances change. Sometimes the people who are supposed to make laws work don’t want to, or they don’t have the resources.

It’s incredibly hard for an individual to monitor all this. It’s even hard for investigative reporters to do it.

Sometimes, like with the Department of Education air conditioning misadventure, there is no available information at all, or in the case of Child Protective Services and foster children, the agency may conceal information.

At least networking is a way to keep individuals involved and to be healthy skeptics wanting more information.

Individuals need help on this. You are not going to go down to say, the Legislative Reference Library, talk to the official in charge, or ask a legislator who in fact may not know any more about it than you do.

Groups vary in their ability to watch and monitor, but overall, they can find out things you can’t.

In a less systematic way, so might the people in your social network who pay more attention than you do. Maybe that information is flawed, maybe not. At least networking is a way to keep individuals involved and to be healthy skeptics wanting more information.

Don’t think of my guide as a series of directives, civics teacher-style. Think of it as a way to receive benefits — a way of cushioning the blows of political life.

It’s tempting to think that isolation from politics is splendid isolation. Really, though, it’s impossible isolation. 

You might as well bite the bullet. Realize that the link between you and the outside world, including politics, is inescapable. 

So take advantage of the knowledge, safety and support of others to get through.

It’s a little work with lots of rewards.