Democratic state Rep. Brian Schatz believes his party needs to stop looking for a messiah and focus instead on promoting a long-term agenda that will give Hawai'i's future generations reason for hope.

In a commentary published in The Advertiser, Schatz said Democrats must cease living from election to election and begin planning 10 years ahead to guarantee economic prosperity — especially for the middle class — while preserving the environment and civil culture.

It's exactly the kind of high-minded discussion we need to begin if either political party is ever going to gain the credibility needed to move Hawai'i forward.

Schatz was 26 when he was elected in 1998 to represent Makiki, Tantalus and McCully.

His views carry a postmark from political Siberia, where he has resided since he and other young House Democrats unsuccessfully challenged the power of the old guard.

Schatz accuses the party of failing to plan for succession and of undermining newcomers instead of encouraging them.

"Leadership comes in all shapes, sizes and ages, and while paying your dues has its place, tenure should never be our holy grail," he said.

"This can't be a battle between generations."

The Democrats' search for a messiah to lead them to victory over Republican Gov. Linda Lingle next year has become Hawai'i's longest-running political joke.

Barren of promotable talent from within the party after years of political inbreeding and eating their most promising young, Democrats are left to forage for a candidate among retired bankers, generals, police chiefs and even a Republican mayor.

Schatz is right that the search for such a messiah is silly, but Democrats are sorely in need of capable leaders.

The Democratic Party, once a cohesive entity, has broken down into parochial fiefdoms with small-minded concerns.

Most of the party's power resides in the Legislature, where weak leadership annually produces disappointing half-measures that leave unresolved persistent problems such as education, drug abuse, poverty and affordable housing.

The House leadership is challenged from within virtually every new Legislature.

The Senate ended the last session with bloody factional warfare so unappealing that there was little public interest in who won.

The official party apparatus now headed by entertainer Brickwood Galuteria has long bordered on irrelevance, and even respected elders such as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye can no longer bring the factions to heel.

Public worker unions have stepped into the leadership void with such force that for all practical purposes, the House and Senate have become compliant units of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association and United Public Workers.

Hawai'i Democrats maintain a tight hold on key levers of power mostly because Lingle has not proved to be a formidable foe.

Democratic lawmakers have battered her priorities and passed laws weakening the powers of office, while she has barely thrown a punch in return.

She was declared the GOP messiah when she became Hawai'i's first Republican governor in 40 years, but has fallen far short of fulfilling the promise three-quarters of the way through her first term.

While she has retained her personal popularity with voters, Lingle has failed to advance a Republican agenda or grow the party, which has lost nearly half of the House seats it held before she was elected.

A retired public official ended a recent disagreement over something I'd written about a political controversy by asserting, "Politics is an art, not a science."

I responded, "Politics as practiced in Hawai'i today is not an art, but the absence of art."

Maybe if other elected officials in both parties follow Brian Schatz's lead in elevating the discussion, we can start to restore some of the art.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.