ronpaulhawaii
04-20-2008, 08:17 AM
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?cc98edd6-63a9-4315-9e48-8b344e290b9d
This past Saturday morning was perhaps the lowest point ever reached by the currently Linda Lingle-controlled Republican Party of Hawaii in perhaps 25 years. During a surreal and highly disturbing two-hour meeting, which revealed the worst in party politics, Lingle's empire struck back against the party's own official platform committee charged with revising and updating the governing document which sets forth official Republican policies for the state of Hawaii.
Tensions grew even higher during the last few weeks alone as reformers of the platform (and of the party) strived to reposition and re-energize the party so that its candidates would stop losing in election after election. Despite the prolonged, Lingle-mandated experimentation with pandering to local voters by trying to be "Lite versions of Democrats" while intentionally opting not to use marketing and grassroots activity to persuade voters that Republican ideas deserve a chance, defenders of the status quo platform (and of the party status quo in general) argued that Lingle's close first term election victory in 2002 and her coast to re-election (outspending her unknown opponent 20-to-1) in 2006 were evidence enough that the platform should be left alone.
The insiders' analysis conveniently overlooks the consistently poor showing by party challengers who take on incumbent Democrats year after year, and overlooks the consistent losing streak of elected Republicans who can't hang onto their seats when challenged by unknown Democrat challengers year after year. In other words, it doesn't matter how badly Republicans overall are losing, so long as Lingle is doing O.K. That was the entire justification for leaving the platform as is.
For years, the political buzz was that Lingle secretly made a deal with OHA and leaders of the ethnic separatist movement that led to an understanding that they would support her run for governor if she would embrace the liberal Democrat policies of creating a separate, unnecessary government for part-Hawaiians merely by pretending that Hawaiians were a lost Indian tribe.
In case I've not made my feelings clear, I feel that the co-opting of our party is disheartening and disgusting. We've been taken hostage, and before today we barely realized it because we were so excited to finally have a governor with an "R" after her name, even though the results have hardly been Republican. Now, however, that spell cast over many Republicans in Hawaii is broken. We are fully aware what's been going on, and we don't like it one bit.
So what's next for the reformers? Well, the sky's the limit now that Lingle leads a lame duck empire and since the line has now been clearly drawn in the sand by Darth Lingle and her stormtroopers. As volunteers with nothing but good intentions and sincere hope for what a well-run party can do to make our state a better place, we just have to work that much harder to fix a party that is completely broken, yet viciously defended by selfish individuals who have taken servitude and patronage to Lingle to extreme new depths of brown-nosing combined with depraved indifference and outright sabotage of the party's future. Mark my words, the battle for the soul of the Republican Party of Hawaii has just begun. We will prevail and we will work to ensure that the G.O.P. will soon be able to promote an agenda that is clearly different than the agenda and record of the Democrats, which have dominated Hawaii for the past 54 years. Even if Linda Lingle and her cronies don't want us to.
Things are heating up in the Aloha State... Lots to see between the lines...
This past Saturday morning was perhaps the lowest point ever reached by the currently Linda Lingle-controlled Republican Party of Hawaii in perhaps 25 years. During a surreal and highly disturbing two-hour meeting, which revealed the worst in party politics, Lingle's empire struck back against the party's own official platform committee charged with revising and updating the governing document which sets forth official Republican policies for the state of Hawaii.
Tensions grew even higher during the last few weeks alone as reformers of the platform (and of the party) strived to reposition and re-energize the party so that its candidates would stop losing in election after election. Despite the prolonged, Lingle-mandated experimentation with pandering to local voters by trying to be "Lite versions of Democrats" while intentionally opting not to use marketing and grassroots activity to persuade voters that Republican ideas deserve a chance, defenders of the status quo platform (and of the party status quo in general) argued that Lingle's close first term election victory in 2002 and her coast to re-election (outspending her unknown opponent 20-to-1) in 2006 were evidence enough that the platform should be left alone.
The insiders' analysis conveniently overlooks the consistently poor showing by party challengers who take on incumbent Democrats year after year, and overlooks the consistent losing streak of elected Republicans who can't hang onto their seats when challenged by unknown Democrat challengers year after year. In other words, it doesn't matter how badly Republicans overall are losing, so long as Lingle is doing O.K. That was the entire justification for leaving the platform as is.
For years, the political buzz was that Lingle secretly made a deal with OHA and leaders of the ethnic separatist movement that led to an understanding that they would support her run for governor if she would embrace the liberal Democrat policies of creating a separate, unnecessary government for part-Hawaiians merely by pretending that Hawaiians were a lost Indian tribe.
In case I've not made my feelings clear, I feel that the co-opting of our party is disheartening and disgusting. We've been taken hostage, and before today we barely realized it because we were so excited to finally have a governor with an "R" after her name, even though the results have hardly been Republican. Now, however, that spell cast over many Republicans in Hawaii is broken. We are fully aware what's been going on, and we don't like it one bit.
So what's next for the reformers? Well, the sky's the limit now that Lingle leads a lame duck empire and since the line has now been clearly drawn in the sand by Darth Lingle and her stormtroopers. As volunteers with nothing but good intentions and sincere hope for what a well-run party can do to make our state a better place, we just have to work that much harder to fix a party that is completely broken, yet viciously defended by selfish individuals who have taken servitude and patronage to Lingle to extreme new depths of brown-nosing combined with depraved indifference and outright sabotage of the party's future. Mark my words, the battle for the soul of the Republican Party of Hawaii has just begun. We will prevail and we will work to ensure that the G.O.P. will soon be able to promote an agenda that is clearly different than the agenda and record of the Democrats, which have dominated Hawaii for the past 54 years. Even if Linda Lingle and her cronies don't want us to.
Things are heating up in the Aloha State... Lots to see between the lines...