Something we can surely agree on:
Leadership always involves making decisions, while
failure to decide is really
the opposite of leadership.
Other than
Sam Slom publicly supporting the presidential campaign of
Ben Carson, WHERE do Hawaii's other Republican elected officials stand in 2016? Is there really not enough information to take a stand? Is
Bob McDermott so uninformed that he can't figure out which candidate running for president is most in line with his thinking? Are
Gene Ward,
Beth Fukumoto,
Andria Tupola,
Feki Pouha and the rest of the GOP caucus in the State House having that hard a time figuring out if they want to support a liberal, a moderate, a fake conservative, or a real conservative?
Based on
reader mail received by HIRA, some would argue that it's a "
lack of guts" on the part of these legislators. Others more charitable cite
weak leadership by politicians who should know where they stand at this point in their adult lives. Still more are convinced that a recently-named psychological condition "FOMO" (or '
fear of missing out') is behind the inability of these
commitment-phobic politicians to commit publicly to one presidential campaign or another.
HIRA urges these leaders to step up and commit to a presidential candidate of their liking or get off the pot. To assist Republican elected officials in forming a decision, HIRA presents some
simple criteria to aid in decision making.
- If you liked Bush 41 and Bush 43, then go with Jeb! (Bush 45).
- If you like Democrats, align with John Kasich. It's a no-brainer.
- If you think Ben Carson should be president, then don't be shy another minute.
- If you are really angry at our messed up politics and don't care about consistency or principles, then Donald Trump is your guy.
- If you are feeling staunchly conservative, there's the new national frontrunner, Ted Cruz.
- If you like the Gang of Eight's policy of opening the border to Democrat voting majorities, Marco Rubio is your establishment guy, loved by Obama and Schumer alike.
The presidential campaign has been dominating the news
for a year. The field has
narrowed considerably. Debates have been
plenty. Coverage has been
nonstop.
It's time for Republican politicians in Hawaii to put on their big boy pants (
or their power pantsuits) and
have the intestinal fortitude to publicly announce who they support. Afraid of offending your Democrat bosses at the State Capitol?
Afraid of your constituents finding out your convictions?
All seven House Republicans gave driver's licenses to illegal aliens so they could '
come out of the shadows'.
None of them have endorsed yet. So
come out of the shadows, legislators. Waiting to side with the eventual nominee is not leadership. C'mon now, where are your principles? Don't be afraid.
Where do you stand?
HIRA really doesn't care
who these seven legislators support, just that they have the guts to support someone. So far,
only Slom has the cojones to make his voice heard. Don't leave us in the dark.
-----------------------------------------------
Sure,
Republicans in Hawaii are pretty used to the Hawaii GOP and its leaders
keeping us in the dark. That's why tens of thousands of Republicans living in hundreds of precincts
never knew that they were supposed to meet in caucuses several weeks ago to elect delegates to the state convention.
Those same tens of thousands of Republicans have
no idea that party leaders arbitrarily cancelled all four counties' annual GOP conventions this year, due to
the party's failure to generate any enthusiasm for the GOP in 2016. The 'enthusiasm gap' is demonstrated by the Democrats being having
more protesters at the Lincoln Dinner than the Hawaii GOP has
delegates bothering to show up at its annual state conventions.
There's
another key event coming up which will surely fall victim to low enthusiasm and nonexistent promotion:
the state party's presidential caucus scheduled for next month.
Yes, local Republicans are actually able to influence the selection of the next president of these United States.
But you wouldn't know it unless you had
inside information.
Sadly, that
lack of enthusiasm and lack of appreciation for the seriousness of this selection of a nominee by our state party has
rubbed off on our own elected Republican officials who fail to recognize
their role in
trying to generate enthusiasm for the GOP among island voters.
Members of the Republican Party of Hawaii deserve
leadership,
seriousness and
strength . . . but we're
not getting it. So is it
any wonder our party's influence keeps shrinking?
