BY JEFF CHURCHILL – I was brought up in life understanding that nice guys finish last. A famous comment by the late great college football coach Woody Hayes, of Ohio State, said, “I’m not trying to win a popularity poll. I’m trying to win football games. I don’t like nice people. I like tough, honest people.”
Politics is not a game, politics affects the life of every American; locally, statewide and nationally. So, why do we want individuals to play patty cake with others who wish to take our liberties away? This was one of many reasons why Senator John McCain lost the Presidential Election in 2008. He was too busy trying to be mister nice guy.
After the mid-term primary elections of 2010, the Republican National Committee, along with many State Republican Parties, recognized how powerful the TEA Party Organizations were across the nation. These grass root non-astro turf groups were in fact a team to be reckoned with. And, it wasn’t that the TEA Parties were against the Republican Party, they in general were lighting a fire under the unfocused conservative rumps, rekindling the flame that was about to flicker out!
So, the Republican Party regrouped and actually began to follow the TEA Parties footsteps, in getting back to the basics of which our government was founded; limited Federal Government intrusion in our lives, inalienable God-given individual freedoms, Personal responsibility and States Rights. Since then we witnessed one of the largest public exposures of Liberals and Conservatives who failed to keep their promises, their oaths to “We the People,” of whom they were allegedly suppose to be protecting.
TEA Party Organizations across America challenged the status quo of their ineptness and how they created one of the largest economic collapses in history. It didn’t matter who was Republican or Democrat. These vast masses of angry “Joe the Plumbers” from across the country were really irked about how our elected pundits forgot what their mission was. So, after the dust settled in the general elections of 2010, Republicans gained an unheard of 64 seats in the House of Representatives and almost took control of the United States Senate!
TEA Party supported newly elected U.S. Senator from Florida Marco Rubio said it best during his acceptance speech: “This election was not an embrace of the Republican Party. It was a second chance for Republicans.” That remark was in fact a warning to all Republican Party members Nationwide.
So, where was Hawaii’s Republican Party during this giant tsunami rolling across the country? It was highly possible that Republicans could have gained two additional seats in the United States House of Representatives and one seat in the United States Senate. Since the general election on November 2, 2010, many conservatives in Hawaii have in fact been pointing at the Hawaii Republican Party, me included, for failing to enlighten the electorate of some shinning stars; who were not part of the usual “status quo.” These candidates were true conservatives who believe in the same principles that our Founding Fathers established.
In a recent article posted in the Hawaii Reporter on November 8, 2010, a guest contributor in his “Open Letter to Hawaii Republicans” stated: “to be fair, the Democrats had something to do with this loss. It is yet to be determined to what extent the Democrats, masterful at both convincing and coercing voters to vote their way, are responsible for this loss. Though I may share with others the dismay and frustration at our losses here at home, I never once thought of blaming Republicans; indeed I could only think of all the dastardly things the Democrats must’ve done to bring about such a loss.”
Duh, Democrats were the roosters running the chicken coop! All we saw and heard were Democrat sponsored radio and television ads. The point is Democrats did have something to with Republican loss here in Hawaii; they out performed in all categories! You bet the Democrats won, they played hard ball! And, yes we can blame the current leaders of the Hawaii Republican Party! Like Donald Trump says “You’re Fired!”
Part of winning is exposing the failures of others and capitalizing on those in competencies like the current controlling party in our Hawaii State Legislature and State Senate; or by exposing our United States Senator and our Congresswoman of how they contributed to our economic collapse. Our very own Hawaii Republican Party failed to win because they were too busy placating with the opponents or not representing the candidates whom the majority of conservative voters selected during the primary election. Our opportunity was in the palm of our hand. All the Hawaiian Republican Party needed to do to was simply expose who failed in protecting Hawaii’s economy and the National economy in general. The politicians at fault were within arm’s reach!
Here’s the simple reason how the Democrats won in Hawaii; they spun the issues around to suit their best interests. That is it. They came to win.
The National Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Daniel Inouye’s very own Senate Re-election campaign really hammered home to Hawaiian’s across the state how great they were, how they brought to Hawaii, jobs and economic help; when in fact they were burying Hawaiians in more debt and prolonging the economic recovery, because of their failed economic policies.
Neil Abercrombie’s election committee exposed through their propaganda machine how evil the Linda Lingle and Duke Aiona Adiminstrations were by imposing “Furlough Fridays” on our children’s teachers. When the evidence overwhelmingly showed that it was without a doubt the teacher’s very own union and the elected Board of Education who decided to save the 22,000 administrative positions by sacrificing 11,000 teachers, using our children as Pawns; so who sold them out. And these are the same folks who supported Neil Abercrombie. Again, where was the Hawaii Republican Party? Why didn’t they come to the rescue? As a matter of fact why didn’t Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona come out boxing with that knockout punch exposing, who actually was responsible for these economic pit falls?
These game winning touchdowns were easy. It was easy because Democrats have had the majority in both the State Senate and State legislature; for over 51 years! There was no excuse for conservatives not to win a majority in Hawaii. Exposing that Governor Linda Lingle’s hands were tied would have been a cake walk. Every time she vetoed a bill the State Legislature overrode her veto. Just like the 2009/2011 State Budget, she vetoed the budget, because the Legislature over spent and over taxed us to cover their needless spending. So, they again did an override; meaning that the State Legislature owns the budget, not the Governor. How hard could it have been for our Hawaii Republican Party or for that matter Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona to score a touchdown; it was first and goal on the Democrats one yard line.
Neil Abercrombie really was an easy mark. He was an entrenched Congressman who knew he was running for governor prior to his previous re-election to the House of Representatives and he quit mid-term costing Hawaii nearly a million dollars for a special election. Furthermore, he was also part of this economic implosion. And yet again, where was our Republican Party? Why didn’t they expose his careless attitude towards taxpayer monies?
The other part of winning is through promoting your own successes. We had many candidates. And we had a handful who were endorsed by the Hawaii TEA Party and the Maui TEA Party No Ka Oi. Because the majority of our conservative electorate voted for these endorsed candidates our Hawaii Republican Party seemed to have washed their hands of these bright shining stars leaving them out on a limb. Having the support of the National Republican Campaign Committee could have been a phone call away; only if certain party members made that call. The National Republican Campaign Committee could have put up a great fight through the various media outlets promoting these great patriots and how they have not only achieved the American dreams, but earned their dreams in the private sector, unlike the current career politicians. Unfortunately, our Hawaii Republican Party failed to endorse these shining stars.
Here’s a minor break down to how the Democrats/Progressives won this election in Hawaii:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent over $1.3 Million in negative campaign ads against Charles Djou. Our National Republican Congressional Campaign spent just over $342,000 dollars retaliating against Colleen Hanabusa. So, the DCCC out spent the NRCC by two thirds in just negative campaign ads. This doesn’t include the positive campaign ads that Mazie Hirono ran or Daniel Inouye ran. It was in fact a slam dunk! And, the DCCC didn’t even touch John Willoughby or Cam Cavasso!
So who were the winners and losers?
Clearly, because the Hawaii Republican Party failed to come to play, the winners were the Democrats. The Hawaii Republican Party lost and they lost big. In my opinion the leaders of the Hawaii Republican Party, should be fired!
That’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it.
I’m glad you’re entitled to your opinion, no matter how stupid! It sounds like a bunch of ranting against liberals, etc, once again an ultraconservative laying blame at the feet of liberals, like you guys always do, never taking responsibility for anything, nor providing reasoned, logical thinking and solutions. The teabaggers claim to be about lower taxes, less government and the inalienable rights of citizens, however the reality is much uglier: a bunch of weirdos who like to (a) dress as Nazi’s, (b) denounce us gay people, (c) have no proclaimed plans to actually reduce the taxes they’re so vocal about. If the statements the tea party were making were true, I’d be a part of it, but they simply are utter B.S.—why do you guys promote cutting social programs, and yet never—NEVER—discuss the horrific Defense budget which is crippling all of us? Why is Rand Paul the only one who *ever* really talks about the military? Why? The main purpose of that party is to rant against and hate Obama. That’s your choice, but don’t just rant and rave and repeat the lumpy brown output of your own “propaganda machine”—try to think for yourself for a change!
I couldn’t agree with you more Jeff!!! Your comments were “right on” because I do think the Hawaii Republican Party were too busy playing “patty cake with those who want to take our liberties away.”
While many “righteous candidates” were endorsed and ran at the last minute, I believe some of them thought they were on an evangelistic or missionary journey rather than a political campaign. They were not “in it to win it.”
In House Dist.38, our candidate chose to concede a 17 vote loss (after being declared the winner on Nov. 2) rather than let the party pursue it. Like Marilyn Lee said in the paper prior to the concession “He’s a nice young man.” So now Marilyn can gleefully press her “yes” button when HB444 rears its ugly head again and celebrate with all of the GLBT community when it is signed into law because the “nice young man” chose to take flight vs. stand up and fight.
Like you, I felt sick inside when I saw the ad which nailed Aiona for the education, airline and joblessness woes. I was waiting to see a “knock out punch” delivered against such lies … it never happened. Gov. Lingle meekly rebutted the lies in a press conference which had little or no effect.
Recently I attended a meeting where the Executive Dir. of the Rep. Party was the guest speaker. I listened to him talk about the abysmal election results in our state.and how “trying to change the minds of the electorate was a lost cause.” Really?
I suggested that we desperately need campaign reform (limiting the amount of time/money spent on every campaign at every level) because it is one of the biggest turnoffs to the electorate (and potential unregistered voters). My suggestion was met with a loud guffaw and an interruption to my comments (rudeness prevailed).
The very young, know-it-all ‘leader’ was not about to listen because he has his own agenda which involves spending MORE money next time AND starting earlier (MORE time for the electorate to be bombarded by negative ads, etc.).
I’m with you and Donald Trump … “You’re fired!”
Aahhh…totallyfugly, rather than a rant of name calling; how about discussing the points of the article? You know nothing about the author and yet you make a multitude of assumptions about this person. Rather than name calling and insulting, why don’t you discuss the topic at hand?
Do you have any knowledge of the issues? Any thoughtful opinions? Perhaps, some solutions and/or suggestions of your own? Any practical experience with forming strategies or campaign experience to draw upon? If I were you my friend, I would re-read that post and take your own advice.
Or is your comment simply one of those generic, all purpose, juvenile and divisive posts that you can cut and paste from the Media Matters propaganda page and flit about the internet dropping you poison pellets? Either way, I wish you a blessed day and peace.
I think there are some very valid points in the article. Various points are key in determining why the Democrats took the majority of races against some very fine Republicans. Certainly voter attitudes, dollars spent, entitlement enticement and the lack of affirmative action from the Hawaii GOP and the National GOP all were significant factors.
At a time when our state budget is regularly spending more than it takes in (this last year resulting in a $1.4 billion dollar deficit), and teetering on the edge of insolvency of the majority of our programs, while simultaneously killing the tax base support (business), these were astounding and disappointing results. Despite the fact that there were many fine candidates, with clearly articulated platforms and solutions for the states woes, they lost.
Ah, Teri, Teri, Teri, did you read the same article I did? Mostly, it’s a bunch of election blather about how sad he is that the Republicans lost in Hawaii despite the glorious viktory of the republik on the Mainland. Really. Oh, and how much he loves the Tea Party for standing up for what our founding fathers represented. Fine things, like the White Man’s Right to Vote, The Right to Own Slaves, and the Right to Be Christian. Well, sincerely, f*** your party. You people believe in equality—as long as it’s for straight people only. You believe in less taxes—for the rich only. You believe in encouraging business—for those who can afford to ship all the jobs overseas and keep them there. Oh yeah, the last part of the article was about how much the Democrats spent in campaign money, which was way too much. But he fails to mention that when you total up the ludicrous gobs of dough the RGA spent on smear ads from the beginning (yes, we ran them too at the end, exactly 6 different ones, versus the 28 different ones the Republicans ran, by the way)—when you total all of that up, the Republicans spend about *TWICE* the amount of money than the Democrats did. Which says a lot for grassroots effort versus your partners’ corporate ownership. The hilarious site https://republicorp.us is pretty educational as it actually names quite a few of the cute little companies which funded the RGA and thus the anti-Abercrombie smear ads and his whole homophobic campaign.
Frankly, Terri, it doesn’t matter what I say to someone like you. You’re determined to stay inside a little eensy box, just trashing Democrats and calling people who, despite tons of cash and some excellently-planned focus groups, by the way, good job there on that—despite that lost by a landslide here, and you guys are bitter about it. Bitter in the same way you people hate Obama because he’s the opposite of your snuggly little G.W.Bush, that “shinning star” (sic) of Republicanism; no matter how badly he screwed us over with these wars we can’t end, and some economic policies we’ve barely been able to even *start* untangling before you “conservatives” bamboozled the public into voting for you again, he’s actually, finally, doing some good here in this country.
The reason I place the word “conservatives” in quotes here is because to “conserve” is generally understood to “to use or manage wisely; to preserve”. I hardly think that spending millions of dollars preventing me and my gay boyfriend from having the same tax rights as you to be “conserving” anything—just trying to make life harder for gay people (at least temporarily, til you guys lose [YEAH!!] the fight, very shortly), while wasting *MILLIONS* of taxpayer cash. Furthermore, your spending of *TRILLIONS* on these wars which, because of (again, Republican-backing) special interests won’t let us end this effing stupid war.
I think you need a reality check, Terri, and I think you need to understand how much we hate all of your phony “Christian love” talk, it’s twofaced, it’s lying, it’s bad, wrong, hurtful, causes teen suicides, damages our society. You fill up the airways with phone budget numbers and dollar amounts to justify lame-ass practices which should be banned from any modern society that isn’t based on your peoples’ so-called “Christian” values. Christ, friends with hookers, homos, poor people, the downtrodden, slaves and the “wrong” ethnicities would have been *ASHAMED* of your peoples’ behavior and how much your party seeks to destroy their livelihood.
In fact, this post is inspiring me to write a new website. I think I’ll call it “backtoslavery.com” in honor of you, Terri.
I’m not interested in blathering about election numbers, and dollar signs, but it’s all that “conservatives” want to think about. All I want to think about is saving lives, improving the health of everyone—including those people who can’t afford medical insurance, and encouraging small-business owners into becoming large-business owners.
As a small-business owner, who is gay, who doesn’t have any tax rights although I’ve been with my boyfriend for 8 years, living and owning a home together, and who has had no medical insurance because of the prohibitive cost of such, I find it galling that rich white people (and their white flunkies, I’m mostly white too) who have had excellent health care through their or their mommy’s/daddy’s employer plan their whole life, who have grown up with a roof over their heads at all times (unlike me), and who have had life handed to them on a silver platter, insist that the poor can “eat cake”. F*** that.
The poor, the disadvantaged, the rest of society has a say too. Nobody’s asking for handouts here. Mostly, it’s the conservative big guys who are *REALLY* asking for handouts—and are getting them. We’re interested in our *RIGHTS* and all your B.S., Terri, about “conserving” this and that sound like tiny little water droplets against the rushing roar of downtrodden people.
You’ve missed the point of the authors article completely totallyfugly. The authors point in a nutshell is that campaigns are competitions and who ever communicates most effectively, and spends their money most wisely wins the day. The RNC failed miserably in this respect, and frankly your response and misconceived and inaccurate assumptions about the GOP has truly proved that point far better than I can ever do. I would think that as a small business owner alone, the platform of lower taxes for the small business owners to grow and rebuild the overall economy would have appealed to you, not taxing and regulating the small business into oblivion. But, apparently you did not even know this is a platform, so obviously, they failed to communicate this principal effectively.
After wading through all the swearing and personal attacks, lastly I want to clear up a few of your personal and incorrect assumptions;
I am a part of the gay community. I am one of the downtrodden. My God is a loving God and does not discriminate and does not encourage me to do so either. I have an open mind and look at things from all sides and am not beholden to either political party. The TEA Party is all about a fiscally responsible government and limited regulation and is critical of both parties. The Democrats health care bill did nothing to lessen the cost of care or generally make it more affordable. The Democrats are owned by the big corporations also, look at their donors. The Democrats out spent the Republicans 3 to 1 nationally. I am a registered democrat. I look at the voting history and platforms of all parties and vote for the one that can articulate the best plan of action, which will do the greatest good for the general population. It’s amazing what truths you can see, when you open your mind and look beyond the party shackles.
The “party shackles” to me apply to those who believe their own party’s B.S.—the “T.E.A.” party is full of weird people who want to bring back 1600s values, which fits well with the Republicans’ desire to bring back their 1950s values—the GOP’s so-called “platform” of lowered taxes and improved business through deregulation has not worked at any point during the last 90 years. I fail to understand why someone who would claim that they’re a registered Democrat is so fond of repeating the lies that the GOP spreads about themselves. The Democrats are not perfect and yes some of them are most definitely “owned” and some of them are most definitely corrupt. But your numbers regarding national GOP vs. Dem spending are 100% flipped in the wrong direction. The numbers I’m using include all the so-called “non-grassroots” funds which the (GOP-backed, I believe) so-called “Citizens United” bill made it impossible to figure out from whence they came.
The reason to me, Teri, that people like you are so misinformed is that rather than study the details in-depth, you choose to blindly follow under some banner claiming that your party is about being “taxed enough already”. This is something I sympathize with, but if you think that anyone *ANYONE* you elect is going to actually lower your taxes, you’re pretty dead wrong. None of the Democrats I dealt with *NONE* of them promised to lower taxes, because they know they cannot make that promise.
Aiona’s shaky “platform” of lowered taxes is also utter B.S. I—and about 12 other self-employed and small-business-owning individuals who are my friends *ALL* received tax audits from the state. None of the state’s auditors took the time to examine *ANY* of our expenses, and we were all slammed with *HUGE* tax fines. These are unfair and unjust. I have paid my taxes fairly and squarely. And these are targets which Lingle and Aiona picked out of a market survey which *THEY PERSONALLY ORDERED* with their own signatures, by their own hands. This survey stated that “the most vulnerable institutions to tax audits in Hawaii will be those who file Schedule-C taxes and similar” because we can’t afford the attorneys nor the time to scan in and organize over ten years of receipts, all while trying to keep our businesses going.
I was one of the few people who bucked that system and indeed scanned in and categorized over ten years of purchase receipts into my database, and carefully re-audited myself. After all this work, the auditor said, “I’m not interested in looking at your expenses or receipts,” and handed me a paper signed by herself, with the names Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. James R. Aiona proudly emblazoned at top.
To me, this is them flipping off small businesses, and I find it ludicrous to say otherwise.
Did I also mention the over $35K in tax credits we were depending on, which they instantly cancelled because they “have enough high-tech businesses in Hawaii”?
So, you can rabbit on and on and on about how great your tea party is, how you and your little friends are all going to get together and play pretend with imaginary white rabbits and drink out of little china saucers while a Mad Hatter named Christine O’Donnell or Rich Lott or perhaps Carl Paladino screams about how upset they are, and vote for homophobic candidates who only switched their stance after the gay teen suicides became an epidemic and came to light conveniently right at political ad time, and who completely and utterly fail to inspire any modicum of intelligence or reasonableness, you’re welcome to it.
It’s so nice of you to mention health care, too, because as your wonderful GOP party effing *MURDERED* the single-payer option and nearly neutered it, it’s your peoples’ fault—not mine. We tried to change the world, your party tried to drag it into the ditch.
This is why I am partisan, it’s because there is a war going on, and it’s a war of ideologies. Clearly, the Republicans have completely lost their moral compass and will lie and subdue and spread misinformation and propaganda everywhere through the travesty that is Fox News (one of my clients, incidentally, so I know how full of sh*t they are and how much they twist info, from the inside).
Like the self-hating Log Cabin Republicans, I wish you luck, but I don’t think you’ll find any of it anywhere near the “tea” party—nor the “Grand Old Party”. They truly love only the über-rich, want only their little group to have their little [huge] upper 2% tax cut, and don’t care about you if you don’t fit in that group. They’re happy with their brainwashed masses just dropping votes for them like crazy. You watch, they’re going down in flames, I give it about a year.
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