Gov. David Ige has had his share of deer-in-the-headlights moments during his first year, but none more so than his damage-control news conference after his statement welcoming Syrian refugees to come to Hawaii.
The governor seemed clueless as to what the fuss was about.
All he had done was answer media inquiries about whether he would join some two dozen other governors, mostly Republican, fighting to keep the Obama administration from sending Syrians to their states, claiming the refugees are security risks.
Ige said he would not join the revolt and that refugees would be greeted with open arms in the Aloha State.
The subsequent flood of angry phone calls, emails and social media flames from a broad spectrum of unhappy constituents rattled him enough to call the hasty news conference.
It’s not that Ige was wrong to distance Hawaii from the anti-Muslim hysteria and cheap political posturing surrounding the Syrian refugees.
For governors and presidential candidates to treat the victims of Syrian violence — many of them orphans and widows — as though they were perpetrators of the violence is ugly, mean-spirited and contrary to the American exceptionalism these politicians so loudly proclaim.
What Ige failed to grasp, however, was that much of the negative local reaction had little to do with Syrians, ideology or presidential politics; it was about the incapacity of state leadership.
In his brief initial statement, Ige came across as actively seeking to host refugees in the name of Hawaii’s aloha spirit, and it evoked a deep gut reaction across the community about questionable priorities.
How could a governor who has barely begun to solve the gnawing problem of thousands of homeless living on our streets so blithely invite in a new problem that Hawaii is uniquely ill-suited to handle?
While some worried about security, mostly it seemed an expression of the embarrassing fact that our state, with leadership that has done so poorly at taking care of our own, really has little to offer Syrian refugees.
By the time Ige held his news conference to explain there are no current plans to bring Syrian refugees to Hawaii and few, if any, will ever be coming, the venting of a disgruntled constituency was in full voice and wouldn’t be quieted.
The governor almost seems to take pride in his poor communication skills, saying he’s more concerned about getting the job done.
Well, this washout was a clear sign that he isn’t credited with getting the job done — and the problem may go far deeper than lame communications.
If Ige is smart, he’ll take the unexpected smack-down as a warning that his distant style of leadership isn’t connecting.
After all, he has the job only because his predecessor, Neil Abercrombie, ignored similar signs of widespread discontent.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
