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In Hawaii, it has become established practice that the Republicans murder their young attractive candidates.
After last week’s spectacle on the state House floor, it is also apparent that they wield the garrote with a certain glee.
Rep. Beth Fukumoto was the subject of Thursday’s political honor killing as she was tossed out as House minority leader amid rumors that she was going to switch parties and become a Democrat.
If you are a political recruiter, you would pay extra to get Fukumoto on your team. At 33, she is a local University of Hawaii honors grad with an M.A. in English from Georgetown University and is a former chairwoman of the state Republican Party. The Washington Post’s column “The Fix” named Fukumoto one of the “40 under 40” rising political stars.
In the current political context, Fukumoto is one of the most credible local critics of President Donald Trump.
Dissent in American presidential politics is somewhat tolerated among Democrats. The late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy ran for president in 1968 on a campaign based on his opposition to then-incumbent President Lyndon Johnson. RFK was assassinated as the campaign started, but no Democrats were trying to drum him out of the party for disloyalty.
The GOP, however, has a long and damaging history of intolerance to intraparty criticism. Remember former President Ronald Reagan’s much-quoted 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
In Fukumoto’s case, it is more than just speaking poorly of Trump, a fellow GOP member. Fukumoto has nothing but scorn for the man. That resulted last year at the state GOP convention with Fukumoto nearly being booed off the stage when she said that, honestly, she didn’t like Trump and doubted she would vote for him.
Then during the campaign, the radical right-wing members of the local GOP lobbed grenades at her, demanding she admit she was a secret Democrat and exit the party.
Fukumoto managed to remain and then last month gave an impassioned speech at the Women’s March at the state Capitol, saying she had watched a bully with a racist agenda win the presidency. Amazingly, Fukumoto’s House GOP colleagues then said the only way she could remain in leadership would be if she recanted and vowed to not criticize Trump while she was in office. It is obvious the GOP is not a party of a big, little or any tent; it is a party of a steel curtain.You just pick what side you are on and that is it.
Being driven from the GOP is also something of a rite of passage for many local successful Democrats.
Remember when former state senator and now prominent City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi left the GOP? Or when state Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson was hounded out of the GOP because the right wing thought he wasn’t Republican enough? Now he is Democratic enough to chair the House Labor Committee.
Before that, the GOP said adios to former state Rep. Gil Riviere, who came back as Democratic state Sen. Gil Riviere. Also add to the GOP goodbye list Sen. Mike Gabbard, Rep. Jimmy Tokioka and former Rep. Karen Awana.
If the local GOP leaders’ campaign treasury can afford a mirror, it is all they would need to see who is driving their aggressive course to extinction.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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