The ideological Jiu-Jitsu of the GOP in Hawaii
I found this interesting essay online and thought folks might like to read it. I excerpted a piece and you can take the leap to read the whole thingy!
Go here for the full story: The ideological Jiu-Jitsu of the GOP in Hawaii
Ever since moving here I have regarded the political clime as, well, mystifying to say the least. Even for such a Democratic state, the Tea Party/GOP/fearful conservative demographic is exceedingly small but very very vocal, and overly funded. The fact that someone like Linda Lingle could ever become Governor of Hawaii attests to this bizarre dynamic. Two or three times a year (especially on “Tax Protest Day”) I can drive into Kona and see the annoying gathering of Tea Party holdouts, their expensive cars parked close by, shaking signs and waving yellow Don’t Tread On Me flags in anger over how we are not living in 1789 anymore. It is rare that you see a dark face amongst their scrubbed, white and slightly sunburned ones. But occasionally you do, and when that happens you are lured into a true Post Turtle moment. For those not aware of the joke, one guy walking a country road sees a turtle placed on top of a fence post and asks a neighbor what it is. The response is “a post turtle”. He asks again what that means, and is answered that no one knows how he got up there, but he doesn’t belong there and everyone agrees he needs to be helped down.
