Tuesday, July 25, 2006

District 21/22/23 Newsletter (Diamond Head to Kakaako, Moiliili to Pawaa)

The 2006 election is about the governor’s race -- but it also isn’t. Not only is it the first time ever that a Republican governor is up for re-election, but every indication is that it’s a “no-contest” from every angle one can dissect it -- with a well-known, obvious favorite against opposition even their own party admits is overmatched and out of its league. It would be the same with anyone -- because it’s just Linda Lingle’s time -- like Tyrannosaurus Rex once ruled the earth. That’s just a fact, and not an opinion, preference, bias.

Sometimes, one just has to accept those facts --and change those things that can be changed -- rather than thinking that one can stand fast and hold one’s ground against a tsunami. So that is the great advantage the Republicans are working hopefully with -- rather than against. While the Democrat opposition is obvious, less so is it that the Lingle campaign can also be competing against fellow Republicans for scarce resources -- and may inadvertently be sucking up all the oxygen in the room.

As the media covers the so-called governor’s race, it is less likely that they’ll be giving more coverage to other races more deserving of their time and interest -- because the governor’s campaign releases may get published, while others deserving of attention will be ignored. It’s unfair but that is the reality one has to work with. And while one can complain loud and long about those injustices, one is better served devising strategies that acknowledge those realities and create new ones to their own advantage -- and in the case of the media, creating one’s own, and linking all one’s efforts into a critical mass and momentum.

Specifically, I think every Republican candidate has to link their own campaign to the governor’s in some complementary and mutually advantageous way. With the fall of the influence of mass media, it’s not easy to draw a crowd or a following anymore, and one of the few who does, is the governor. So I would think that those running for statewide office particularly, would be at those same venues -- if conspicuous for no other reason than for their ubiquitous nametags.

It’s amazing the number of people who think that “everybody” knows who they are, when often, these people don’t even know who they themselves are. Running for office, like everything else we do in life, is one way of learning who it is we actually are. A large part of it is defining, redefining and refining who we are -- in the campaign messages, until something sticks. It may be a witty campaign slogan, biographical piece, a ditty one can’t get out of their mind, etc. I know the Party sums it up in one word, “Hard work,” but it also has to be the “right effort,” as the Buddhists of antiquity were the first to point out and codify.

In Hawaii, we often forget that condition, and assume that “any” hard work pays off -- with the “desired” result -- rather than just “any” result. Regardless of what they are doing, I think everyone works as hard as everybody else; I think the real and decisive difference is how smart and efficiently they work -- rather than being the genetic exceptions, who the more energy they put out, the more energy they seem to have. With most others, energy is a limited resource -- as are all the others.

Because our greatest resources here in Hawaii have been free -- the sun, sea, air, nature, diversity -- we have not developed the greatest skills at valuing them properly and efficiently, just as we think the more federal monies we waste, there is no end to the largesse that our congress people can secure -- even to the disastrous effects both environmentally and psychologically. It breeds a kind of irresponsible and unaccountable personalities and supportive culture that eventually explodes onto our consciousness with predictable, disturbing regularity.

The underlying intellectual and cultural infrastructure is that nothing is related to anything else; “stuff” just happens. “Liberal” studies foster the notion that randomness is the underlying explanation for everything. If one simply goes through the motions long enough, mechanically, mindlessly, a miracle may happen. Miracles happen because one systematically makes them more likely to happen.

That is the reason for laws and government, and before that, more informal meetings of those who assemble to discuss these possibilities among themselves. Of course, many people’s ideas of what such occasions are about is to tell everybody their information -- without the realization that it might be even more productive, as opportunities to take in new information. And so these forums have often become quite contentious and unproductive -- rather than conducive to the free exchange of information, without a particular agenda.

Hopefully and confidently, you think that if you get a few intelligent people together, they can figure out what needs to be talked about -- without having to overly ritualize the discussion by Roberts Rules of Order. Everybody has their unique concerns and perspectives that one doesn’t learn about until one has such direct exchanges with others -- unlike the old mass media paradigm in which we trusted the media to report faithfully what was going on. That used to be the best way we had at finding these things out.

But with new technologies and new media, we evolve to an even higher level of information availability and reliability not controlled by the “media” itself. That makes the humble meeting of actual people once again the king of all forums -- like our monthly meeting this Wednesday, July 26, 6pm at the Hawaii Republican Headquarters.

4 Comments:

At July 25, 2006 4:54 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Mike,

Just wanted to pass a note of thanks for the newsletter below. I like the way you think and present your ideas, kind of a philosopher but with his feet on the ground and head in reality.

These are the kinds of minds and thoughts we need to steer this state in the right direction in the future. Ideas have consequences, and your brief newsletter indicates you should or must be part of the RP think tank that will get us beyond the present stalemate of being a state that is greatly blessed but still an under-achiever and satisfied with mediocrity. We have to rekindle the vision of the destiny our islands, and your piece has done just that for me.

Aloha,

Gene Ward
Candidate State House
Hawaii Kai to Makapuu

 
At July 25, 2006 4:57 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Aloha all - Another thoughtful piece from Mike Hu, and just in time for tomorrow night's monthly meeting. That's Wednesday, July 26, at GOP HQ, 6PM.

As usual, Mike has packed a lot of meat in his message. I invite your attention to his point about the Governor's strength going into the upcoming elections. I'd like to add a couple of editorial comments about the Governor's apparent invincibility. First, she isn't. Second, we can't acft like she is. If we get complacent about her strength we risk a rude surprise, however improbable. And of even greater importance, complacency will penalize the many Republican candidates who have stepped up, in some cases against huge odds, to run. We have great candidates in these races, and they need us to deliver REPUBLICAN voters.

Those of you who take the time to read these messages, and attend our meetings, are the heart of our effort. We need all of you to make sure all of your friends, family, acquaintances, golf buddies, whatever, know that their vote is crucial to the political health of our state. No one gets a pass just because the Governor has a commanding lead - we have others in this fight who need our help. There are a lot of interesting dynamics to stimulate interest in this year's races. Use it to juice up your friends. If we get all of our Republican voters out, WE WIN!!

Bob K

 
At July 26, 2006 6:59 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Mike,

This election is NOT about the governor’s race, there is no “race,” her reelection is a given. This election is about the Republican Party’s survival, whether the electorate will be motivated to get to the polls.

It is also a given that our voter turnout is dismal. How can the Hawaii Republican Party change that? The PARTY is not rallying the candidates, not articulating an intellectual and emotional message to prospective voters to call for change.

This election is about the LEGISLATIVE RACES races – this election or relection of legislators going to Congress, State Capitol and City Hall.

1 - Traffic Congestion is more than irritating in every community throughout our islands. Traffic congestion is on the state highways and the administration needs to change its message that “if you build more roads, you encourage more drivers and it is a losing battle, so we need alternatives to driving.” If you build 40,000 houses, what are we going to do about the 39,000 more motorists? We need a strong statement that the moratorium on building roads and highways and bridges is OVER AND WILL CHANGE TO IMPROVE motorists’ driving conditions. The congestion seriously impacts the economy because on-time-delivery is the only way for Hawaii to compete in a global economy. Our top three industries, Tourism, Military and Construction depend on making traffic better. Traffic congestion hinders people working 2-3 jobs to make a living and pay taxes in Paradise.

In other words, traffic congestion “costs” people and businesses --- and we don’t have enough money when highway funds are constantly raided by the State Legislature and Honolulu City Council. We need highway revenues to go into fixing the potholes and expanding capacity of our highways and bridges. We need to get on the concept of PRIVATE PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP to finance, design, construct and operate some big highway projects, and use whatever other fuel taxes are left for fixing the rest of STATEWIDE traffic needs --- not only on Oahu, not only for Leeward Oahu – everyplace! I’m not saying that the HDOT is not doing a good job on all the road improvements they have been doing --- there is just too much to be done without extra help from the private enterprise, Is the Hawaii Republican Party to stand for including Private Sector to get better results for the public infrastructure?

2 - Even though the state admin seems to have “given up” on changing the education, the issue is whether or not the Hawaii Republican Party stands for better education for our future leaders and labor force. If Hawaii does not change the dismal state of education, more families with children will leave as we already have a dwindling labor force to keep jobs in Hawaii. You cannot build an economy without labor and skilled labor force is a must to be competitive in a global economy. Education in Hawaii will not change unless the Legislature changes its attitude --- we have a 45 year record of protecting the public monopoly over education, and we need competition, letting the parents and educators in to innovate changes.

3 - The Hawaii GOP has to insist on calling for a full accounting of the public infrastructure so that we know what needs to be done about our state and county assets and resources. Instead of wasteful spending, the public needs to know what is the total bill that taxpayers are going to foot to put the house in order.

I’m sure that others have more ideas to suggest as our PLATFORM – but the Hawaii Republican Party has got to hit the guts of voters to make changes for the better. People have to “want” to vote and we need a Call To Action that is compelling and exciting!

Dale Evans

 
At July 26, 2006 9:36 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

In case anybody ever wonders if anybody ever reads these blogs -- or anybody really important reads these blogs, I submit a sampling of my email comments above, and actually get many more spoken to me in person. I think many assume that I will take in their input along with others, digest it, assimilate it, and when it’s ready, devise a title, and the piece writes itself. That is the “secret” of my writing, to the many who have asked, “Just how long does it take to write one of your essays? -- because it’s obviously a work of a lifetime of thought and skill at expressing ideas, and you never say anything trite and clichéd”

As some of you may know by now, and to others it will come as a complete shock, I’ve accepted the challenge of running for the Representative’s seat in District 21 (Waikiki-Kapahulu), after giving everybody else a chance to consider the Party’s aspirations of an ideal candidate. I told them I looked long and hard as district chair for the second coming of Linda Lingle, but none was to be found. So, as the filing deadline drew near, they lowered the bar so I could get my name on the ballot. “Could I just go down and pull the papers?” Once I pulled the papers, the Party was ready to swing into action to help me get the 15 required valid signatures to file my nomination.

Not having any experience into these things, I told them to defer until 5pm, at which point I thought I could get at least the 15 myself, once it cooled down, people returned home and were enjoying the pleasant part of the day in their yards. Then I walked down the shady side of the street until I ran into people -- and asked if there were registered voters among them willing to sign their names to my nomination papers.

At the 7 pm meeting we agreed to determine whether I would need that help the next day to gather those signatures, they were surprised that I had done so well in filling out most of the sheet, for which the additional few they had gathered, would complete. So we felt pretty confident I should go in as soon as the office opened the next day to file my papers -- to beat the last minute rush.

Even on the last day of filing -- but early in the morning, there were only two candidates there, both having worked weeks on completing their signature requirement. I had brought the thick instruction manuals on being a candidate, expecting to complete the reading by the time my turn had come around and so was delighted I was virtually the next person up. The others had “complications” -- or decisions they had to make about their filing.

The Thinking Hawaii blog (http://hawaiirepublican.blogspot.com/) actually came about because Dale Evans observed that the Party website was dull and uninviting -- and could use a lively blog, and having just discovered how to create one (for free) at blogger.com, I created a prototype I thought somebody else, or everybody could take over. It has been the general discussion about the political and cultural life in Hawaii the old media ignores, denies, or actively suppresses.

One can beg them forever to correct these “oversights,” but today, the possibility exists to create wholly new ways of doing things, chief among them being the creation of new media, which can be an entirely new way not possible before -- of information sharing and communications -- not only in content but style also, and maybe most significantly.

And once people have the choice of these new possibilities, very few will choose the outmoded, obsolete and inefficient. In this manner, those who ruled the world by their virtual monopoly of the old technologies, have the tremendous disadvantageous of having evolved and perfected themselves for a world that no longer exists. It doesn’t matter how many buggy whips a person has, and owns the capacity for creating all the buggy whips that will ever be created in the future, that is not an advantage in the new world being created now -- as ordinary people live their lives and make their choices.

This “new world” requires different role-models in every aspect of our lives and experiences. In politics particularly, but in everyone’s experiences also, what people don’t like is the “politics” of their job, schools, universities, public forums, even the essential relationship they have with each other -- which is usually about who dominates the other, and gets to be the “boss.” So, many people’s idea of politics is just to see who gets to be on top -- and then has a right to take all the spoils for themselves, which is the primitive and tribal notion of leadership.

That is not my idea of leadership; I think the quintessential task and mark of a modern leader, is to empower and prepare the next generation -- to take it to the next level. That is the choice of my campaign.

Because this will require my focusing my thoughts and energies to this specific purpose, in all probability, I will not be posting on this blog for awhile -- but direct you to http://repmikehu.blogspot.com/ , my campaign blog, for the next 100 days or so, on which I will be focusing my attention. That is also true for my other active blog, http://thinkingdifferently.blogspot.com/ , at which I defined the state-of-the-art in thinking about exercise and conditioning. While current contributions may be limited if not absent, the writing and insight is timeless, and so will remain as another addition to my archives that have accumulated to one of the great Web presences since the beginning of its explosive popularity and acceptance as the true publication of record (collective consciousness), only since ten years ago. My directory for my most recent, as well as past writing is at http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu/ . You can also google “Mike Hu,” but I cannot promise that every entry is me because every Mike Hu seems to be a very distinguished leader in his own respective field. One in particular, is the same age, lives on Oahu, teaches at a prestigious school, and has had articles written about him in the local newspapers.

I am known for being my own primary writer stubbornly insistent on speaking my own truth in my own way -- for which the blog is the ultimate vehicle of these times. One doesn’t have to deal with all the control issues of old media, writing and thinking by committee and consensus, writing only the trite and familiar, doing only what has been done before -- the politics as usual.

 

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