Beth Fukumoto switching parties

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

Yes, but not because she left. Its because she should never have been the face of the party. I am not a RINO-hunter - in fact, i usually defend moderate repubs - but Fukumoto has always been pretty left-leaning even by HI standards (as you noted).

The party has a lot of structural issues - including not having any real agenda.

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Granted she was to the left of the entire caucus( and many members of the Hawaii democratic caucus) it's never a good sign when all your "rising stars" leave the party

Yes, but not because she left. Its because she should never have been the face of the party. I am not a RINO-hunter - in fact, i usually defend moderate repubs - but Fukumoto has always been pretty left-leaning even by HI standards (as you noted).

The party has a lot of structural issues - including not having any real agenda.

It sounds like she had been planning to leave for a while, she bashed Trump and his voters at the Hawaii state GOP convention and flirted with leaving the party during her speech, when she trashed the federal gop and participated in the women's march it was the last straw for the Hawaii gop and they removed her from her position. She's using that as her excuse to leave

yea, she's clearly motivated by electoral opportunism in her moves, imo.

[SATW]

Whatever, won't miss her. Not like we will compete anytime soon in Hawaii.

Yeah. You value right-wingers only. Religious bigots, Trumpish idiots and their like. 40 years ago Republicans had Jacob Javits and Clifford Case, while Democrats - Bob Stump and Phil Gramm. And it was good and interesting. Now - yawn. In most cases there are 2 hordes of fanatics..

What the actual...?

If you are going  to be condescending to me...at least be right. I am indeed conservative, but I'm hardly far-right. My only litmus test in on foreign policy - a test which many moderate republicans are actually better on then arch conservatives.

Susan Collins, Shelley Moore-Capito, Mark Kirk, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, George Pataki, Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchison are all moderate by today's GOP standards and I am a huge fan of all them.

People like Al D'Amato, Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman - all conservative in my book - are considered to be somewhat moderate by actual party purists. I support all of these republicans, not the purists.

You are right that I don't value people like Jacob Javits and Clifford Case - even for me they were a bit too liberal - but I still liked people like Thomas Dewey.

I'm hardly a "religious fanatic" and I'm often at odds with the religious right on LGBT rights.

I have always supported a broad spectrum - ideologically - of Republicans. But, certain politicians will always be exceptions to the rule. Beth Fukumoto seems to be one of those exceptions.

[SATW]

Considering I was an ex-NeverTrumper, I thought it would be apparent that I'm not against those who criticize him.

I guess it wasn't as clear as I thought.

I don't care if people break from the party line, but she was the minority leader of the HI GOP House caucus. The leaders of the party don't have as much leeway as regular members of the state house or senate.

There has to be some party uniformity for any electoral coalition or ideological coalition to function. She had her career ahead of the party's. You don't think the speech at the women's march was well-planned? I think she wanted to switch for a while and this gave her a reason to do so.

I don't hate her, she seems like a very nice person and someone who cares about public service, but she did not have any real attachment to her party.

Our disagreement is on what a party's function is in a political process.

[SATW]

She left for purely opportunistic reasons. As literally almost all party switchers do.

She is clearly a rising star in Hawaii but she'd never win a federal or statewide office as a Republican.

[SATW]

Yea, the Northern Strategy is not one I support. It may have worked in 2016, but it won't long term.

Minority Outreach is a must have for a future GOP.

[SATW]

From what I read, She hasn't left yet. She's only considering it. Regardless, she's more liberal than a lot of Hawaii Democrats...

So what?? Every Republican legislator must be more conservative then all Democrats??? Bull*hit...

Yes, the point of political parties is not to be erratic in ideology. I support having strong pragmatic and centrist wings in both parties. But I am 100% opposed to having arch-conservative Democrats and arch-liberal Republicans. Hyperpartisanship is horrible for a society, but some level of partisanship is necessary to have a coherent ideology.