You don't have to live in Hawaii for longer than a week to get used to being called the most liberal state in the union. I mean, as if that's a bad thing. But live here a little longer and you will discover something nasty beneath the waves. Something that is allowing this beautiful, liberal place to be undermined by an increasingly successful right wing Jedi mind trick, convincing good hearted Hawaiians to speak and act against their own interests.
Snorkel below the jump for the awful details.
The Trick takes many forms, and is custom targeted to different groups. Take the Hawaiian Sovereigntists. I'll get loads of email from them every week that usually lead with some disaster on the mainland which they will break land speed records in blaming on....wait for it....Obama. Yeah, really. You could have knocked me over with a feather last week when I got one email actually blaming Obama for the Texas fertilizer explosion, and further fleshing out how it was a run through for a coming Obama-led martial law coup on the islands which will once and for all rob the "Kanaka Maoli" (Real Hawaiians) of their land. Not a word from our distressed Kanaka about how the lions share of their economic misery comes from the wealthy conservatives who make it their business to exploit and abuse labor, take jobs off the island, and keep giving themselves tax cuts while slashing valuable social programs for the island's needy. No, it's an Obama Blast nearly 24/7.
Then we have the anti-GMO health set. All I heard three weeks ago was about the "Monsanto Protection Act" which never existed, of course. But in the same breath they hissed that one came the obligatory swat at Obama and Democrats, as if they were the ones who planned at stealth midnight meetings how to own the world's food while starving most of us. When I tell them the part of the bill which was added to protect Monsanto came from a Republican, they either just blink or change the subject. They have been utterly convinced that the side of the aisle most in their corner, is in fact the enemy.
And we have our odd smattering of what I call the pearl clutchers, the "Obama promised me candy and I'm still missing my jelly beans" group. You can get people from a swath of libertine/aboriginal rights groups who are part of this nonsense. Their ailment is that no matter what good Obama has done, no matter what the actual facts are, they are inconsolable over missing some sidebar of their demands in life and will happily shoot their own side in the foot rather than point fingers where they need be pointed.
Add to this the bizarre issue of Christian evangelism being used to actually foster the sovereignty movement. That's something you have to see and hear to believe. But I can tell you from experience, if you try to explain how little the Near Eastern JudeoChristian dynamic has to do with the rights of Hawaiians and our land issues, well let's just say you'll have greater luck trying to roller skate on the bottom of Kealakekua Bay.
Long story short, the exact forces and ideas arrayed against Hawaiian issues of rights, sovereignty and justice are having great successes in convincing us that our friends are really our enemies. They use the imperfections and blunders we go through as "evidence", while drawing the blinds over our eyes to the egregious acts and plans of those who do take the time every week to construct memes and false scandals against Progressives and Liberals in the name of "taking America back".
It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. It's quite another to smile as you cock the pistol, and curse Obama before you do it.