John Congratulates the Hawaii Republican Party Platform Committee
Aloha to the Valiant Members of the Hawaii State Republican Party Platform Committee!
I would like to express my appreciation for your grit, diligence, and selfless determination in developing a strong platform – a framework of which all Hawaii Republicans and candidates can be proud.
As a member of the committee, I have received and read all your communications with deep interest. But as a candidate for the 2nd U.S. Congressional District, I have intentionally recused myself from the process, instead allowing you to develop and nurture synergies that have been crucial to completing this monumental task.
Yours has been a shared process that will guide us candidates in our mission to reshape and redirect the political realities that have defined our State for the past 50 years.
From your writings, we validate that our core values of Liberty, Limited Government, Individual Responsibility, Financial Accountability, and Equality of Opportunity are the very basis of Conservatism in Hawaii.
Contrary to what the monopolistic liberal media in Hawaii has unilaterally proclaimed, Hawaii is a proudly Conservative State. Since I began my campaign last October, I have spoken with thousands of Hawaii residents. An overwhelming majority of those have offered unsolicited opinion that our State needs to move in a more Conservative direction.
Our challenge as candidates is to not only highlight the differences between us and our misguided opponents on the extreme left side of the Democrat Party, but to offer clear solutions designed to demonstrate to all Hawaii families that our intentions are just and right and good.
The Conservative values you have defined in our LLIFE platform are common sense: to be American is to believe in Liberty; the government that governs best, governs least; we are all responsible for our own actions; we cannot spend more than we take in; and, we as Americans firmly believe in equality of opportunity for all with special privileges for none.
Up to now, the media has been very adroit at defining and maligning the Republican Party and Conservatism in Hawaii. This is no longer acceptable.
Local television broadcasters and newspaper editors have dismissed “Economic Conservatism” as being cruel to the less privileged. Instead, they have embraced crony capitalism as the benevolent means to achieve a “nanny state” that is all things to all people. This also is no longer acceptable. More importantly, it is no longer sustainable.
Additionally, they have defined “Social Conservatism.” They have taken the Conservative philosophy on issues like education, immigration, abortion, gay marriage, parental rights, national security, energy, our ‘Aina and the environment, Hawaiian Rights, and religion among others and labeled them as “extreme” – a label most people seek to avoid.
What the media has consistently achieved by defining and separating economic and social conservatism is that they have fractured the Republican Party and virtually guaranteed victories for every candidate who claims that he or she is not they.
The question is, can we as candidates regain the initiative by redefining and recombining economic and social Conservatism into what has – up to now – been portrayed as an uneasy alliance? I genuinely believe we can. That is the very reason I, as a Commercial Airline Pilot and Retired Navy Officer (and someone who has never been involved in politics) have temporarily deviated from my chosen career path to seek public office.
If we can regain the initiative, we will reestablish our Party and lead it to what Chairman Jonah Ka’auwai envisions as the new political majority in Hawaii.
When Ramsay Wharton recently announced that she would join me as a candidate for the 2nd District nomination, I welcomed her into the race and offered her my best wishes. Naturally, we both feel uniquely suited to offer 2nd District voters the most stark possible contrast to the destructive and failed representation we all have received from Mazie Hirono and her extreme Democrat majority.
I’m sure I speak for Ramsay when I say that we each will wholeheartedly accept your platform as the basic structure for our respective campaigns. As for me, I recognize this platform as the strongest possible foundation to support whichever philosophy, hers or mine, the families of Hawaii choose to embrace.
My Conservative philosophy and stand on both fiscal and social issues, as described in my speeches and many published articles and on my website, are bold and unwavering. I look forward to Ramsay revealing her philosophy and stand on these vital issues in the very near future so that we both can prepare to offer 2nd District families a clear and well-defined choice and direction for Hawaii’s future.
Like Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican National Convention, I reject those who say that we must broaden the base of our Party, when they seemingly wish to blur the differences between our opponents and us in order to make us more like them. We must resist this strategy, but instead “…raise a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pastel shades.”
Beginning this Saturday, we should resolve to put the bickering and squabbles behind us.
Instead, we must join to reinforce and strengthen the values and principles that will – from that day forward – control and direct the actions of the Hawaii Republican Party.
Beginning this Saturday, me must strive to embrace those standards each of us knows to be noblest and best, keeping our obligations, and focusing on the Hawaii Republican Party goals each one of us has accepted as our own.
Beginning this Saturday, we must pledge to conduct ourselves such, that as election day in November approaches, each one of us will be able to proudly say – looking back over these past months – I am fighting the good fight, I am doing my work, our Hawaii Republican Party, our community, and our Nation will be better because of me.
I look forward to meeting each one of you on Saturday and working closely with you over the next six months and beyond. Most of all, I pledge to support your wishes and sail the direction you have charted.
With warmest regards,
John Willoughby