The Hawaii primary elections of 2018 appear to be a continuation of the slow dissolution of the already disastrously low GOP electoral influence. The election of 08/11/2018 had a Democrat participation of 251,525 compared to a Republican participation of 32,590.
Though the Democrat numbers are up (just under 50,000) from 2016 and the GOP primary numbers hit a high of 49,000 in 2012, the party identification gap of 150,00 to 200,000 has to be taken for the serious challenge it represents.
This gap shows at the polls in the general election (though not as dramatic) leading to the constant defeat of Republican candidates (if there is a Republican running at all). This enthusiasm gap cannot be assigned to the strength of the Democrat Party of Hawaii alone but is the result of an insular state Republican party that seems unable, unwilling or both to recover the trust and support of the average GOP voter.
Politics involves obtaining the consent of the governed and taking into serious account the concerns of those constituency groups that a party is formulated to appeal to and defend. Failure at the party level as a foundation to promote and protect the concerns of their constituency means that particular foundational platform (IE the party corporate-governing structure) is no longer functioning properly.
Resistance to reform to modify the corporate-governing structure signifies an immovable internal clique that may well mean the structure itself is er-repairable.
In Hawaii the 128,000 GOP stalwarts who supported Trump in 2016 like the 157,000 who voted for Duke Aiona in 2010 reflect no lack of GOP support for the right candidate. As well among the half a million people who decline to vote in Hawaii there is undoubtedly tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) who would respond positively to the eternal truth of Republicanism. Eternal truth’s such the right to life, defending free speech from the pulpit to the class room, economic freedom and independence, and a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”.
The responsibility of a party to be a dynamic platform for expressing the consent of the governed and to represent a bulwark to protect and promote the concerns of their constituency (using the force of unified action) is central to the nature of our democratic system of government. The present decay associated with Republican fortunes in the state of Hawaii cannot be allowed to continue.
