Originally published via YouTube on March 22, 2017
This isn’t a message for Republicans, or Democrats, or independents. It’s a message for everyone.
In my community, people tend to vote for a person based on their merit or because they share our vision and ideas, but that’s not the way the national political system wants us to operate. Instead, partisan politics forces everyone – even the most well-intended teachers, pastors, or local business owners running for office, to define themselves as either a Republican or a Democrat.
The system makes us choose even though nobody completely agrees with either party. This is my story about that choice.
There’s been a lot of discussion about why I ever became a Republican, why I should have never been a Republican, why I was the face of the new Republican, and ultimately, why I should consider resigning the label of “Republican.”
But, what a lot of people don’t know is that when I joined the Republican Party eight years ago, I did so with a group of people my age who were full of hope, ideas, and energy, and …
… saw the opportunity to take a political party that was broken, in a political system that was rigged, and even the playing field.
In my mind, revitalizing the Hawaii GOP was going to serve as a political recourse for the people that felt outnumbered, overwhelmed, and undervalued by their Government.
Just out of school and a member of the unlucky generation that graduated into the Great Recession, I got involved with politics, at first, because the Legislature was the only place hiring. I took a job as a file clerk not knowing that it was going to affect the next decade of my life.
At the Legislature, I found myself frustrated that decisions seemed like they were always made by an old boys’ club behind a closed door. And, that the Democrats with the control didn’t seem concerned with Hawaii’s high cost of living, growing income inequality, our lack of high-wage jobs, or our housing crisis.
My friends and I thought that Democrats represented the status quo, and what we knew was that the status quo was allowing the place that we called home to become so expensive that it was no longer affordable for local families.
That’s why I ran as a Republican. I thought that adding people with a different label to the Democrat-heavy Legislature would shake-up the status quo and add diversity which always produces a better product.
However, after serving at the State Capitol I discovered that it wasn’t just me and my Republican friends trying to change the status quo. There were good Democrats trying to change things too. So we started working together and began winning battles to create more transparency in government and reduce the cost of living. But in doing so, I ran into Republican partisanship that insisted I stop working with Democrats even when it clearly benefitted our community.
The issues that I’ve had with the Republican Party are well-documented and to reiterate them now would be adding fuel to a fire that doesn’t need to keep burning. It’s enough to say that my friends and I were wrong to think that a failing party could be changed just because we had the will to change it. In the process of trying to make a party that spoke about issues that our communities cared about in a way that Hawaii’s voters wanted to listen to, my friends and I uncovered louder and more powerful voices that fought divergence, difference, and diversity at every step. This election, those voices won.
I’ve served at every level of the Hawaii Republican Party from envelope stuffer to party chair. And, I’ve worked for Republicans in the Legislature as their file clerk and their Minority Leader. I believe that when you pick a team leaving that team should be a last resort even when you doubt whether you should’ve been on that team in the first place.
I did everything I could think of to fight for a better Republican Party. I even spoke out against the President.
Today, I’m leaving the Republican Party and pursuing membership in the Democratic Party. Ultimately, it will be up to Democrats to decide if they want to accept me or not, but I want to assure my constituents that I will continue to uphold the convictions I have always demonstrated, regardless of my political affiliation.
In serving my district at the Legislature, I’ve found significant common ground with my Democratic colleagues. Enough common ground that I believe that we can fit comfortably in the same tent. Those that consider my voting record will find that it aligns more closely with the Democratic Party platform than the records of some elected Democrats.
I couldn’t make a place for myself in the Republican Party, and the friends that fought to make a better party with me have all found places somewhere else. Now, I hope I can find a place in the Democratic Party, and that their principles of inclusion and tolerance will extend to me and the many people that may never want to sign a party card, but who just want to know that someone is looking out for their rights and their freedoms.
I started this journey believing that diversity makes us stronger. For me, I think the Democratic Party of Hawaii allows enough diversity of opinion that I can find a home there. Democrats that want to change the status quo in Hawaii are still fighting to do it, and I want to help them.
Thank you to everyone for your emails and phone calls and postcards – they have taught me that the diversity that exists in America can’t be adequately reflected in either political party if their establishments refuse to change.
This election left Americans afraid of one another, and the tendency is for each of us to stick to our own corners or cling to our labels or just stay out of politics altogether. But, now more than ever, it’s crucial that we start flooding politics with new voices. Your voices.
When I spoke out against the Republican Party and Donald Trump, I spoke because my background and my position made me the person that had to say something. It was my fight, and I had to fight it regardless of the consequences.
You have something like that too. You have something to contribute to this conversation that no one else can. And, if you’re concerned about the direction of our country, your state, or your town, it’s time to speak up, stand up and work for something better.
Copyright © 2018 by Beth Fukumoto. All rights reserved.