in response to a GOP mailer

I recently was forwarded an email being circulated by the Hawai. I have mixed feelings about posting the email, however here’s my response:

According to Hawaii’s GOP, Democrats have failed to stop crime in our State, improve education, and lower the cost of living. Not only do they suggest an Obama Presidency would be more of the same, but they completely neglect the fact that it is the GOP and a two-term Bush Presidency that have put us where we are. Not Democrats.

The troubled economy and rising prices in Hawaii are a result of failed GOP policies.

Two long, drawn out wars in the Middle East have helped to destabilize the oil market and raise crude oil prices. The first war, in Afghanistan, was intended to crush the Taliban and capture or kill Osama Bil Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The GOP and Bush leadership have failed on both accounts, largely as a consequence of the ill-advised, unnecessary, and illegal war in Iraq.

The policies of the Bush Administration and the GOP have rolled back not just environmental standards, but oversight and regulation of, for example, the mortgage and loan industries. Deregulation of the mortgage industry left the foxes watching over the chicken coop, so to speak. Tumbling house prices were just the beginning as banks and mortgage brokerages go bankrupt and cry for government bailouts. This mean that while the value of our homes drop, the Bush Administration and the GOP take our hard earned tax dollars to bail out and prop up the very companies that put us here in the first place. How’s that for making Hawaii more affordable?

Education? No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has largely been a failure, as well. Aside from underfunding by the previously Republican controlled Congress, this law that Bush might describe as one of the crowning achievements of his Administration, countless teachers, parents, and education experts question what success, if any, the program has had. What’s more, the Advertiser reported last week that Congress, still made up largely of Republicans,

is unlikely to reauthorize the law before the November elections.

It would seem it’s not just Democrats that belive NCLB should be scraped, or at least reworked. And should I even mention the GOP’s support for school vouchers, which would have killed public education?

How does the GOP propose we curb crime in Hawaii? Already there are record numbers of Hawaii residents in prisons both here and on the mainland. I find it interesting that while the GOP blame Democrats for the crime spree they seem to think has gripped the Islands. There is little doubt that substance abuse, particularly ice, is a serious problem. And the GOP’s solution? Lock up everybody. Studies have shown, time and again, that treatment, not incarceration is the key to curbing substance abuse and associated crimes. Given that and given the GOP’s refusal to even consider treatment over incarceration, who is really ‘soft on crime?’

Finally, with regard to their use of the word scandal to describe recent events at the Office of Elections, I have two things to say: Bob Awana and SuperFerry.