EDITORIAL: Post Iran Attack Fumbling by Team Hannemann at Hawaii GOP

Let’s get right to the point.  Since the Hawaii GOP’s state convention held more than one month ago, Team Art has gone silent.  While political influencers from the White House and the RNC down to the Oahu Democrat Party and the local Antifa chapter do battle on Facebook, Instagram, X and elsewhere on social media, the party controlled by Shirlene Ostrov, Art Hannemann, Bob McDermott and Steve Yoder has made a calculated decision to let Hawaii Democrats control the message.

TODAY’S Sunday edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser features a column by Dave Shapiro which reveals that even Democrats in the mainstream media can’t help but notice the abject silence as we are now one-third of the way from the 2024 General Election to the 2026 General Election.  Yes, time is a-wasting.  With every issue in Hawaii getting worse under Democrats, Shapiro points out the obvious:  “Hawaii Democrats have been spared accountability for poor results because of weak opposition from the local GOP.”  Period.

Weak opposition by weak party leaders and weak GOP incumbents protects Democrats from responsibility for their failures, leaving voters none the wiser.  Of course, that’s exactly what RINOs always do.  They refuse to take bold stands and refuse to educate and persuade the electorate.  Instead, they sit on the fence, put a wet finger in the wind, and hope for an open seat in some suburban district where Republican leaning voters live so that they can do as little persuasion as possible.  Let’s just try to promote a moderate-to-liberal neighborhood celebrity, keep the “R” as small as possible on their banners, and sneak them into office so they can vote like a Democrat.  Auwe, even the liberal news media can’t help but see the problem, which continues under state chair Art Hannemann.  Weak opposition to what Democrats are selling and what Democrats are doing is the guiding philosophy of RINOs at the Hawaii GOP.

Mufi’s cousin, Art Hannemann, is now the state chair of the Hawaii GOP.  One month ago, he hand picked his running mate Steve Yoder, a longtime crony of the same cabal of useless RINO’s who’ve controlled our problematic and left-leaning state party for decades.  In Hannemann’s flyer to promote his ‘slate’ of officers vying for control of the party, he promised the following capabilities would be used by Steve Yoder if he were to be elected Vice Chair of Communications:  “Steve Yoder is an experienced communicator focused on clear messaging to keep people informed and connected.”  -Art Hannemann’s explicit promise was that Yoder knew what he was doing, even though nobody has ever seen Yoder run social media accounts, a website, or a public relations machine.  Rig county conventions?  Yes.  But an “experienced communicator”?  That’s a laugh.

It turns out that was all shibai.  Not only has there been no communication from Yoder on the party’s multiple social media channels, but the party’s website doesn’t even list the officers who’ve been supposedly ‘running’ HRP for the past 1+ months.  The photos and names of former officers Tamara McKay and her gang were all removed right after the state convention.  But Yoder has failed to bring his alleged expertise and experience on websites and other communications.  Is he lying in a ditch somewhere?  Is he, like David Ige during the missile crisis, looking for his passwords?  Paging Steve Yoder.  How is this acceptable to Art Hannemann and his puppetmaster Shirlene Ostrov?

To date, Yoder has posted ZERO COMMUNICATIONS on Facebook, ZERO on Instagram, ZERO on X (formerly Twitter), ZERO on Truth Social, ZERO on YouTube, ZERO on Rumble, and ZERO anywhere else at all.  Silence is NOT golden in politics, especially for a party that’s running a distant second place in the Aloha State.

Republicans were explicitly promised that the Art Hannemann leadership team was ready to hit the ground running with their “experience” and “determination”.  It seems their experience at doing nothing has made them determined to keep doing nothing.  Don’t losers like Vice Chair of Communications ‘Cheating Steve’ Yoder and the rest of Art’s team have any idea where today’s political messaging battles are being fought?  It’s not using MailChimp and HRP’s tiny mailing list of party members, that’s for sure.

Speaking of Art Hannemann, here’s the lame message he sent TODAY via email to all Hawaii Republican Party members across the state in the wake of this weekend’s U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites.  Pray for the Ayatollah and whichever Iranian generals aren’t dead yet??  Seriously?!?

In the wake of the obliteration of Iran’s dangerous nuclear weapons program, Art’s message from the Hawaii GOP is “Pray for the Middle East”???   That’s it.  Nothing more.

WHERE is the supportive and unconditional message of “great job” to our president and our troops?  Where is the message of “we did the right thing” in the wake of the strike on Iran’s nukes???  NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

Forget hapless Steve Yoder and his do-nothingness, his bosses state chair Art Hannemann and vice chair Shirlene Ostrov have turned out to be enormous disappointments at a time when both Hawaii and national Democrats are sowing division, doubt and despair.  WHY on Earth would we pray for Iran’s #1 terrorist, the Ayatollah?  He and his gang of thugs should be lying in rubble.  It appears, instead, island Republicans should pray for the misguided and unpatriotic RINO losers masquerading as Hawaii’s Republican ‘leaders’.

HIRA News is 100% behind President Trump and our military.  They did the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.  They did a great job.  And the world is safer for the strikes on Iran.  Auwe to the weak, namby-pamby RINOs who pretend to speak for Republicans in Hawai’i.  Three cheers for the USA, our president, and our men and women in the armed forces and intelligence services!!!

At least the Republican National Committee got it right.  Here’s the RNC’s new and crystal clear statement on the successful strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.  Hawaii voters would understand this message in a heartbeat, if Steve, Art and Shirlene ever get their act together.  Shame!

Yes, “decisive action, clear leadership and a safer America”.  That’s the exact message that Hawaii’s Republican Party needs to say again and again, because libtards with Trump Derangement Syndrome like Jill Tokuda and Mazie Hirono are endlessly attacking the White House and criticizing conservative policies in order to keep gaslighting island voters, leaving them confused and opposed to anything Republicans do by a 2-to-1 margin, as local election results reveal.

You’d think that all the trips to RNC meetings that Hannemann, Ostrov, along with national committee members Laura Nakanelua and Nolan Chang take would eventually rub off on them.  Alas, it’s not so.  David Shapiro is 100% correct.  Our party is letting Democrats win in Hawaii.  There is no accountability for Democrat policy failures or response to Mazie Hirono’s nutty outbursts.  Why should voters take Hawaii’s GOP seriously when the news media knows that Team Hannemann (and Steve Yoder) are a JOKE?  Auwe!

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