I try to keep on top of happenings in government and social policy, but I’ve got to admit that I was blindsided by the attempt of Senators Akaka and Inouye, both of Alaska, to establish a new independent government with the United States for people of Hawaiian ancestry. Until a few weeks before this bill came to the floor of the Senate for a vote, I’d not heard about it. Fortunately the bill was defeated, although not yet dead forever. Mark Chapman at Townhall.com has been tracking the bill through Senate and its defeat today.
Conservatives in the Senate today held together to defeat the Akaka bill which would have created a race-based government in Hawaii. Conservatives needed 41 votes today to kill the bill and they mustered just that number. The vote on cloture was 56-41.
Kudos to Lamar Alexander, John Kyl, John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions and Senate Leadership for holding the team together and defeating this unconstitutional and insulting bill.
Word on the Hill is that Senate Whip Mitch McConnell’s office was particularly persuasive behind the scenes with fence-sitting members.
While this is a great victory, the 56 votes cast today in favor of race-based governing should worry conservatives. Supporters of this bill will be back soon. Watch for Akaka and Inouye to attempt to attach this bill quietly to other vehicles moving through the Senate.
Betsy’s Page has a compilation of comments concerning the debate. Of note is a quote attributed to Harry Reid:
There are no two finer persons that have ever served in the United States Senate than the senators from Hawaii,” said Minority Leader Harry Reid moments ago on the Senate floor. “I think we should give the Senators from Hawaii credit for doing what is right for their state.”
Harry, how about what’s right for the country? For the love of Pete, a majority of native Hawaiians do not support the change. The confederate states did what they thought was right for their states at the peril of the Union. How much nonsense can one person spew?
Bill Frist at VOLPAC states:
It is a core moral and constitutional principle of the United States that equal protection of our laws and equal participation in our government should never again be denied to Americans because of race or ethnicity. And it is a clear provision of our Constitution that American states be guaranteed a “Republican Form of Government.” Both would be endangered by Senator Akaka’s Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which was just defeated on the Senate floor moments ago.
Senator Akaka’s legislation would have created a new, independent government within our country – a government defined by and composed of a specific racial group. Worse still, Senator Akaka recently made clear that this race-based government would have been under no obligation to remain within the United States or to adhere to the most basic of our political principles: “[T]he governing entity will make a decision as to what happens to independence or returning to the monarchy.”
I am amazed and saddened that some would undo the great success story of Hawaiian assimilation into our country that we’ve seen since the people of Hawaii voted overwhelming to become America’s 50th state in 1959.
I am constantly amazed at the Democrats’ continued efforts to split people into various special interest and persecuted groups. E pluribus unum (Out of Many, One) or should we divide ourselves endlessly into countless fractions?
