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Idealism is Realism

Gordon Hirabayashi, the Japanese American student who courageously took a stand against the unjust roundup and internment of Japanese Americans in 1942, once said that sometimes, in the face of overwhelming odds and great adversity, “idealism is realism.”

As a principled American of Japanese ancestry, Hirabayashi refused to stay in his college dorm room when Americans of other ancestries were not similarly subject to Army curfew orders. In so doing, he challenged this country to live up to its ideals of freedom and justice for all.

While he and 120,000 others lost their freedom for several years, Hirabayashi’s idealism was rewarded four decades later when many Japanese Americans (but not the Japanese Latin Americans) received a presidential apology and token financial compensation.

I am reminded of Hirabayashi’s quote because Americans have lost two adherents of the “idealism is realism” school of political advocacy recently: Patsy Mink and Paul Wellstone. While Rep. Mink was well known for her support of Title IX and other programs promoting equal rights for women, she also was a realistic idealist who challenged President Nixon, the Vietnam War and anyone who prevented the poor and disadvantaged from achieving equal rights in our society.

Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone was not Asian Pacific American, but through his passion, skill, tenacity, courage and deep political convictions, he was able to help Hmong refugees, small family farmers, battered women, those on welfare and others whose interests are not well represented in Congress. The son of immigrants who never forgot his working class roots, many of his speeches included the phrase, “They may be protecting the Rockefellers, but I am protecting the little fellers.”

While I was deeply saddened by Wellstone’s death, I was cheered up to some extent by seeing how much this progressive had used his influence and resources to bring more APAs into the political mainstream. An article on Wellstone in the Washington Post on Sunday showed PaKou Hang, Wellstone’s deputy political director, mourning the senator outside his campaign office in St. Paul. Meanwhile, Minnesota recently has vaulted to the forefront of states with APAs in high visibility positions, including state Sen. Mee Moua (www.meemoua.com), state Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (www.chaudhary.org), and state representative candidate Cy Thao (www.cythao.com).

Mazie Hirono and Stan Matsunaka are two Asian Pacific American public servants who adhere to the “idealism is realism” school of thought. Undaunted by what existed when they started out, they have charted a course for themselves according to what should be instead of what is. And we have all benefited from their efforts.

Mazie Hirono currently serves as lt. governor of Hawai‘i, and won the primary election to become the Democratic candidate for governor. If elected, she will be the first APA female governor, and one of the few women governors in the country.

Stan Matsunaka currently serves as president of the Colorado Senate, and is running for the open Fourth District Congressional seat in the eastern half of Colorado. If elected, he will be the first APA elected to Congress not from Hawai‘i or the West Coast.

While both Hirono and Matsunaka have had successful campaigns going into the last week of the campaign, the monied interests opposing those who believe that “idealism is realism” are using their unfair financial advantage to undermine both the Hirono and Matsunaka campaigns. For example, while Hirono has been able to raise only $1.7 million for her race so far, her Republican opponent, Linda Lingle, has raised and spent $4.5 million. While Hirono and her opponent are both supported by 40 percent of the electorate, despite this huge cash advantage for the Republicans, Mazie’s campaign needs more funds to compete with the tsunami of negative advertising that is sure to be directed at her in the waning days of the campaign.

Big money interests, both in Honolulu and elsewhere, want to break the power of Hawai‘i’s unions and their Democratic Party allies by using “time for a change” and “end corruption” sentiments. As anyone who has read the paper over the last year knows, however, that allowing big corporate interests to set ethics standards without worker, pensioner and shareholder oversight is like letting the foxes control the chicken roost.

While Republicans are trying to tie Hirono to corruption and cronyism, the charges are sliding off her like Teflon. The reason is that throughout 22 years as a public servant, she has been the champion of progressive reforms. After litigating cases on behalf of the people of Hawai‘i in the State Attorney General’s Anti-Trust Division, she served from 1980 to 1994 as a Hawai‘i State Representative. In 1984, she was named “Legislator of the Year,” and from 1987 to 1992 she chaired the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee.

On another front, Hirono’s Republican opponent is benefiting from a backlash against the Japanese Americans who were at the forefront of sweeping out the corruption and cronyism of the entrenched Republican Party almost 50 years ago. According to the Honolulu Weekly (Oct. 23), at a recent Veterans for Lingle rally, a veteran of World War II said, “Hirono is a Japanese. Not good. So many were killed by the Japanese. We remember.”

Hirono was born in Japan after the war and came to the United States as a child. Instead of seeing her as an immigrant success story, however, this remark denigrates all Japanese Americans, and blames them for the actions of the Japanese militarists during World War II. This racist thinking is identical to the thought process that led to the Japanese American internment, yet Linda Lingle and her campaign did nothing to repudiate this statement. Sen. Daniel Inouye and other Japanese American leaders later demanded an apology from the Lingle campaign for this remark, but none has been forthcoming.

In Stan Matsunaka’s case, the very success of his campaign has brought big money interests into the race to give an unfair advantage to his Republican opponent. When Matsunaka was statistically even in polls as recently as a few weeks ago, the national Republican Party decided that they could not afford to lose this seat in Congress.

Although Matsunaka’s opponent is such an extremist that local Republican Party stalwarts are quitting the party and joining “Republicans for Stan,” the national GOP paid for a $1 million negative television and direct mail blitz that unfairly (and, in one case, completely falsely) attacked his record. While this caused a temporary dip in Matsunaka’s approval ratings, six local papers have endorsed him, including the Denver Post and the Greeley Tribune (which has not endorsed a Democrat in 30 years). If he can raise enough for a final week of advertising, Matsunaka has enough grassroots appeal to win on November 5.

While Patsy Mink and Paul Wellstone are gone, and while Gordon Hirabayashi enjoys his well-deserved retirement, Mazie Hirono and Stan Matsunaka are continuing the tradition of realistic idealism. If we as an APA community — no matter where we live — can rally to support them with the money they need to win on Nov. 5, all Americans will benefit from the service of these exemplary public servants.

To support the Hirono for Governor Campaign, go to www.maziehirono.com or call 808-955-3200. To support the Matsunaka for Congress campaign, call 970-224-9952 or go to www.stan2002.com (a website created by Phil Nash’s company, CampaignAdvantage.com).

Reach Phil Nash at pnash@campaignadvantage.com.