A little over a decade ago, some local conservative and libertarian-supporting donors approached me and asked me to look at a new national organization that had just emerged at the time, called the Oath Keepers.

Consisting of what were professed to be former and current law enforcement officers as well as military, the organization pledged to refuse to obey any unconstitutional orders given by a president or local leader.

Like so many contemporary conservative and libertarian groups, a recurring theme among them was an “I will not comply!” type attitude toward government.

I thought the idea, at face value, was absurd, because the whole point of wearing a uniform was to obey the orders of the officers and civilian leaders over them. If police and military are allowed to subjectively pick and choose what they feel are constitutional or unconstitutional orders, the entire system of law and order implodes on itself.

I was asked, at the time, if I would consider organizing local Filipinos and Native Hawaiians into creating what could possibly become a Hawaii chapter. I responded with a firm “hell no.”

You can’t encourage police officers and military to disobey orders. I told them I don’t want anything to do with this, and if you promote this in Hawaii, you’re going to legally imperil whoever joins this organization, which is the last thing you should want to do to your people.

I told them it was a dangerous and idiotic idea.

Over the years, I would listen to various things that organization and its members would say, and I found it intellectually disingenuous how they always seemed to selectively find everything a Democratic president did “unconstitutional” and everything a Republican president did, namely, Donald Trump, “constitutional.” 

When military officers under Trump suggested they would not obey certain orders, many of these libertarians and conservatives who earlier asserted “I will not comply” suddenly became government loyalists, saying that refusing to obey Trump was “treason.”

So disobeying Obama was “patriotic” but disobeying Trump is “treason?” To me, that sounded more like fifth column partisan disruption and ideological brand marketing rather than actual patriotism or constitutional defense.

Fast forward to this past June, when several Oath Keepers received prison sentences for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Now, people on the legal hook all want to make it sound like they were deceived, they were sucked into an emotional flurry and didn’t mean to break the law.

Whatever. I told my friends and family that I knew from the beginning these guys were trouble, and I’m glad I called it right.

But the events of Jan. 6 should continue to be a wakeup call for all of us. The direction conservatism and some Republicans are going is extremely concerning for anyone who believes in constitutional values like limited government or patriotic concepts like service to country.

Before things start to get out of hand again heading into the next election, we need to have a serious talk about what’s wrong here.

If every conservative thought leader is pandering or posturing, people won’t know the truth.

I hate to reveal the secrets of the temple, but the conservative world is loaded with thought leaders and influencers who don’t actually like many of the political leaders they publicly idealize (or idolize) and don’t actually believe many of the things they advocate.

The intent is not to promote meaningful reform for these types, but rather, to sell many books, to collect donations, and to gain national prominence by attaching one’s name to an issue or an established political personality.

Worse yet? Evangelical pastors, particularly in the “charismatic” circles of American Christianity, have gone to the dark side by discovering how easy it is to get infusions of new followers and money simply by “prophesying” that it is “the will of God” that people do something. 

For anyone who understands social psychology, all this has a chilling effect. First, in ambiguous situations, people look to others to explain how they should feel. Second, conformity plays a significant role in forming opinions and turning behaviors into habits. 

Said another way, if every conservative thought leader is pandering or posturing, people won’t know the truth and what began as a get-rich-quick scam by a few now becomes a doctrine that millions of people believe and demand their candidates adhere to.

At what point are Republicans or conservatives saying things because they believe it, and what point are people saying things because they think it is expected of them?

Which leads us to the next problem.

Our system of primary elections encourages hyperpartisanship and incompetent candidates.

In the halcyon past GenXers like me call the 20th century, people really didn’t care whether you were a Republican or a Democrat. Sure, they had their preferences, but people were less interested in who you were voting for and more interested in whether you were a kind husband, if you made money through honest methods, or if you showed attention to detail by keeping your lawn and exterior areas of your house neat.

Now, because we’ve hyperpartisanized everything, someone can be a jerk, an opportunistic swindler, and offer no evidence of ever adding any value to the community, but now “because” they happen to say all the things the national party believes in, we must vote for them or else, the other guys will destroy America.

Then, when we put these people in office, they turn out to be incompetent, but we now have to claim everything they do is perfect, “because” again, if we don’t stick together, the other guys will destroy America. Really?

This is precisely why our communities are divided, why we’re always arguing over stupid things, and why everything has to be a culture war or religious crusade in politics now. This is toxic, and anyone who claims to be a Republican or a conservative should fear the hijacking of their movement into a reactionary cult-of-personality.

We have serious problems going into the next election. Both Democrats and Republicans need to be worried about these things, and we are going to need to work together in the next few months to keep Hawaii and America from going off a cliff.

What do we do? First, we need to emphasize individual character and personal motivations over partisanship and posturing in candidates and parties. 

Second, we need to look for ways to reinvigorate our relationships, families, and communities. When people are personally empty and socially unfulfilled, they’ll project their feelings on to messianic public figures and seek identity in these absurd ideological crusades. This is why 20th century conservatives used to say things like “talk to your children, or the government will talk to them for you” – if your loyalty is to your family or neighbors, you won’t empower tyrants in the making.

We have a lot of work to do, and things are a mess right now in our political world. But the solution, as with many things, depends on us talking to each other, being courageously honest with each other, and when necessary, refusing to advance dangerous personalities or movements.