Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Opinion

Michael Barone

Akaka's Hawaiian Sovereignty Plan a Bad Idea

March 24, 2008 12:18 PM ET | Michael Barone | Permanent Link | Print

Here is an interesting denunciation in Pajamas Media of the Hawaiian sovereignty legislation long sponsored by the state's otherwise obscure junior senator, Daniel Akaka. I have blogged on this subject before. Akaka's idea is to give native Hawaiians something like the status of Indian tribes. There are just a few problems. Like who exactly is a native Hawaiian (there are very few people who are descended only from native Hawaiians and many with varying percentages of native Hawaiian ancestors)? And has the Indian reservation model worked so very well? This is a move toward racial separatism that comes to us just as we have been getting accustomed to the preachings of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which Barack Obama went out of his way for 20 years to listen to.

Tags: Hawaii

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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