Chairman of RPAS urges infusion of Samoan values

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The Chairman of the Republican Party of American Samoa, Taulapapa William Sword has written to his counterpart the chairman of the American Samoa Democratic Party Leifi Aliitama Sotoa urging that he infuse some basic Samoan values in the national party.

Taulapapa listed basic tenets of Samoan culture and belief that he told Sotoa, “I am confident you will take up with the DNC when you begin your deliberations for your party’s 2020 natrional platform.”

The Republican Party Chairman said the sanctity of life is a basic underpinning of our Samoan culture.

“We do not believe in abortion, our churches uniformly teach against abortion and, in fact, it is near impossible to obtain an abortion in American Samoa.  The 2016 Democrat platform calls for government funded abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, and calls for repealing federal law that bars federal money for abortion and vows to overturn state and territorial laws that restrict a woman’s access to abortion,” he wrote.

He pointed out that the Democratic Party President Tom Perez has said that anyone against abortion should not be a Democrat.

“I am confident you will be able to convince him that his position is wrong on that score.  That policy, if not changed, should be enough to turn all Samoans away from the Democrat Party.”

Taulapapa also took issue with the Democratic Party’s belief that persons of gay, lesbian and other non-traditional lifestyles should have the right to marry anyone of their choosing, regardless of gender.

He stated, “As part of our ancient culture, we have a universally accepted fa’afafine community. We do not expect the states and other territories to understand it or accept it but we do not believe the federal government has a role in telling us what to do. At a very minimum, we would ask you to convince your fellow Democrats to leave us alone on this matter.  This issue is for our territory and our church leaders to address with our people without interference from Washington.”

Taulapapa added, “Democrats also believe that LGBT rights are more important than religious freedom and vow to eliminate tax exempt status for religious universities that do not have transgender bathrooms and showers and oppose organizations and companies that discriminate against people on the basis or gender identity or orientation.”

He reiterated that Samoans and Republicans strongly believe religious freedom is fundamental and also oppose Democrat attempts to separate church from state by doing such things as removing religious symbols from public buildings and banning the Ten Commandments.

“Any attempt by Democrats to ban our annual government Christmas pageant would be met with stiff resistance.”

While Democrats see flag burning as a freedom of speech issue, Taulapapa reminded that our most important secular holiday is Flag Day and with so many of our families having members in the armed services and as veterans, Republicans will not tolerate desecration of our American Flag.

“Flag burning will not be tolerated or allowed in American Samoa.”

On another issue he said Democrats believe in strong federal government authority over states and territories as a means of pursuing their national agenda, including dictating how federal money should be spent.

“Republicans believe the federal government should leave maximum control to the people and their elected officials with non-interference from Washington.  We are quite capable of removing from office any territorial politician who is unable to put the needs of the people first in government spending regardless of source,” he said.

In conclusion  the chairman of the Republican Party said, “We appreciate the Trump Administration standing with American Samoa in opposing attempts by Democrat-aligned groups to impose U.S. citizenship upon our people through the federal courts and reaffirm our Republican position that any change in our political status relationship with the United States must be generated by the people of American Samoa, not by the courts, Congress or federal executive branch.’

He informed Sotoa, “RPAS knows you tend to share our party’s views on these matters and we extend our best wishes to you as you seek to persuade the national Democrat Party to moderate its positions on these issues to take account of Samoan thinking.  For our part we will continue to ensure that the National Republican Party maintains policies that are consistent with ours in American Samoa.”