A recipe for 'Hashism'?

Re: "How did we end up here, in 'Hashimotopia,' 2022?" by Christopher Robinson and Ben Stubbings (Light Gist, Aug. 28):

I believe that (Osaka Mayor) Toru Hashimoto's flip-flops are part of an ingenious political strategy.

Hashimoto claimed to be opposed to restarting nuclear power plants in his neighboring prefecture (of Fukui), but had no choice but to backtrack later, yet he also turned down a request by citizens to establish a by-law to enable a referendum on whether to restart local nuclear facilities.