I’ve been watching The American Future: A History, the latest documentary series by one of my favorite historians, Simon Schama. A book version, it seems, has also been released (see Niall Ferguson’s review). Schama, a long-time resident in an America that, in in its post 911 incarnation, became so frighteningly different from the America that was so attractive to liberal intellectuals like him, and which Republican Neo-Conservatives mightily strove to dominate for the foreseeable future, seems relieved to witness a revolt from the American people themselves: what many foresee as Obama’s impending victory seems to be a return to a more familiar, more attractive, United States.
Just yesterday, in The Guardian, Schama published Nowhere man: a farewell to Dubya, all-time loser in presidential history. Goodbye, good riddance, regardless of the outcome of the polls:
Whatever else his legacy, the man who called himself “the decider” has left some gripping history. The last eight years have been so rich in epic imperial hubris that it would take a reborn Gibbon to do justice to the fall. It should be said right away that amid the landscape of smoking craters there are one or two sprigs of decency that have been planted: record amounts of financial help given to Aids-blighted countries of Africa; immigration reform that would have offered an amnesty to illegals and given them a secure path to citizenship, had not those efforts hit the reef of intransigence in Bush’s own party. And no one can argue with the fact that since 9/11 the United States has not been attacked on its home territory by jihadi terrorists; though whether or not that security is more illusory than real is, to put it mildly, open to debate.
Bet against that there is the matter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties, more than 4,000 American troops dead, many times that gravely injured, not to mention the puncture wounds and mutilations inflicted on internationally agreed standards of humane conduct for prisoners – and on the protection of domestic liberties enshrined in the American constitution. If the Statue of Liberty were alive, she would be weeping tears of blood.
I must confess that is how I feel: and it betrays a familiarity with, and affection for, a particular conception of America that conservatives labored mightily to prove the false face of America. And to be sure, for a huge number of Americans, Obama is not the face -literally and figuratively- of their America; just as for a particular kind of Filipino-American, it is McCain, his party, and the values of that party that are their values, their preferred face: what other Filipinos and Filipino-Americans would react to with horror as too much paleface.
But I am not an American. But I am a particular kind of Filipino, not particularly representative of the Filipino (or Filipino-American) experience or possibly even conception, of the United States. We lived there for a time; I studied there, for a time; I saw many things I liked, experienced much I did not; but like so many Filipinos, found something exceedingly familiar and attractive in a culture and from a people one didn’t really have to exert much effort to get to know and appreciate.
Let me state first of all that my bias is a clear and in many ways, an unshakeable one, beginning with being bombarded by my father’s very strong opinion that the American Democratic Party was the only proper party to appreciate in the United States, because it was the party of Philippine independence, a cause that generally prospered during Democratic administrations and that fared less well under Republican ones. For this reason I continue to be astounded by Filipino-Americans who are Republicans but eventually, I suppose it makes sense for those who’ve made the decision to leave home and become citizens of the USA: emigration is at the very least an implicit repudiation of the homeland; more often than not, an explicit one, too; and if one party and its policies can be credited with the independence one feels ambivalent about, then one can understandably embrace the very party that, to too many Filipino minds, was poised to bring the permanent blessings of American civilization to their benighted little brown brothers.
That being said, I suppose I am like most Filipinos in viewing the relationship of the Philippines with the United States as more of a positive than negative one, or at the very least, who sees it from the perspective of a relationship that is very personal and not just abstract: the relatives and friends over there, the American friends over there and here, and so on. And for every George W. Bush who praised Marcos’ devotion to democracy, there’s a Ted Kennedy who was a friend to Filipinos fighting Marcos.
Which brings me to this touching scene:
Seeing Ted Kennedy addressing the Democratic Party Convention earlier this year, my thoughts came back to viewing a Democratic Party Convention back in 1984. I had no choice in the matter; every night, my father would sit me down in front of the TV and sternly exhort me to “watch real democracy at work,” trying to exorcise whatever authoritarian instincts, I suppose, might have been nurtured by a childhood spent under the New Society.
During those convention nights, I watched, and learned to enjoy, speeches; Ted Kennedy gave a masterful performance during one of those nights, but there were two speeches, in particular, that thrilled me because they evoked an understanding, or so I thought, of the reason my elders seemed so ill-tempered all the time whenever the government at home was discussed; instead of fear and suspicion it was refreshing and inspiring to hear people talk, not only of what was, but of what could, and should, be.
There was the Rev. Jesse Jackson:
What thrilled me about Jackson wasn’t just his rhetoric, but what he represented: equality of the races, for all races. Something I was quite conscious about because that was the year I’d experienced feeling the urge to speak up for my country when I discovered the Filipino-American War was referred to as the “Philippine Insurrection” in our American history textbook, which made me bristle; fortunately, the teacher was an entirely liberal man he himself made this Mark Twain short story required reading for the class:
And so, for me, 1984 was, indeed, a very interesting year: it was, to begin with, the year in the title of George Orwell’s novel, the sort of book that would make a precise connection with someone in America to experience a culture different from the police state that was the Philippines; it was the year I was introduced to Mark Twain, and his writing against the annexation of the Philippines; and it was an election year, for someone whose only living memory of elections had been the charade that was Marcos’ validation as President of the New Republic he inaugurated with such pomp in 1981. It was, also, the year after Ninoy Aquino had been shot, when the world had focused on the Philippines and Filipinos had begun to consider that their choice wasn’t limited to the bloody revolution of the Communists or the bloody repression of Marcos’ Constitutional Authoritarianism.
There had to be a middle path and what more centrist model could there be, than comfortable America’s? And the other speech that made me sit up and listen was Mario Cuomo’s:
These golden-tongued orators, for someone discovering the joy of words, and who had begun to feel the stirring of political thoughts -of the interplay between leaders and followers, nations and people, ideas and idealists, and how it had all be chronicled and how those chronicles, in turn, explained what was happening, now- well, to a young impressionable mind such as mine, they were the stuff of which indelible memories are made.
In those still-Imeldific days, with its talk of Metro Manila as “The City of Man,” and where the fences had been raised to shield the eyes of visiting Republicans from our shantytowns, to hear someone say, “this nation is more a tale of two cities than it is the tale of a city on a hill” referring to his country, of course, but said in a way that might very well have been addressed to Marcos, why that was enough to instill in someone as firm an understanding of Social Justice as any exploration of the Great Thinkers in College (indeed, when that time came, I mostly fell asleep in SocSci I and II).
Of course, listening to Cuomo lash out at Reagan for subsidizing foreign steel, and hearing the concerns of some contemporary Filipinos over Obama’s vow to start bringing home US jobs, serves as a reminder that the Democratic Party as the party of Philippine independence was in large part, whether at the time of William Jennings Bryan, or in the 1930s, when independence was finally settled as a matter of when and not if, with the entirely selfish assistance of US sugar interests:
And so it remained, with the Rescission Act after the war, stripping Filipino veterans of their benefits; or even in the 1980s, where American enthusiasm for democracy and human rights regularly got trumped by the need to retain their bases; or, in the era that’s evolved after the last umbilical cord, the US bases, has long been cut, in Democrats not being very different from Republicans in attending to their own national interest regardless of appeals for solicitude for Filipino ones. This is simply a reminder of a basic lesson no amount of American tutelage or Filipino navel-gazing can ever really teach: the meaning of sinking or swimming entirely on one’s own efforts. Contrary to what many might say, we have not been a total failure in this regard, as a people; we are, by every measure, middling at the job of independence; yet we have set such a high benchmark for ourselves -and rightly so- that our frustration, individually and collectively, is high, and despair a real problem -the world, as it’s evolved, making it so much easier and lucrative to simply pack up and leave, to work or live, or both, abroad.
To see the maps -and how I wish we could come up with similar things, for our own politics, to graphically explore our political realities- is to see how divided, literally, America is:
But it is also to see a shift; and for those, like me, with a particular kind of affection for a particular kind of America, to derive a certain satisfaction and comfort -the comfort of a return to something familiar, and which seemingly seemed poised to be gone for good- from what is going on.
It’s a return to a more inclusive, a more idealistic, less fear-driven and optimistic, view of the world, for Americans the world they affect so much; and for those who find affinity in those ideals, and in the expression of those ideals, a return to the motive power of words, and of their promise of a society where Social Justice is a living ideal, a commonly-held aspiration, and where might is not what defines right.
Some interesting readings: Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World in the NYT; a Vatican official ventures an opinion on the Democratic party; in Slate, If Obama Loses, Who Gets Blamed? and in Politico, Dems Sketch Obama Staff, Cabinet.
Do a Google search on three words — Jesse Jackson extortionist — and you’ll discover why many Americans (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) shudder in contempt — people hear “shakedown” — whenever they hear of this man “making a request” for equality or for support of this cause or that cause or voicing a complaint against a corporation. Jesse Jackson is a great example of “power corrupts”, and he has discovered that because he is associated to this concept of “equality of the races”, that his endorsement of a particular “community” program being pushed by a business can be transformed into cash.
I hope you’re right I don’t see too much of a future for America if a cranky ill tempered geezer and his bimbo running mate win tomorrow.
There is this particular strain of Fil-Am who, after having repudiated their former homeland, seem to delight in coming back to put it down even more. That sort of behavior is quite common among Fil-Ams (which why Benign0 is often mistaken for a Fil-Am, instead of a Fil-Aussie).. I am genuinely baffled because even smart Fil-Ams are prone to this behavior and i wonder what kind of underlying pathology drives them to do so and whether other immigrant nationalities (e.g. Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Vietnamese, Cubans etc.) have similar such phenomenon.
Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, what’s the difference.
It’s not the color stupid.
Give me Jesse Jackson in his prime over Shrub and Palin anytime.
“It’s not the color stupid.”
what is it then?
mlq3: Isn’t it a big stretch for you to expect Filipino-Americans to look back to the 1940’s, your grandfather and Philippine independence when these new American citizens evaluate the platforms of the Democratic party versus the Republican Party? I would suggest that the proper consideration for an Abe Margallo is to be much-less concerned with the spanish-American war and be more concerned about which party — republican versus democrat — creates a better future for his children and grandchildren or even which party promises better regarding global warming or nuclear annihilation.
“It’s not the color stupid.â€Â
‘what is it then?’-grd asked.
Easy. UP n said Jackson an extorsionist, some said Obama extorts campaign money from gullible people.
See? Birds of the same feathers (not the color), heheh.
UpN that’s like asking blacks not to bear the heavy memory of slavery or the civil rights movement in their political decisions. for generations blacks tended to be republicans because it was the party that liberated them from slavery; just as for sixty years they’ve tended to be democrats because it was the party of civil rights.
it is highly relevant what the track record of a party is concerning the former homeland of immigrants, the same way that zionist jews zero in on which party seems fiercer in defending israel.
and it is relevant, too, considering that filipino-americans are a minority and it would seem logical that they ought not to suffer from the delusion that they’re some sort of honorary whites; that whatever they think, other americans will consider them people of color, too, and whichever party they select should have something to say about giving them a fair chance and not perpetuating prejudice, etc.
“Easy. UP n said Jackson an extorsionist, some said Obama extorts campaign money from gullible people.
See? Birds of the same feathers (not the color), heheh.”
extort from gullible people? gullible you mean those students, women’s group, young professionals (not the oldies), hollywood, the media, etc.
as if Obama’s platform would differ from that of his party. I have no doubt if it’s Hillary Clinton or Edwards or even Gore that it would be hands-down democrat for most americans. it’s the economy stupid.
even G.W. Bush is so disgusted with his administration he’s now supporting Obama. proof? he’s nowhere in sight. 🙂
to mlq3: First, they have to include it among the issues, then figure out how heavy is heavy to give “philippines-1940’s”. versus “Iraq” or taxes. Because of the many other items (including global warming, gun rights, right to privacy and the Patriot Ac) I think it is mistaken to think that all Filipinos-now-American who choose the Republican Party did so out of disrespect.
I suppose my point is “how heavy is heavy”/ “a matter of degree” …. a bit similar to how heavy a weight to give “following the dictums of the Vatican” versus “giving Filipino families better options to space their children” regarding Reproductive Health.
Manolo,
Speeches are like sci-fi: escapism through idealized positive (StarTrek) or negative (Mad Max) reality.
Brian, then that is to essentially to strip politics of its soul, for rhetoric is to politics what style is to wrinig: of course, at its worst, a slavish surrender to superficial adornment, but at its best, the stuff of meaning.
There are so many factors why there are good portion of FilAms supporting the McCain/Palin tandem. Of course mental errr colonial mentality is one of those but what I think got them so involved is the level of the campaign that is so familiar with a good number of FilAms……….. like being in a twilight zone they went on a frenzy with the politics of personality and sleazy attacks unleashed by the Republicans against Obama for lack of any credible issue to counter a well organized and well funded campaign teeming with volunteers from the grassroots.
These are familiar grounds where FilAms sad to say are so at home and being gullible took the bait hook line and sinker on conspiracies that are mostly hoax and outright lies spamming everyone on their list without checking if their source are credible or the contention has any merit.
Congratulations to President McCain and Vice President Palin!
(USA Pollsters do not factor in the party of silence, hence McCain will win this one.)
How convenient for Barack’s grandmother to die on election day. This is a sympathy technique employed by Wowowee and American Idol contestants to get votes. Hoy, luma na yan!
Palin 2016!
@Pedestrian Observer
As admitted by some fil-ams here, Fil-Ams support the republicans for the abortion issue first, ‘traditional’ family values (kung saan bawal mag-asawa ang mga bading. Ewan kung bakit sila opposed eh hindi naman sila apektado, it’s just a social contract, duh.)
The rest follows. (Kahit ano pa man).
Never mind the economics, health care reform, immigration reform. It’s all about preventing abortion….
MLQ, never said it wasn’t useful. I used to read a lot of sci-fi.
Pedestrian Observer,
My aunt says she will vote for McCain because Obama is black and has terrorist connections. She lives in Brooklyn.
BrianB,
your aunt is not leytenian, right?
No, same province as me.
The following obtained via cut-and-paste from the 2008 Republican Party platform :
Faith in the virtues of self-reliance, civic commitment, and concern for one another. Distrust of government’s interference in people’s lives. Dedication to a rule of law that both protects and preserves liberty. Devotion to the inherent dignity and rights of every person.
It quickly shows why benign0, had he been a US citizen, would be Republican (virtues of self-reliance). There is Bencard’s dedication to rule of law.
And then, there is cvj or Abe Margallo who encourage government’s
interferenceintervention in people’s lives … for the greater good as defined by the Vatican…. oh, wait… as defined by Karl Sagan…. no, as defined by “Tabako” Ramos..But it should be evident that the Democratic and the Republican Party both mouth the politician’s words :
Trust us, we know what we are doing.
which is more humble than
Trust us…. we have a direct line to God.
The Democratic Party is the party of Philippine independence. It is also the party that abandoned the Philippines during WWII and then imposed the Parity rights before granting independence.
“For generations blacks tended to be republicans because it was the party that liberated them from slavery; just as for sixty years they’ve tended to be democrats because it was the party of civil rights.”
Excellent point, Manolo.
The same way as Filipinos and Mexicans tended to be Democrats at the beginning because of liberal immigration policies but became Republicans when unborn kids have less rights than animals (cruelty).
‘just as for sixty years they’ve tended to be democrats because it was the party of civil rights’
The Democratic Party also introduced the food stamp and medicare. Very nice freebies, Brother.
supremo, i agree about europe first in world war 2, but do note the us congress passed to the control of the republicans in 1946.
Thank you Manolo for your accurate portrayal of majority Filipino Americans in the US.
People who have not been to the US erroneously assume that FilAms are Democrats because of the color of their skin just like judging the book by its cover.
Filipinos who came to the US worked very hard. They would cringed at the thought of using food stamps even if jobless. Even if they already paid property taxes, they still strive to pay for their children college education unlike their American counterparts. And certainly abhor entitlement when they value the fruits of their labor. That’s us – FilAms.
mlq3,
Noted but Truman still signed it.
“Filipinos who came to the US worked very hard. They would cringed at the thought of using food stamps even if jobless. Even if they already paid property taxes, they still strive to pay for their children college education unlike their American counterparts. And certainly abhor entitlement when they value the fruits of their labor. That’s us – FilAms.”…dOdOng
Maliwanag pa sa sikat ng araw kapag tanghaling tapat tuwing Mayo!
My mistake. It should be Medicaid not Medicare.
Yes , Sir. All the years I have been here, I have not seen a Fil-Am with food stamps. I go to all kinds of groceries, Walmart, Longs, Costo, Sams, Seven Eleven and many more. Never seen a kababayan using food stamps, sagad na lang ang pagtitipid at kayod gabi’t araw ‘wag lang pumila sa DHS. We also help one another, bayanihan spirit in USA.
I have some relatives in the US as well, and for them spending their adult and approaching retirement years meant working hard and having close family and church ties. These values hew closely to usual Republican values.
In addition, my relatives look down on laziness and welfare (since they had to work hard where they got now, versus living on dole outs), which they usually associate with minority & Democratic leanings.
Whenever they visit here, they even cringe when we mention we study with Muslim students in Diliman.
Personally, I’d lean more towards the Democrats, since I believe having an open and liberal discussion of ideas regardless of race or color brings out the best of ideas.
Maybe there’s also a generational shift here in the Republic, where the older generation would prefer the stability of Republicans while the younger generation would value the change promised by the Democrats.
Race has nothing to do with being Republicans or Democrats when it comes to Fil-Am votes. It has something to do with with the change the Democrats advocates…MORE ENTITLEMENTS which translates to more freebies and less on individual initiatives and hard work.
pilipinoparin: so will McCain win in your state? i know in d0d0ng’s state (if he lives in california as he suggests he does) and in supremo’s state, obama is headed for a win.
“MORE ENTITLEMENTS which translates to more freebies and less on individual initiatives and hard work”
I don’t think so. Barack won’t and can’t make the USA a France or a Germany.
Even in socialist countries (the whole of western europe) these entitlements are really meant only for the really hard up. I don’t mind paying my tax for this.
And even in extremely Socialist states, people can still get filthy rich (Ingvar Kamprad, the Albrechts…etc)
Your main problem is clamping down on the welfare cheats and not welfare system itself.
Yes, even Gore, Kerry or Bubba the Slick Bill were unpopular in this area. They were all Democrats who advocated changes..more freebies and less hard work.
The amount of money lost to thievery when Bush-Republicans opened the floodgates of katrina-relief-money with zero regulatory supervision was the equivalent of 5 years of money of “lost” to welfare cheats. And every year, the money lost to businesses overbilling the Medicare/Medicaid program is over 30% more than money “lost” to individual cheats.
nash: that is a good point about … even in socialist countries, people can get extremely rich .
There are many (Fil-Am’s and otherwise) who resent a few of those who, having been awarded college-scholarships, leveraged the “entitlement-award” to positions of responsibility / high salaries. And then there are many (FilAm’s and otherwise) who resent that John McCain or Dubya used family-connections (and letters of introduction from highly-placed family contacts) to obtain positions of responsibility / high salaries.
UP,
I am not sure how you got that 30% on over billing medicaid/medicare. we bill medicare using codes for each diagnosis, service rendered. they are specific numbers match to dx/ rx/mgt. no matter how much you put in the bill, say $100 for say for code A, medicare has specific payment for it, say $10. no way you can change it (over bill/over payment). it is exact number, medicare ‘s payment prevails based on the code you used, unless of course you put a wrong code for the dx which is easily discovered by paper pushers. Hard to beat MC especially in this days and age of computers.
for the record, the relevant statements of truman:
October 26, 1945: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12306&st=philippines&st1=
November 14, 1945: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12293&st=philippines&st1=
February 20, 1946: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12583&st=philippines&st1=
April 4, 1946: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12623&st=philippines&st1=
May 18, 1946: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12404&st=Rescission&st1=
July 1, 1947: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12690&st=philippines&st1=
Here is where the “entitlement of Food Stamps” is used to cheat the government. The primary cheater? A store owner. Amount involved. $7.7-millions US.
The store-owner food stamps from the food-stamp beneficiaries. Store-owner gives cash instead of selling milk or cheese or allowed food-items. The food-stamp beneficiary gets 40-cents cash for every dollar (which he can then use to buy vodka or cigarettes). The store-owner gets the entire-dollar from the US government.
So how much money can a crooked store owner make? Millions in USA dollars. Example — an Ohio store-owner was caught/sentenced to jail — the leader of one of the biggest food-stamp fraud rings in Ohio was sentenced to about 3 years prison for his role in a $7.7 million food stamp fraud ring dating back to 1995.
The US secret service puts its effort where the big-buck fraud gets committed — by business-owners. [I think there was a New Jersey Fil-Am store-owner in the news about a similar fraud. Or maybe in Florida]
Interesting response that are mostly anecdotal but there is truth to some no actually a good number of FilAms’ bigotry as shown in a survey done by Balitang America if race was a factor in their choice for president……… 40% said it is a factor.
The ultra Christian right or the neo-cons hijacked the Republican Party and the conservatives of the Goldwater type should take over the party in order to make their party relevant again. The FilAms Republicans today are attracted to this kind of neo-cons who are mostly closed Catholic types with their “pro-Life” stance…………. as far as fiscal conservatism, that one went out the window in Bush 8 years of mismanagement so it is just amazing how FilAms can reconcile their brand of conservatism to a failed conservatism of the Bush era.
Ped Obs GB – surveys and polls can be skewed like liberal media had been flouting wide Obama’s margin and Barack keep on correcting by reminding of New Hampshire loss.
FilAms are by nature conservative, save money for their kins in Philippines, send balikbayan boxes, love kids, takes care of elders, etc. We don’t fantasize with neo-cons brand (you know them better than us) and certainly conservatism makes more sense during financial crises than giving freebies and doleouts.
Bigotry begins when you believe that FilAms are bigots.
No, read it again I said some or a good number of FilAms are bigots according to the survey…… now that is totally different when you say that I say FilAms are bigots… get it? Accurate or not, representative or not surveys or polls are more reliable than anecdotal tales.
Freebies and dole outs? NOT…… maybe I missed it so please tell me where it was written at Obama’s site that states specifically that his platform is all about freebies….. no free lunch in the US of A as far as I know, unless you are re-wrtiting Obama’s plan then it is your own not the Democrats.
Number Cruncher – younger ones with less worry and less responsibility tend to be democrat. In my son’s middle class, over 95 percent claimed democrat. I told my son, it is easy to be democrat when you receive money from your government or your parents and spend them as much as you want without any interference, especially the dreaded parental restrictions. Wait until you start working hard, pay your bills, own property, paying property taxes, paying income taxes, doing volunteer work, running household raising a family and planning for your future. He is running in the student council as republican.
“The food-stamp beneficiary gets 40-cents cash for every dollar (which he can then use to buy vodka or cigarettes). The store-owner gets the entire-dollar from the US government.
So how much money can a crooked store owner make? Millions in USA dollars.”,,,UP n
So how many crooked food stamp holders per one crooked store owner? Millions per one crooked store owner. well both groups are crooked people, does not matter how much it is, stealing is stealing, all the same banana.
but Pilipinoparin: I guess you are don’t do claims-processing accounting, else you’ll quickly notice that the one who sold 40-cents-to-the-dollar lost sixty cents! Different situation compared to the business owner who claimed the dollar when in fact he only paid out forty cents.
—————
Anyways…. in less than 6 hours, Fox-News, CNN, ABC, CBS and others will have announced who will win Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, a few others. McCain may not even be able to protect Arizona, but either/or, McCain is headed to lose elections-2008.
I voted!
Voted mostly Republicans, with a few Democrats in the mix. I rejected two propositions and approved three. It took me 45 minutes from the end of 100-person line to when I put the ballot in the scanner. I used the same voter’s ID card for decades now. No problem, in the list. They got my name within a minute (alphabetical order in the list).There was one scanner, 15 booths and 5 volunteer-senior citizens. The precinct is in a church compound ( most precincts are, they preserve the security of schools and avoid too many strangers (voters) in the school compounds).
I think scanner type electronic voting is better than ATM type. Scanner has ballot to go back to if questions arise. We have been using this scanner for years, never heard of any question or problem. State level elections are known within 2-3 hours after closing. Results have not been contested yet by any candidate or any party.
I wish COMELEC will have this in 2010….for election and not for CON-CON/CON-ASS. Good luck my beloved Philippines. I hope Comelec will change for the sake of the Republic.