As a regular reader mainly of your Opinion columns, I was intrigued by the opinions of the following columnists—Richard Heydarian, former chief justice Artemio Panganiban, Michael Lim Ubac, and Randy David. Each tried to dissect how Donald Trump won over Kamala Harris.
Heydarian sort of blamed United States President Joe Biden for the late withdrawal of his candidacy leading to a Democratic Party reshuffle and the “rejection of liberalism.” Panganiban discussed mostly the legal aspects of President-elect Trump with his 34 convictions. In addition, he stated that the chance of impeachment of any Supreme Court justice is nil because the Republicans control both houses. Ubac voiced the opinion that Americans are worried about the economy, immigration, and crimes. He wanted to know what would be “the dynamics of Philippine and US relations” under the Trump administration. Like Panganiban, Ubac questioned why America is not ready for a woman president. On the other hand, David had a more sociological explanation. ”Trump managed to tap into the despair and resentment of America’s marginalized communities.” However, when he discussed the elections of former president Rodrigo Duterte and President Marcos, I tend to disagree with him that these “happened against the backdrop of simmering disenchantment with the promises of the Edsa People Power Revolution.”
I am just a simple Filipino-American whose home for many years is New York City. I read, listened, and saw on the news commentaries why Trump won and Harris lost. The two common reasons are economy (inflation) and immigration. According to latest statistics, NYC is the most expensive city to live in the US. A loaf of regular white bread will set you back between $4.50 to $5.00. All other commodities are more expensive than elsewhere.
NYC is a ”sanctuary city.” Sanctuary is used by politicians, advocates and critics, referring to policies put forward by local governments to limit how or if they share information with federal immigration authorities about non-citizens. In other words, unless it is really a heinous crime, the New York Police cannot report or give information to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the status of an illegal immigrant or a migrant. There are at least 172 sanctuary cities in the US.
As an immigrant myself, I cannot hate other immigrants, but since the start of the Biden administration, almost 11 million had poured through the borders, initially more than 100,000 and now about 60,000 in NYC. Being a sanctuary city, in addition to giving good government help like housing families in hotels, debit cards for food, etc., and even cell phones, NYC tries to help the migrants. We differentiate the legal immigrants who came to the US with proper documentation and migrants from the borders. America cannot afford to give “economic asylum” to the migrants.
Abortion rights which the Democrats thought may play a big role was insignificant. Likewise, race and the sex were not instrumental. The US voted for the right person they think will “bring back” America, whoever he or she is.
On one side, Harris was very faithful to the person who gave her a chance to be a vice president or even to be president. Some interviewers tried to pry negative remarks from Harris about Biden, but she stood her ground, and protected him. To me, this is a test of character. In the Philippines, we call it “utang na loob.”
In spite of the doubts of most people, both in the US and abroad, democracy will always prevail in the US. We just hope that Trump at the age of 78 will be a better president, with the lessons he learned from his experiences. God bless America.
Ida M. Tiongco,
New York,
idationgco@gmail.com