Why I’m not watching the Super Bowl

FILE PHOTO – Kansas City Chiefs kicker Matthew Wright (49) celebrates with Matt Araiza (14) after a field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders during the second half of an NFL football game in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. The Chiefs will take their shot at history on Sunday as they face off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

I am not watching the Super Bowl this weekend.

And I have a rooting interest.

Nikko Remigio is a Filipino American punt returner for the Chiefs, who can turn the momentum of a game in an instant.

If the Chiefs’ defense holds up and the Eagles can’t “tush push” for another four downs, they’ll be forced to kick. And then all eyes will be on Remigio to run it back and provide a spark.

A Filipino American/Asian American from Cal, who then starred at Fresno State? I may watch whenever he gets a touch.

Nikko Remigio / Image: nikkoremigio/IG

Otherwise, I’m not watching. I am preoccupied with the other big game in America.

The Super Bowl for Democracy.

Make no mistake, Team Constitution is on the ropes against Trump Deux, back with a vengeance with more than an assist from the Musk/DOGE team, exposed this week for their nationalistic and racist tendencies.

Team Constitution has been mostly silent, except for a symbolic 30-hour talkathon in the Senate to stop the ascendency of Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025 who is now head of the Office of Management and Budget. Another crony, another nail in the coffin of democracy.

We said it was going to happen and it is. With a vengeance.

This is different from the past, when you’d say to your Trump friend/relative/acquaintance after say the Muslim Ban, or a COVID bleaching talk, if we had come to the limit of our tolerance.

And they would simply continue their support.

But we are at a whole new level.

In just two weeks, in the eyes of the world, America has turned from a strong, freedom-loving superpower into a country of self-doubt, chaos and confusion.

We were the country that upheld the rule of law. And now have people doing things that are illegal, and certainly unconstitutional, forcing judges to ultimately rule.

It’s a pre-monarchy. We’re being cowed, divided and bullied by our own president, a fledgling autocrat intent on making a government of one.

Deep state? It’s the people

And the first to go, the federal workers, the people that make the country run. Those of us who’ve lived in DC know how snow days work. Essential workers only. Only this Trump purge is taking out the essential folks too. Whole departments even, one by one. The CIA? The Department of Justice? Those spared are the loyalists who will pledge allegiance to Trump.

If you are a federal worker about to be fired or put on leave, essentially forced out for doing your job too well as a professional loyal only to the Constitution and the American people, I feel for you. You are what makes this country run. Deep state? You are the blood and bone.

Now Trump’s turned you into pawns.

Thank goodness for the remaining judges who will act as speed bumps as the Trump Cybertruck runs roughshod overall.

One Trump apologist, Rep. Mike Turner (R./Ohio) is an ardent appeaser who goes on the news  to assure that Trump and Musk aren’t “running amok.”

“They’re reviewing systems that we need to understand what reforms to put in place,” he told CNN.

But do they have to do it all at once? Checks and balance? There are none.

Part of the tactic is turning all America into a governmental disaster zone first by making the system dysfunctional. Trump and his oligarchs will be insulated, but everyone else will be impacted.

America is being remade in Trump’s scowling image. We are becoming a mean and small America.

USAID

It’s the kind of America that can’t afford the generosity and humanity of aid to the poor.

A judge on Friday has stopped the complete dismantling of USAID for now.

But Musk calls it a criminal operation and Trump nods in agreement. So is it criminal to stop malaria? Disease outbreaks from dysentery? The reversal of HIV in children?

Ending USAID means people will go hungry, get sick and even die.

And America doesn’t care?

One former state department rep put the cuts in perspective. USAID is less than one percent of the federal budget. If the budget were $1,000 dollars, that’s like cutting six cents.

That’s how small America is being. And while USAID is seen currently as more critical in developing areas like Africa, our Asian ancestral lands like the Philippines have also received relatively smaller amounts, estimated at $5 billion since 1961, much of it recently to fight the effects of climate change.

In the case of the Philippines, the ending of funding would be bittersweet, considering the country was made in the image of American democracy, and suffered through the indignity of being America’s first colony.

USAID is just part of the big heap of Trump/Musk that keeps piling up each week, weighing down on the government they intend to weaken till it breaks.

And then Trump rides in as the cavalry to save it?

It’s time for people to stand up and be heard.

Trump does respect public opinion. And already, people are noticing the smell he’s brought on. Will the Musk alliance change? Polls show that  Musk, the unelected, is opposed by 53 percent of the electorate, according to Quinnipiac.

That may help slow down the Cybertruck as wrecking ball, but it will take a solid defense of Democracy to hold and push back.

Judges are but a speed bump for now holding off firings,  shut-offs of federal funding domestically and abroad; and just at the last minute, restricting access of the Treasury to Musk’s DOGErs.

But if Trump/Musk is ever forced to punt,  America could use a spark like Nikko Remigio to run it back and change the momentum for our country.

That’s the real game we’re in now.

The Super Bowl for Democracy.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and commentator. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He’s written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995.

Watch his micro-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout/What Does an Asian American Think?” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1  Or join him on http://www.patreon.com/emilamok