OPINION | Is America ready for People Power vs Trump?

FILE PHOTO – Philippine soldiers and civilians mount an Armored Personnel Carrier as they reenact the support provided by tens of thousands of civilians to mutinous soldiers in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the People Power revolution Friday Feb. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

I’m at the Edmonton Fringe in Canada, doing my show on the struggles of America. Imagine all the pols trying to pretend that Donald Trump is right on Ukraine and Russia after that dog-and-pony show of a summit. Everyone’s just waiting for him to figure out he’s dead wrong – on everything.

If you think it’s frustrating, consider how the Ukrainians must feel.

Having a dunderhead like Trump in charge means the pressure is off on Russia, which continues to kill Ukrainians as the war continues.

Coincidentally, I am performing my show on Aug. 21st.

That’s significant because it was Aug. 21, 1983 when I was a young SF TV reporter sent to Manila to cover the assassination of Benigno Aquino. My pieces aired on NBC and CNN.

Aquino was the opponent of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., you’ll recall.

Aquino was in exile in the US and decided to go back to challenge the dictator, but was gunned down on the airport tarmac by supporters of Marcos.

That story changed my life, as I covered the funeral, and then saw something quite miraculous.

One million people following a casket.

It was the precursor of “People Power” that ultimately would oust Marcos from the presidency. He went into exile to the US, of course, which had supported the Marcos puppet government since Reagan.

But this shows the Filipinos know the answer.

“People Power” worked in the country that was made to mirror American democracy.

It will work again perhaps. If the American people are willing to take a stand for our democratic ideals.

I wish I could say that with confidence. But that’s where Trump has us now. Some of us like his ways more than we are willing to say or vote or act. Some of us are getting so used to the Trump nonsense, we turn off to politics and isolate. And then Trump takes his sweet time getting to the truth of the matter.

Like that Russia is the enemy and Putin is playing him, even worse than the infamous Helsinki 2018 meeting.

That must change.

So, for the US we have some options. We can take to the polls or ultimately, we do as the Filipinos.

We take to the streets. The Filipinos stood up to a dictator once. And they won. Benigno’s assassination was the start that ended with Cory’s ascendance through People Power.

Does America have what it takes to emulate its first colony?

In California, a slightly different question

 Right now, we’re wondering if  Californians will fight as dirty as Republicans?

Got to hand it to Gov. Gavin Newsom. More than any Democrat and alongside State Attorney General Rob Bonta, he’s been trying to find the right way to fight the unlawfulness of the Trump administration that seems bent toward turning American into a functioning Republican dictatorship.

That’s right. I said it.

You can point to ICE and say it’s really fascist.

Or say it’s authoritarian.

But we’re quibbling here, right?

With Trump so willing to use executive orders to exert his will, and with the Republicans so willing to accommodate, America is barely a functioning democracy.

We are sliding toward that other “d” word, that starts with that  “dic…” sound and it is not a pretty thought.

To counteract that takes some action, and Newsom is ready.

But it’s not going to be easy.

It’s one thing to simply file lawsuits about tariffs and military deployment and have the courts deliberate. All that takes time.

But this new idea to fight the ending of democracy with democracy makes more sense. If Californians understand the urgency.

It requires we change the law that installed a commission to assure that gerrymandering of districts was held in check.

And then the state legislature with a super majority would be able to draw up new maps that oust the same number of Republican seats as Texas and other red states are trying to rig the mid-term elections for Republicans.

Is it fighting dirty to fight dirty?

Or are the Dems finally coming to a knife fight with at least a big stick?

It is, however, using democracy to fight the abuse of democracy. Any time a president says, I need five more districts and Texas obliges, you know we are dealing with an abuse of democracy.

California has the power to fight back and it should.

But people are willing to do what it takes?

All it takes is voting.

This is where the “rubber meets the road” as they say. Most people just don’t vote.

People show up for general elections, but still we don’t get 100 percent in our country.

The only place I’ve seen 100 percent voting was in Iraq, and guess what?

Everyone voted for Saddam Hussein.

And that’s the way Donald Trump would like it. Election-wise, he wants to be Saddam Hussein.

This week, Trump said he’d use executive orders to end mail-in ballots and even voting machines. We know the assault on the Voting Rights Act is ongoing. The fewer people vote, the better it is for Trump.

But banning mail-in votes, and possibly voting machines?  Donald Trump hates elections he can’t rig. And we are moving in this direction.

That’s why what Newsom wants to do to counteract is risky. People have to go out there and be willing to say yes to the suspension of the state’s redistricting commission.

Will they do it?

It just depends on how bad we all want to stop America’s slide into a functioning dictatorship.

Do we have it in us?

Before we get there, Republicans who may get “mapped out will try to stop Newsom and say the plan will impact voters negatively.

They’re only trying to save their jobs and California for Trump.

Let’s try Newsom’s way and see if people can muster the courage to fight the anti-democracy of Trump, with the power of their sacred vote.

It’s not just sacred. Our vote is the most powerful tool we have. If we use it wisely.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and comic stage performer. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues for more than 30 years. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack. See him perform on his Canadian Fringe tour in Edmonton through Aug. 24  and in Vancouver in September.