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.
Ped Obs GB – “get it?” Typical teenager.
You said, “but there is truth” and rather water it down. The interpretation depends on you. “Begins when” rest on entirely on you. Anyway, I am speaking from my experience, my friends and my relatives with strong ties to the Philippines but you can ignore as anecdotal tales as you are comfortable with polls favorable to you.
Obama plan did not spell out giving freebies or doleouts. $500 feds check to zero tax liability taxpayer is not easy money that you can just pick on the street.
Pedestrian Observer GB,
In what state are you residing right now?
It will be interesting to see if a lot more Americans have grown up and allow a part Anglo part African become President.
That would be a game changer….
The so called Pinoy nation take note. The anomaly of the brown anglo nation continues to persist.
His culture has been so twisted that he remains more a slave than those who broken free from slavery.
Simply amazing is how far Obama has come…Organizng a collection of such a broad base transcending class and color.
McCains victory party is scheduled in an exclusive club while Obama’s is scheduled in a public park.
Amazing simply amazing.
Mababaw talaga ang so called pinoy nation.
My vote is counted for McCain after a 2 hours of long line. This is my second time that I voted as a republican. A lady swiped my driver’s license to check if I was registered, verified my address and handed me two pages of long thick paper ballot. I have to darken the circle for McCain . the ballots without my name were dropped in a keyed container. The computer system that swiped my driver’s license will confirm that I voted . The paper ballot is to reaffirm.
It was tiring and chilly for Florida. I will probably stay up late tonite and it will be over for Obama. 😉
..”..more freebies and less hard work.”
is NOT true ALWAYS
Germany, Sweden, Denmark, UK, France etc..- all welfare states
1. “Free University” – you don’t hear parents saying “i work hard to send my children to uni” . It is a given that tax pays for it from kinder to phd (if you want. By the time you are 18, mahiya ka naman kung aasa ka pa sa magulang mo for tuition.
2. Universal Medicare – no need for private insurance you get treated at point of need.
Now, do tell, since when did you see a ‘lazy’ German? With all the ‘freebies’ the Swedes and Danes are getting from their high taxes are they depressed? Sweden as recently voted for a tax increase if only to improve their welfare state.
@supremo, Ca….. why are you going to introduce me to the bigoted FilAms? Just joking seriously I hardly know any bigoted FilAms unlike Dodong who seems to know some or maybe all or whatever, lol.
leytenian: There were no lines where I voted — I was in and out of the polling place in under 20 minutes. First time to use paper-plus-optical reader but a couple of the old machines were available for anyone who preferred to use them. There were 2 poll-watchers (there were no poll watchers in the prior elections). And CNN, ABC others now say that a Democrat will be our new senator (and will take over the seat of te republican senator (great senator… was ex-husband of Elizabeth Taylor) who has retired).
UPn, Barack need your vote as Maverick is leading the count right now in your state.
Reliable polls and surveys have recently backfired. Obama is so popular that he should be leading by now by wide margin based on popular opinion and liberal media. The media is grappling with initial result with McCain on the front.
It is fun to watch the Bradley effect.
nash,
What you mentioned are not freebies because everyone are entitled to it like Social Security and Medicare in the US. Food stamps and Medicaid are freebies because everyone pays for it but only a few are entitled to it.
well, in the UK not everyone has a hip replacement, in Germany or Switzerland, a lot of people stop schooling after high school, only a few go on to university. In effect, some are getting more than others and everyone pays.
and ikaw naman, if you are already gainfully employed dapat lang na hindi ka entitled sa ‘freebies’ dahil nakalaan yan for people who are living below the threshold.
Anyways, Obama has won already.
As of this comment post it’s Obama 103, McCain 34.
Dinaya si McCain! Kaya pala andun si jocjoc, to make daya like he did for gma.
It amazes me, honestly, to see echoes of Hoover among some FilAms as their country stares Depression-like symptoms in the face. And the utter lack of a community spirit with its contempt for the non-middle. Absolutely amazing. I say sounding like the Hooverites because watch this, and the rhetoric of the McCainites is straight out of the 1936 Republican candidate’s talking points. So here’s a healthy dose of FDR for ya.
I am also seeing an interesting correlation between the dyed-in-the-wool Right Wing Republicans here and advocates of the administration here at home.
akala ko magpupuyat ako kapapanood ng tv.
tapos na agad ang boksing.
back to sleep to wake up to smell the post-Dubya era! (whoever wins)
And Sen. Dole seems to have lost by a big margin
Now, where is her pinagmamalaking “diyos”?
She attacked her opponent for being ‘godless’ ngayon who will she be blaming?
mlq3: I do not know what you mean by “… contempt for the non-middle”. If you actually mean contempt for the poor as mouthed by d00d0ng and others, they just have a poor interpretation of how USA elections are won or lost. In Pinas, elections are won or lost depending on one’s success in getting the votes of the poor — class D and class-E. For the USA, elections are determined by the votes of the $20,000-to-$200,000-a-year voter — the middle-class. It is not “… contempt for the poor”, it is more the elevation of the middle-class. [Having said that, a few rough-around-the-edges Republicans — d00d0ng a good example — forget how hard that the Reagans and the Bush’s and the Republican leadership present their empathy for the very poor — except via “…thousand points of light” charities versus Democrats’ public programs.
———————————-
to d00d0ng: McCain’s path to White House getting seriously derailed. Pennsylvania and New Hampshire now recognized as Obama-wins.
Expect that the new Obama administration will continue to push education-grants all the way to college for US-of-A citizens. Reason : the college-and-above USA population (white and otherwise) are giving their votes to Obama.
Education is trumping racism.
Christopher Hitchens seems to be right. It’s a Zeitgeist moment. And not a moment too soon.
talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo talo.
Sabi kasi, dapat na-abort yang mga democratic voters na iyan at ang mga immigrants hindi pinayagang dalhin pamilya nila sa tate at binigyan ng karapatang bumoto. (that last thing does not apply to Pinoys who generally vote Republican)
Sana kasi hindi nabigyan ng Harvard Scholarship si Barack! Sino ba siya to be entitled to that! He’s the son of an immigrant gademet. The USA is only for native american indians! Immigrants go home!
Sorry nalang sa mga earning more thant $250k taxable income per year. I guess you have to reduce the amount of money you give to church to be able to pay your tax.
cheers,
175-61 na, hindi pa kasama California.
Tapos na talaga boxing.
Now, it’s time to start hating Obama.
nash, don’t forget the bradley effect.
bradley effect? why? is obama black? he’s only half black (he is fairer than most pinoys too), hence half bradley effect lang
😀
Nash, Ilan ba ang “quarter millionaire” na FilAms dito sa blog ni Manolo?
Don’t encourage them to be haters……. an Obama (hopefully he wins pwera usog, lol) win is just the beginning of a long journey ahead of us in ridding the nation of muck Bush left us. It will not be pleasant if there are sour grapes pulling the effort down.
nash,
take it easy. here’s my plan. I am a C corp and will change to S corp. It’s changing the status of about 30% of employees to contract workers. I cannot be burdened to pay automatic income tax ( FICA), workers comp, employee health benefits, unemployment benefits and State Tax for majority. With S corp, I can elect to remove all those benefits and pay labor as contract. I will still make my money but I cannot be responsible for all these expenses. Lots of work with very little incentives from the democratic party. It might be time for me to venture to Philippines where I can help my own people. Will see, it’s too soon to be discouraged.
It’s good to be living in a neighborhood that shares my ideals. I cannot be looking at the whole country but rather function where I am comfortable. US is too big and Florida is too nice to live. I am expecting to see more educated blacks in the next 10 years I hope , that I can compete and be challenged. I’m ready. 🙂
president-elect Obama just took Ohio.
nash, it’s now bradley no effect.
Pedestrian,
ayan, si Tita Leytenian sa itaas, detailing her complex tax plan. If I were here I’d just live as a tax exile in Liechtenstein.
😀
And in a recession, whoever is president will be hated and blamed. That comes with the territory. Whether it’s the ‘educated’ black man as the lady above describes or the white true american john wins, he will be hated.
@grd
wala bradley effect dahil sa dami ng early voting and the high turnout.
tingnan mo sa Arizona mismo, neck and neck.
Obama has crossed the 200 mark without california kaya it’s time to pop the champagne! (or whatever it is you patriots drink there..)
😀
and on a serious note,
let me ask where is the ‘traditional family values’ in not caring enough for your employees?
you want to reclassify some as contract workers to keep your current profit margin because you will pay a little bit more tax?? whut???
(Style yan ni Henry Sy!)
from the sound of it, it is unlikely that this business is big enough to be taxed any higher under the obama plan.
sorry na lang ho tita leytenian……. yeah nash that is probably the case that is if Obama fails to deliver but with the party capturing the majority in both houses the American people are basically good people and will pass the hurdle in time…….. ok, maybe some time….. but then again I have faith in the American people……..
nash is right, tapos na ang boksing. leytenian is sensing it.
after Ohio now New Mexico. even in the home state of McCain
Obama is projected to win.
it’s now unofficially 200-90
can it be called a landslide victory?
36 million counted so fast….
and we wonder why it takes Abalos 8 weeks to count mindanao votes na ilang milyon lang…
😀
On why some ‘quarter millinaires’ voted for the ‘educated’ black hawaiian…
“I’d rather have a better country and a better world and would happily pay a little bit more tax for that” – Democratic voter who earns more than $250k as interviewed on tv
O ha, buti pa siya, he practices ‘traditional family values’ of looking out for your neighbour.
Pedestrian,
sorry to say I’m younger than manolo but you can call me tita if your age is less than 25. 🙂
Nash,
easy there again. family values can only be applied at home. in business , there’s lots of options. With unemployment rate increasing, supply of labor is a strategy to change the structure of one’s business. Lots of options and alternatives. I think Obama will tax individual higher before ending his term. The current tax incentives will still take effect until that policy will expire at the whitehouse in 2010. I have 1 year to think harder and observe where the economy is heading. All Obama promises have to wait until previous policies will expire. But that time, people will probably think he didn’t do anything.
What people need to realize that most of the policy making and changing have been passed thru Congress already. It’s a matter of when it is subject for amendments or when it will expire. 🙂
historic event, the black man is heading to the white house.
“I’d rather have a better country and a better world and would happily pay a little bit more tax for that†– Democratic voter who earns more than $250k as interviewed on tv
a typical hypocrite american. he must be a philanthropist
i salute the american people for their maturity.
Obama deserve it. It’s time for the Blacks who has not voted for a long time and maybe for the first time , to uphold their ideals. Pinoy should do the same.
No regrets but of course i’m too drunk to accept a one night of disappointment. More happy nights for me and my family.
Dodong, are you there? God bless to you and and your family. Now let’s get back to business. Lots of challenges that will challenge the many FIL-AM pinoys. 🙂
UP N and Rego… congratulations
mlq3,
‘And the utter lack of a community spirit with its contempt for the non-middle.’
It’s enough that most Fil-Ams are not a burden to the community.
leytenian,
Rego is on the way to the airport now.
“a typical hypocrite american. he must be a philanthropist”
Swedes must be hypocrites then. They voted to increase their tax, remember.
It is interesting to note that most of the remaining red states are also the states that host U.S.military installations. Their state economies are tied to the military installations to include the U.S. space command. .
They are also tied to the state subsidized agriculture policies of the U.S.
They rail against the government but a lot of those state economies prosper due to state subsidies.
“family values can only be applied at home.”
HUWAAAAAAAAAT????
wala na ito.
this is hopeless.
manonood nalang ako ng startalk.
the republicans frothing at the mouth are amazing:
http://hummersandcigarettes.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-let-madness-begin-voter.html
http://votefraudsquad.com/
and they’ve been at it even before the voting got into high gear:
http://beartracks.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/stop-the-election-accurate-vote-count-impossible/
this made me laugh:
http://campaigndiaries.com/2008/11/03/last-minute-wicker-tries-to-confuse-voters-dust-settles-in-ny-26/
this shows how disciplined the obama effort was:
http://wordsincontext.blogspot.com/2008/11/battle-for-georgia-2-million-early.html
and these make forinteresting reading:
http://www.politico.com/arena/
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/voting-problems
I would attribute that to the Dark Side of Positive Thinking. The positive thinker believes that success is in his or her hands (imho, a good attitude to live by) but the flipside is that if a person fails, it’s his fault and no one else’s.
Thank you America!!
The news media just waited for the California polls to close, and they are all declaring Obama as the next president of the United States.
a historic day….
***clears throat***
hello leytenian…..