{"id":13351,"date":"2022-08-07T05:51:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T15:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=13351"},"modified":"2022-08-07T05:51:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T15:51:52","slug":"what-us-filipino-voters-think-and-if-the-walis-tambo-man-goes-down-why-not-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2022\/08\/07\/what-us-filipino-voters-think-and-if-the-walis-tambo-man-goes-down-why-not-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"What US Filipino Voters Think; And if the Walis Tambo Man Goes Down, Why Not Trump?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo

<\/em>Is there a powerful, united \u201cFilipino vote\u201d?

In my last column, I think it\u2019s inconclusive. At least, there didn\u2019t seem to be one when it comes to Vicki Cayetano for governor. Is it a harsher judgment that her business acumen and having once lived in the governor\u2019s residence don\u2019t make her competitive with the current lieutenant governor?

While there doesn\u2019t appear to be a bloc \u201cFilipino vote\u201d one can rely on in Hawaii, there\u2019s new national data on Filipino Voters that shows what influences our vote.

The Asian American Voter Survey comes out every two years, and unlike most polls, it samples 1,601 registered Asian American voters by cellphone, landline and online, in English and Asian languages, but not Tagalog\/Ilocano. An imperfection? Perhaps.

But the survey is credible enough to have an overall margin of error of +\/- 2.5 percent for Asian Americans. There\u2019s a large enough sample size for every ethnic group, including 257 Filipinos that makes for a margin of error of +\/- 6. Few polls ever drill down that deep.

The survey says of Asian American Voters who intend to vote in November for House of Representatives races, 52% of Filipinos say they will vote Democrat and 23% say Republican. In Senate races, it\u2019s 50% Democrat and 32% Republican.

In terms of favorability, Filipinos were the most pro-Biden among Asian American voters with 53% choosing \u201cvery favorable\u201d or \u201csomewhat favorable,\u201d while 43% said they were \u201csomewhat unfavorable\u201d to \u201cvery unfavorable.\u201d

<\/em>As for Trump, Filipinos were just 35% \u201cvery favorable\u201d to \u201csomewhat favorable.\u201d More than 60% of Filipinos were \u201csomewhat unfavorable\u201d to \u201cvery unfavorable.\u201d

<\/em>As for the issues that influenced Filipino voters, Filipinos surpassed the general Asian American trend by saying healthcare was extremely to very important (66%); Then came jobs and the economy (65%); inflation (65%); and education (62%).Once again, it\u2019s rare to find a survey with a decent sampling that allows you to say anything about Filipinos. That\u2019s the value of the Asian American Voter Survey (AAVS).

It\u2019s data that gives us a little better sense of an American Filipino vote.

<\/em>The Walis Tambo<\/em> Guy is Guilty, But Not Donald Trump?<\/strong>
<\/em>The AAVS didn\u2019t ask about January 6.

But when it comes to that fateful day, I\u2019m thinking of all of us. Especially American Filipinos like Kene Lazo of Norfolk, Virginia. On that day, he carried a boi-boi, or \u201cWalis Tambo<\/em>\u201d into the Capitol rotunda to, in his own insurrectionist way, sweep out Washington.

<\/em>Lazo pleaded guilty last March, as did more than 320 people of the nearly 900 people charged in connection to the riot. But shouldn\u2019t the man who led Lazo and the rest of the rioters be held accountable?

On the eighth hearing of the Jan. 6. Select Committee, we learned a few more details of what former President Trump was doing while the Capitol was under siege.

Basically, nothing.

Trump was like the arsonist admiring his reflection in the fire he set. He told people to come to the Capitol and indeed, they came.High-level White House aides and true-blue Republicans like White House counsel Pat Cipollone, once again testified under oath that Trump was watching it all unfold on television for 187 minutes.

That number will forever be associated with our democracy \u2013 <\/a>187 minutes, the threshold for almost losing what we gained in 1776.

Fans of antiquity will instantly turn to Nero, who is said to have fiddled as Rome burned in the summer of 64 CE (AD).Trump was fiddling too. But not with calls to the National Guard or to others who could quell the crowd. Trump called senators to help him continue to thwart the certification vote scheduled for that day, as well as his main henchman, Rudy Giuliani.But Trump mostly watched Fox News and liked what he saw, especially when the mob provided the lyrics to the mayhem of his making. Who can forget the memorable \u201cHang Mike Pence\u201d?

<\/em>They could have been saying all our names.There was another chant in the crowd too. \u201cKill him with his own gun!\u201d That was what people were saying of Officer Michael Fanone, the DC Metropolitan Police Officer who was punched and kicked and dragged face-down some Capitol steps.

<\/em>And that\u2019s when Fanone brought up his secret weapon, his three Asian American children.

<\/em>\u201cI have kids,\u201d pleaded Fanone, now divorced from his Chinese American wife. On the day Fanone put his life on the line for his country, he was living with his mom, working a second job to save for a down payment on a house for him and his daughters \u2013 Piper, 9; Mei-Mei, 7; and Hensley, 5. They were the most important people in his life.

That his kids are multiracial is significant. Fanone\u2019s kids are the democracy we\u2019re all fighting for, the new America.

<\/em>Race rants and apologies<\/strong>
<\/em>You\u2019ll recall the recent 2020 Census. The two or more races population sometimes called multiracial, has gone from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million in 2020, a 276% increase.

<\/em>America is changing. It\u2019s becoming a little browner like Hawaii. Whites are still the largest group at 204.3 million, but that number has decreased by 8.6% since 2010.

<\/em>That fact has led to growing resentment among the Right. And Jan. 6, despite the boi boi guy, was really an expression of White Rage.Note the audio rant by former Trump aide Garret Ziegler, who testified before the January 6 committee recently.

Ziegler said he invoked his right to remain silent through the Fifth Amendment or executive privilege in most of his answers before the committee.But he did not stay silent on social media. Online, Ziegler called the committee an \u201canti-white campaign, and if you can\u2019t see that your eyes are freaking closed.\u201d

<\/em>This is our polarized America now. While Ziegler chooses to dig in and insist that he is not a racist, we have seen other rioters repentant for what they\u2019ve done.

<\/em>Rioter Stephen Ayres testified to the committee at the seventh hearing and then tried to apologize to Officer Fanone.Fanone was asked about the apology and told CNN (where he now works as an analyst) that he was caught off guard and didn\u2019t remember Ayres\u2019 exact words. But he said apologies are deeply personal and private moments.

<\/em>\u201cSave the apologies,\u201d Fanone said. \u201cAnd that goes for anyone involved on January 6. The way [the apology] was carried out I found disingenuous, and you know, in regards to January 6, I\u2019m sorry,\u00a0I am not anyone\u2019s rest stop on the road to redemption.\u201d

<\/em>His phrasing stopped me cold.In 2012, I interviewed by phone Vincent Chin\u2019s killer, and Ronald Ebens apologized. I heard it. But it wasn\u2019t up to me to either accept it or to judge him. I was an opinion journalist. If anything, I wanted to know why Ebens has continued to avoid the judgment against him that he owes to the Chin estate.

<\/em>I wish I had Fanone\u2019s line to respond to Ebens\u2019 apology. \u201cI am not anyone\u2019s rest stop on the road to redemption.\u201d

<\/em>Road to justice<\/strong>
<\/em>I imagine many more will want to apologize for their actions on January 6, perhaps sooner than later.

But don\u2019t expect any apologies from Trump, who recently campaigned for an election denier in Arizona. He\u2019s even made calls to a Wisconsin official to sway the certification of the state\u2019s 2020 vote.

Recently, Trump was back in DC brandishing his harshest rhetoric at a First America Institute event where he called for more police funding, crackdowns on immigration, a return of \u201cstop and frisk, and a generally more authoritarian America.

<\/em>Odd for a guy who wouldn\u2019t protect the police on January 6.

<\/em>President Biden pointed out the hypocrisy. \u201cYou can\u2019t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop,\u201d Biden said. \u201cYou can\u2019t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can\u2019t be pro-insurrection and pro-American.\u201d

<\/em>But Trump thinks he can. The January 6 hearings show that after the Big Lie, America has more than a tolerance for Trump\u2019s lies. American Filipino Republican lawyer and commentator George Conway called Thursday\u2019s hearing \u201ca devastating portrait, not just of dereliction, but depravity by the president, and derangement.\u201d

<\/em>That makes Trump at the very least a triple-D threat.Cheney: Trump\u2019s actions \u201cindefensible\u201d <\/strong>No matter where you are in the political spectrum, you have to admire January 6 committee co-chair Liz Cheney\u2019s closing statement. The hearings are no witch hunt.

Cheney called it \u201ca series of confessions\u201d by Donald Trump\u2019s own Republican appointees, friends, campaign officials, and even his own family.

<\/em>\u201cThey have come forward and they have told the American people the truth.\u201d

<\/em>Then Cheney played a public comment of Steve Bannon, the Trump aide who was found guilty in contempt of Congress recently and faces jail time for ignoring a subpoena to testify. Bannon described how it was Trump\u2019s strategy to \u201cdeclare victory,\u201d claim the election was stolen (without evidence) and do some \u201ccrazy sh-t.\u201d

<\/em>And all because Trump knew he could convince millions of supporters to do his bidding.\u201cHe is preying on their sense of patriotism,\u201d Cheney said. \u201cHe is preying on their sense of justice and on January 6, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution.\u201d

<\/em>That is a crime. Yet only Trump\u2019s followers who rioted like Stephen Ayres and Kene Lazo have been charged. Why not Trump, the man who incited the riot?

<\/em>\u201cDonald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office, to ignore the ongoing violence against law enforcement, to threaten our constitutional order,\u201d Cheney said. \u201cThere is no way to excuse that behavior. It was indefensible. And every American must consider this: Can a president who was willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?\u201d

<\/em>The answer is always a resounding, \u201cNO,\u201d if America is to remain a strong and vital democracy.

<\/em>EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong>\u00a0is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the Inquirer\u2019s North American Bureau.\u00a0He talks about this column and other matters on\u00a0\u201cEmil Amok\u2019s Takeout,\u201d my micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>; my\u00a0<\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>\u00a0channel; and\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>. Catch the recordings on\u00a0<\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo Is there a powerful, united \u201cFilipino vote\u201d? In my last column, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=815%2C1047",815,1047,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=234%2C300",234,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=640%2C823",640,823,true],"large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=640%2C822",640,822,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=815%2C1047",815,1047,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=815%2C1047",815,1047,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=815%2C800",815,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=815%2C570",815,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=600%2C900",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=571%2C715",571,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=454%2C500",454,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=815%2C1047",815,1047,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=540%2C285",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?resize=375%2C250",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/CP-Walis-Man-color_08062022.jpg?fit=815%2C1047","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13353,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351\/revisions\/13353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}