{"id":5905,"date":"2021-01-23T08:25:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T18:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=5905"},"modified":"2021-01-23T08:28:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T18:28:06","slug":"filipinos-know-why-trumps-inciting-a-mob-is-impeachable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/01\/23\/filipinos-know-why-trumps-inciting-a-mob-is-impeachable\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipinos Know Why Trump\u2019s Inciting A Mob Is Impeachable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo

<\/em>As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the impeachment debate on Jan. 13, she quoted Abraham Lincoln, \u201cWe cannot escape history.\u201d

Still, Republicans tried in vain to escape truth, justice, and the Constitution, as they attempted to defend the indefensible, Donald J. Trump.

If you have any doubts about impeaching the brand-conscious president with a use-by expiry date of Jan 20, 2021, just remember all the images you\u2019ve seen of the Capitol mob riot and insurrection that he incited on Jan. 6.

Me? As I watched the debate, I kept thinking of Fermin Tobera. He\u2019s not a Filipino member of Congress. There are no full Filipino members of Congress. We don\u2019t have one of those yet.

Tobera has a place in American history\u2013proof that Asian Americans, especially Filipinos, know the tyranny of white mob violence.

We\u2019ve been on the racists\u2019 radar since policymakers brought up the first Chinese Exclusion Acts, followed by similar policies toward migrants from other Asian nations, such as the Filipinos from America\u2019s first colony, the Philippines.

By the 1920s and \u201830s, nearly 40,000 Filipinos came to California seeking opportunity. But their arrival prompted welcome signs that said, \u201cNo Filipinos Allowed.\u201d It was Jim Crow, Asian American-style.

Politicians fomented hate and inspired white mobs that didn\u2019t like Filipinos taking jobs and consorting with white women.

It brought on riots in California cities, most notably Watsonville, where for five days in January 1930, 500 white men took to the streets to attack and beat up Filipinos in their way.

Fermin Tobera was just 22, when after a night dancing with white women in a Watsonville dance hall, a white mob shot up the bunkhouse where he lived, killing Tobera from a bullet to the heart. It was on January 22, 1930.

The murder made news around the world, as Tobera\u2019s body was flown back to the Philippines for a public burial.

Make no mistake, Filipino Americans know the wrath of the White Mob.

We also know the tragedy. No one was held accountable for the death of Fermin Tobera.On January 6, 2012, Congress and all America saw the power of the White Mob, and the violence was incited by the president.

That\u2019s what the impeachment debate was about. The president turned us against ourselves. He incited an insurrectionist act.

The White Power Riot<\/strong>
Trump has been banned from Twitter, but not me. When I saw January 6 begin to unfold, I tweeted: \u201cThis is the \u2018white power\u2019 movement of Trump on full display. Built on lies, the \u201cnormal\u2019 GOP has no control. Sadly, It\u2019s the new third party of America.\u201dIf the rioters had been BLM protesters, we\u2019d have seen way more than six dead. Yes, the double standard is real. But the racist motivation from Jan. 6 goes deeper than last summer.

We need to acknowledge that the riot wasn\u2019t simply a protest whipped up by Trump\u2019s false claims that the election was stolen.

The mob was composed by people\u2014the majority of whom are white and, on the margins, who were enabled politically by Trump. They were always there. They just had not been legitimized or given a voice until they were dubbed the \u201cTrump base.\u201d

They are conspiracy theorists, gun nuts, and white supremacists. They are as right-wing as they are white. They are the Klan without the hoods. All of them lurking since Timothy McVeigh\u2019s bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City. It was domestic terrorism known by our intelligence community yet ignored and normalized by Trump.

For the last four years, Trump and his base have been each other\u2019s raison d\u2019etre.

Trump is nothing without them.

They are nothing without him.

And when the Republican Party abandoned principles and became synonymous with Trump, that\u2019s when our truth-challenged political environment began.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the base showed us they will do anything for Trump. Even when the ask is based on lies.

They were coming for Congress this time. But based on their hatred of the \u201cother,\u201d their target could easily have been any of us.

The Trumpists see themselves aggrieved in a country that is demographically changing. These riotous whites feel they are losing out to immigrants. And Trump is their hero, who will stand up to all BIPOC\u2013Blacks, Indigenous, People of Color\u2013with racist and xenophobic policies.

Just look at all the Confederate flags, symbols of white supremacy, along with other neo-Nazi signs of white nationalism scattered through the Capitol building. These domestic terrorists engaged in mob violence. Why the debate?

Filipino Americans should not be deluded. There\u2019d be no debate if it were us.

Impeachment? It is the right thing.

The Ongoing History<\/strong>
And now Donald John Trump, the man who never really wanted to be president, makes history as the first president to be impeached twice.

As Trump himself would say, it is a new level of political disgrace the likes of which our country has never seen.It\u2019s a new low for the highest office in the land. What will people in the future ask those of us who lived through it? Was it really that bad?Yeah. It was.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell reportedly said he won\u2019t call the Senate back until after Jan.19. It means a Democratic Senate will preside over an impeachment trial, where McConnell could lead 17 Republicans to vote to convict and permanently disqualify Trump from seeking office again.For now, democracy survives, with 232 voting to impeach with 10 Republican defectors. But 197 Republicans voted to stay loyal.It\u2019s a victory where no one cheers, not when DC has more troops sleeping in the Capitol just in case rioting Trumpers plan other attacks on our democracy.Before the close of business, Trump, banned from Twitter, released a video. \u201cI want to be very clear,\u201d he read off the Teleprompter. \u201cI unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country, no place in our movement.\u201dBut he\u2019s president, with blood on his hands. After all the lies and tumult, can we believe anything Trump says?Without contrition for his lies, Trump\u2019s words are empty. He\u2019s not unimpeachable, just impeachable. Doubly so.EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator. In Hawaii, he was both a columnist for the Star Bulletin, and a member of the Advertiser editorial board. A former national host at NPR, he vlogs at <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the impeachment debate on Jan. 13,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,26,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=700%2C350",700,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=300%2C150",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=640%2C320",640,320,true],"large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=640%2C320",640,320,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=700%2C350",700,350,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=700%2C350",700,350,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C350",700,350,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C350",700,350,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=600%2C350",600,350,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=600%2C350",600,350,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C350",700,350,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C350",700,350,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=700%2C350",700,350,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=540%2C340",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?resize=400%2C207",400,207,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Columns<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/candidperspectives-3.jpeg?fit=700%2C350","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905"}],"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=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5912,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions\/5912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}