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BY JED JALECO DEL ROSARIO
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Why did Trump win the election?
ORDINARY, apolitical Filipinos probably have some vague idea about US President-elect Donald Trump, his policies and his statements from various news sources. However, they don’t understand why he got elected.
Trump’s election was a result of various factors, most notably the controversies surrounding Hillary Clinton, increasing radicalization among the American voting populace and most importantly, his American First platform which appealed to predominantly white voters.
Of the three factors that led to Trump’s ascendancy to the White House, the third factor is the most important because it reflects popular American dissatisfaction with globalization and America’s role in the world. To better understand this dissatisfaction, let’s examine the following hypothetical scenarios.
Let’s say that in the past few decades, Filipino jobs have been outsourced overseas to other Asean countries because local business owners consider it more profitable to hire foreign workers than native Filipinos.
Moreover, the Philippines now suffers from a massive current trade deficit (we import more than we export) with our largest trading partner to the extent that many of our industries have been closed, thus resulting in further unemployment.
In Manila, foreign lobbies and special interest groups are actively supporting Filipino politicians who want to engage in military adventurism abroad and carry out policies which either have little to no benefit to Filipinos.
On the realm of culture, the Philippines’ urban areas have developed a globalized cosmopolitan culture that is relatively hostile to the particularistic culture of rural areas. This divide is reflected in voting patterns, where urban areas support globalist policies while the rural areas support nationalist policies.
Finally, there is also the issue of immigration. Since the 1960s millions of non-Filipino immigrants have entered the Philippines. This situation continued for the next five decades with more and more non-Filipinos pouring into the country. By 2016, ethnic Filipinos are projected to become a minority in the Philippines by the middle of the 21st Century.
To make matters worse, the immigrant populations have formed a coalition to support a political party that supports their particular interest, often at the expense of native Filipinos.
So to summarize our hypothetical scenario: Filipino jobs are being outsourced overseas, foreign lobbyists are buying up special interests groups in the Philippine government, the Philippine manufacturing sector has collapsed or is collapsing, a massive cultural war exists between different demographic groups and to top it all off, Filipinos are projected to become a minority in their own country in the foreseeable future.
If this sounds like a bleak scenario, that’s because it is, and to make matters worse, none of the politicians want to fix it. However, what if someone came along? What if this man was a successful businessman/TV star, and he promises to address all of the problems mentioned here?
He promises to end outsourcing, illegal non-Filipino immigration, unfair trade deals, and foreign influence in Filipino politics and wants to “Make the Philippines Great Again.”
If you were a Filipino who exists in this hypothetical scenario, would you vote for him?
Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. However, what you need to understand is that the problems mentioned above are the problems faced by many conservatives, working class and mostly white American voters.
Now, a lot of people, both Filipino and American, may dispute the validity of the complaints listed in our hypothetical scenario, and perhaps others will support it. But the validity of these complaints is not the point. The point is that the voters of Donald Trump consider such problems to be valid, which is why they voted for him in the first place, and that’s what ultimately matters.
American voters elected Trump for the very same reason Filipinos elected Duterte: Trump, like Duterte, is a nationalist./PN
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