Bad role models

“A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful.”

—Charles W. Pickering

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

FILIPINO politicians in the past have looked up to their American counterparts for guidance and inspiration when it comes to cultivating and strengthening our democratic ideals and society.

We had illustrious leaders like Emilio Aguinaldo, Manuel L. Quizon, Carlos P. Romulo, Elpidio Quirino, Claro M. Recto, Raul Manglapus, to name only a few, who either collaborated or learned some important lessons and leadership from famous American leaders like William McKinley, George Dewey, Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Dulles, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, to mention a few.

Until the recent leadership in America when the first black politician, Barack Obama, had been catapulted into the presidency in 2008, American politics was still central to the Philippine politicians’ attraction and imagination.

America has been the Philippines’ No. 1 role model in governance and politics in many aspects.

What is shaping up after the November 3, 2020 U.S. Presidential Election and prior to the inauguration of President-elect Joseph Biden as the 46^th President on January 20, 2021 may frustrate if not turn off a lot of people (not only the politicians) in the Philippines who have been following the turmoil in American politics only because a defeated presidential reelectionist has refused to accept a clear election loss and has been scandalously egging his party mates to tilt the election result in his favor.

 

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Just when the world is waiting for Mr. Biden’s ascension in the White House, which will be traditionally confirmed by Congress on January 6, several Republican politicians with future presidential ambitions want to use the furor, whipped up by President Donald Trump’s false claim of election fraud, to advertise their talents and make a noise by opposing the certification of Mr. Biden’s election win.

They have become bad role models of American politics.

The stunts and grandstanding of Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, and the threat made by at least 140 Republican congressmen to oppose the certification of the Electoral College of Mr. Biden’s win if a 10-day “emergency audit” of election results in key states is not conducted, is the latest in a series of efforts to overturn the election.

Their insistence continued even as all 10 living former defense secretaries have declared the election is over in a forceful public letter published in the Washington Post on January 3. 

 

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As reported by CNN’s Paul LeBlanc, while President Trump continued to deny his election loss to Biden, the former Defense secretaries—Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter—signed the letter.

Many people here viewed the letter as “a remarkable show of force against Trump's subversion efforts just days before Congress is set to count Electoral College votes.”

The former Defense chiefs wrote: "Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”

As everyone has noted, Mr. Trump has been falsely claiming since Election Day that a second term “is being stolen”, even as there have been no credible allegations of widespread voting issues as affirmed by dozens of judges, governors, and election officials, the Electoral College, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Supreme Court.

 

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LeBlanc reported: “Still, a wide swath of congressional Republicans are siding with the President and plan to object to Biden's win during Electoral College counting on Wednesday -- even though their efforts will only delay the inevitable affirmation of Biden's win.”

The former Defense secretaries, who collectively represent decades of tenure in the position, wrote that presidential transitions "are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power."

The group wrote further: “They often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture. They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation."

LeBlanc said “the letter follows Trump's removal of Esper in November as part of a set of sweeping changes atop the Defense Department's civilian leadership structure that included the installation of perceived loyalists to the President.”

The shakeup reportedly put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials.

 

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And while America's top military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told Congress in August that the military won't help settle any election disputes, the group of former Defense secretaries reiterated in their letter that such an effort "would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory."

"Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic," the letter stated.

"We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them," the letter further stated. 

"This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country."

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)