Election Retrospective

If there's one thing I find amazing about the Duterte administration, it's that the problem of drugs in this country has been exposed like termites in a dying tree's trunk. It seems that everyone is either an addict, a dealer or a drug lord. If I threw a stone in a random direction, I'd probably hit a junkie at this point.

Before Duterte campaigned for the presidency, drugs were hardly an issue. People knew the problem existed but it was never really talked about. Come to think of it, the presidential candidates hardly talked about anything of substance. It was just the usual platitudes and bromides until this foul-mouthed grandpa from Davao walked into the scene.

That's why he won. He campaigned on an actual issue. Illegal drugs was something common folk could understand. Then all of a sudden Duterte was the "law and order" candidate. Can you remember what kind of candidates the others were? How about our old pal Mar Roxas? I remember him as the "everything is fine" candidate for the status quo. I'm sure all anyone else remembers him is as "that yellow guy". 

He took an issue and he owned it. It also helped that he proposed the radical solution of just shooting people dead to solve our problems. How can the other prim and proper "serious" candidates even match that? It's so dumb that it's genius. Even the stupidest Filipino can understand "shoot the baddies". Try explaining criminal justice system reform to the average Filipino and you'd be lucky if he stays awake.

The same thing happened in America, coincidentally. The whole thing was boring until some loudmouth came along and grabbed an issue a lot of people cared about but none of the other candidates dared to bring up. It was utterly bizarre to me watching American presidential hopefuls concede the issue of immigration to Trump without a fight. It turns out it mattered to a lot of people. He even had his own radical solution of building a big beautiful wall to keep illegal aliens out. Just like Duterte, Trump seemingly came out of nowhere, left his opponents befuddled and in the dust and actually won the damn race.

The takeaway here is that politics tends to become bland and stale. It's all talk about safe stuff nobody really cares about. Then someone comes along and manages to give voice to something everyone is thinking but can't seem to say anything about it; a charismatic who grasps the zeitgeist and rides it to victory.

It's something to think about.