Had to believe that a veteran political operative such as Lito Banayo dislikes US president-elect Donald Trump. What’s not hard to believe is he has a child who is a US citizen. Most of the children of the elite of our country are dual citizens or have migrated to other countries for obvious reasons. Banayo writes in his Manila Standard piece “Reality trumps ideals” about how his daughter who lives in San Francisco voted in these elections…
To my consternation, she picked Trump.
“How could you possibly go for an irascible felon?” I asked.
Her response did not shock. “Pa, do you know how different America has become since you last came here?”
“I cannot go to the streets of San Francisco. In fact, my younger daughters have never been there, as it is such an awful, dreadful place, and mostly because those bleeding heart Democrats won’t touch the homeless, drug-crazed derelicts that litter Union Square all the way to the waterfront,” she stated.
It says a lot about how our elites view their own country; perhaps just a milking cow. If Banayo can’t see through US President Joe Biden and his family then it’s over for him as an operative. The only recent candidate of his who won is former President Rodrigo Duterte and he wasn’t a principal player in that campaign. We all know how Isko Moreno’s campaign ended. Isko is going back to Manila. That’s if Sam Verzosa’s message ever gains ground. Then again, Bagong Mukha, Bagong Maynila is pretty lame.
If you still don’t believe the Democrats are bad for America then you probably won’t believe the state of California, particularly its de facto capital of San Francisco. I thought that the video I saw on TikTok was AI because downtown never looked that bad when I was a business traveler in the 90s. Our office was near Chinatown and the financial district at Sansome St. Most of Union Square is now closed down. Macy’s, I. Magnin, Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, they’re all gone now no thanks to a procession of Democrat governors and mayors. Most of my high school batchmates have moved to other states like Nevada, where the cost of living is reasonable and even Texas. It’s inevitable as they near retirement age.
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Banayo is surprised that Trump won. I wasn’t. The writing was on the wall since 2020. The red states wouldn’t have stood for another Democrat winning the presidency. America is not San Francisco, New York or the other major cities on both coasts. America is the midwest and the south, the agricultural and industrial heartland of the average Joe. That Trump won all the swing states speaks volumes about the disenchantment of the average Joe against the Democrats. Trump may still be a registered Republican but he’s not actually what could be described as a card-carrying member of the party. He used to be a Democrat.
What Trump represents now is Americans wanting to take their country back from the politicians and the deep state of the military-industrial complex which the later Dwight Eisenhower had been warning about since he became president. This is why Lyndon Johnson didn’t run for re-election and is what gave rise to George Bush and Barack Obama, under whose watch America turned the Middle East upside down. This is the America of Biden who got the US in a proxy war with Russia and increased tensions with China. The US, China and Russia have no reason to go to war. Putin and Xi aren’t imperialists. Trump isn’t either which is why the prospects for 2025 look good. But not for the Philippines.
It remains to be seen what rhetoric the administration will be mouthing now that Trump is president. Hopefully the president will stop repeating that stupid rules-based international order that the US and Europe use to justify their hegemony.
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It is indeed a victory well deserved for Trump–a second victory. He is indeed a born fighter, a natural diplomat and you can say also a peacemaker; he will be a welcome relief from all the ‘wokeness’ chaos, confusion, indifference and uncertainties that were triggered by these insensitive Democrats who prioritized mostly their supporters and not the American public in general. Think also of the extremes that got the Democrats into one big mess: the gross permissiveness of those ‘wokes’ who demanded inclusivity, albeit in a very wrong way (imagine even preaching to young and innocent school children about changing their gender which is morally wrong) on one side, and the belligerence of American foreign policy on the other, with their incessant meddling in places such as Ukraine, bringing in more bombs, weapons and proving their military might–of which the money could have instead be spent in a more holistic way on matters to ease growing American woes such as unemployment, social welfare, improving its deteriorating infrastructure, urban redevelopment, and enhancing its moribund industries such as manufacturing and IT development, among others. Lastly, with the Democrats being overconfident as being overly woke (no thanks to the celebrities and the mainstream media that had blindly supported them), see how Hubris has finally brought them down. Now Kamala Harris and her ilk will have a very bitter pill to swallow. Let us also never forget that Trump himself was a diplomat and a peacemaker–as he courageously did that landmark peace treaty with a formidable country, North Korea back in 2018. Moreover, if you look on Trump’s victory on a much more profound level, his winning has proven that the era of US celebrity endorsement of leaders is long dead! And, Trump’s triumph is a very, very big slap on the face of Kamala Harris, the Democrats–and the celebrities full of wokeness who endorsed her.
As a Fil-Am born, raised, lived, & worked my whole adult life in San Francisco, I don’t blame the daughter for voting for President Trump. San Francisco is a dump. I worked there recently & even stores & businesses are leaving. Why? Do I need to explain? Funny how Mr. Banayo calls PRESIDENT Trump a “felon” when California & San Francisco is a breeding ground for criminals & corrupt people. And the major cities in that state are completely Liberal & Democrat! Did they ever prosecute that man who killed Corazan Dandan? If San Francisco was like the 1980-1990s, that would have never happened to her. The Last time Lito Banayo was there was probably when San Francisco was still San Francisco.
Also, if San Francisco was all that, ex-Mayor London Breed would still be Mayor today. This is also the same city where Kamala Harris started off as the D. A. and was San Francisco better of? Even the police in San Francisco didn’t like her when she district attorney. Californians like me actually lodged a complaint to her about certain human rights violations being perpetrated on California citizens still going on today and the USA & she didn’t do squat as Attorney General of California! So yeah, I’m happy she lost!