TRUMP AND THE DIEHARD DUTERTE SUPPORTERS

MANY people couldn’t care less about the US elections. But for those who do, it is disconcerting that there is a similarity in the narratives between the ultra-conservative right-wing base of support for incumbent President Donald Trump and those espoused by many among the loyal Duterte supporters, the so-called diehard Duterte supporters (DDS).

A substantial part of this similarity is more structural in nature, considering that both Trump and President Rodrigo Duterte are populist leaders and are seen as symbols who spoke against the well-established political institutions. Both are perceived by their bases to be enemies of the liberal mainstream media. And both are supported by a loyal political base that despise liberal mainstream media. Both men are perceived as outsiders, with Trump being a businessman and Duterte a provincial city mayor, who are seen as bearers of the agenda of changing the way politics is practiced or what Trump refers to as “draining the swamp.”

Both Trump and Duterte are also known to have a penchant for daring, if not patently offensive speech. Both men are seen as misogynists by their critics.

There are, of course, important differences between Trump and Duterte. While the latter remains unbelievably popular, with 91 percent approval ratings, if one believes the surveys, Trump is in fact being projected to lose in the November 3 elections to his Democratic rival, former vice president Joseph Biden, by double digits in national surveys, and is also losing to Biden in key swing and battleground states. Filipinos approve of the way Duterte handled the Covid-19 pandemic, while Trump is being criticized for his mishandling of Covid-19. Trump loves to have outdoor rallies despite his being a senior citizen, while Duterte settles for more isolation, gives late- night and sometimes pretaped press conferences, and has gone out only on a few occasions.

While Trump is an active resident of social media through his incessant tweets, Duterte is enabled by an army of social media enablers, thereby turning them both into social media political creatures albeit in different ways.

Trump is a former Democrat who turned Republican, and appeals to the conservative, evangelical, right- wing base of the party. His politics run counter to the moderates, but has since overwhelmed them by his sheer command of his loyal base, and his ability to demolish his critics even from his own party and make them pay the political price during the party primaries and even in the general elections.

Duterte is a nominal member of PDP-Laban, which supported Benigno Aquino 3rd in 2010. But in a country where political parties are bereft of any ideological anchor, being merely convenient labels that can easily be abandoned and changed, party membership virtually does not mean anything. What makes Duterte popular is INDEPENDENT OF ANY PARTY AFFILIATION.

While Trump is facing a unified AND STRONG DEMOCRATIC PARTY, which controls the US House of Representatives, Duterte rides on THE WINGS OF A UNIFIED GOVERNMENT with a Congress dominated by his allies who enable him as HE GOVERNS US, AND AS HE INFLICTS harm on his enemies.

There is no legislative check to Duterte’s power, even as Trump faced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her democratic colleagues.

It is hard to assert that the similarity between the DDS and the loyal base of support for Trump is carved out of ideological affinity. WHILE MOST OF THE DDS are political conservatives in terms of their being for the death penalty, stronger states and the anti-terrorism law, and are critical of human rights, and are very much anti-communist, it is hard to claim that these are born from a formal cognition of any party ideology. A big part of this is simply an outcome of a cultural predisposition of most Filipinos toward conservative politics, and is not necessarily because they are DDS. This also partly explains why there is a substantial number of Filipinos who are now US CITIZENS WHO FIND A HOME IN THE Republican Party, and many are unabashedly pro-Trump.

However, what is disconcerting is when we consider the reality that many DDS take political positions not because this is what they believe, but simply because this is what Duterte adheres to, or at least that is what they perceive. There are simply many DDS who have truncated their egos, and even their ids, and surrendered these to whatever Duterte supports. This is perhaps why he remains astronomically popular, and that he is liked, or at least what he does is approved and liked, by nine out of 10 Filipinos.

And this is where the discomfort regarding the DDS’ view toward Trump emerges. Many DDS see Trump in the image of Duterte, and approve of Trump regardless of what he does, or even without truly knowing what the issues are surrounding his unpopularity among most Americans

Here is a man who mouths racist statements, debunks science, and tells lies almost every time he opens his mouth. Here is a man who openly enables white supremacists. We have someone who openly admitted to misleading his people about the severity of Covid- 19, and who is more concerned about his own political image and fortunes, than the safety of his own people.

And yet, Filipinos trust him. It says a lot that a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 77 percent of Filipinos trust Trump, which is the highest he got, even much higher than the trust Americans accord their own president.

One can surmise that a big part of this is drawn from the 91 percent of Filipinos who currently trust Duterte. It has to be said. What fuels Trump’s popularity among Filipinos is not because of him, but the perception of his likeness TO AND AFfiNITY WITH DUTERTE.

It is time for us to deeply reflect on this fact.