Blunami

The rest of humanity breathes a little easier. American voters recovered their senses and trounced Donald Trump’s party in this week’s midterm elections.

As a rule, American voters turn against the party in power during midterm elections. The surveys were indicating a “blue wave” weeks before actual voting.

But the surveys underestimated the depth and range of public anger against Trump’s erratic leadership. Instead of a “blue wave,” voters delivered a “blue tsunami.” A “blunami.”

Both chambers of the US Congress fell under decisive Democratic control. More states are now led by Democratic governors. The winners reflected the real diversity of contemporary American society: Muslims, native Americans, Latinos, Asians, Blacks and women have been elevated to leadership roles.

Something more than a shift in congressional control has happened. Something more than a repudiation of Donald Trump has happened. American politics is going through a sea change.

The Trump episode was not epochal. Animated ultimately by white supremacist and oligarchic worldviews, it was an aberration. It was a last futile stand against the irreversible drift of demography and economic change. It was a last doomed effort by isolationists to disengage the US from the rest of the world. This was the last gasp of an vision of apartheid for America: a nation where white men ruled and colored people were downtrodden.

Donald Trump, with all his distastefulness, was merely the useful icon to rally those residual forces resisting modernity. He was the clown-faced masthead decorating a doomed expedition against the tide of history.

Trump fused contempt, cruelty and comedy into a single persona. He tried very hard to build a personality cult to disguise the basic fascism underpinning his demagoguery.

But reality can only be denied to an extent. The dysfunctional politics that produced the Trump presidency would eventually implode in a storm of unwise policies and deluded decisions. We have reached that point.

This week, oil prices fell dramatically as the world expected an end to the lunacy of unwanted wars in the Middle East. Next week, Filipino motorists will be collecting their dividends from the “blunami” when they fuel up.

American politics is quickly moving away from the madness that made Trump president – twice. American voters have rediscovered the value of sane political discourse. They will abide by that. The Trump years has been a nightmare.

A new generation of leaders will enter American politics. It is a new generation better grounded in the realities of this age and attuned to a saner future.

Insertions

The Palace mouthpiece complained about all the criticism the proposed 2027 national budget was getting. No crime has been committed yet, she basically tells us. Budget insertions do not automatically translate into anomalies.

But, of course. The budget has not been passed yet. Nothing in it has been spent. The real peril is, in fact, that the comprehensive work required to recast the budget document could force a budget reenactment. This will be tragic for everyone.

It might have been more worthwhile for the Palace spokesperson to caution against hasty generalization about the proposed budget. It has been too easy so far to characterize the budget document as recklessly prepared.

This week, for instance, DA assistant secretary Nichols Manalo pointed out that of the 1,669 farm road projects reviewed by his agency, only eight had incorrect coordinates. The volunteer groups reviewing the budget document had gone to town claiming that road projects proposed for funding have coordinates that put them offshore – or even at the Benham Rise.

Legislators, for their part, have pleaded with the volunteer budget watchdogs to refrain from making unwarranted statements that demonize the whole budget process. One such statement they underscored claims that the politicians are undermining the country’s health program to force the poor to seek patronage-driven medical subsidies.

An alliance of civil society volunteer groups called the People’s Budget Alliance (PBC) has been independently reviewing the budget documents. The group flagged nearly 7,000 projects claimed to have been inserted by the congressmen worth P190 billion.

The legislators caution that the proposed appropriations act is such a voluminous document that it is not easy to identify alleged congressional insertions – much less identify their specific proponents. Even with the aid of artificial intelligence, errors could be made. Those errors, in turn, could create needless controversies. It would be reckless, for instance, to condemn proposed expenditure items as “ghost projects” without enough evidence.

Surely, the volunteer groups need to be more cautious about making generalizations about items of expenditure. But at the same time, the public expects civil society oversight of the proposed budget to be unrelenting and thorough. 

The massive flood control scandal was a disaster for our economy and a traumatic event for our people. We were robbed blind by corrupt politicians conniving with criminal bureaucrats. It is an experience we are not ready to live down.

Whatever has to be done about the House version now under consideration by the Senate must be done with incredible haste. Time is running out before we are forced to accept a reenacted budget. That reenacted budget is as mangled.

An angry public will seize upon every flaw documented and take it as evidence of ill intent on the part of legislators. This cannot be helped. Public trust in those who govern us is at a historic low.