Let’s get revolutionary

When people hear politicians talk about a “politics of love,” the reaction is usually a big roll of the eyes. Mine included. In a world full of nasty political fights, toxic internet arguments, and multi-million-dollar attack ads, bringing up “love” sounds like a weak, soft idea meant for self-help books – not government policy.

But a real politics of love isn’t about giving out warm hugs or pretending everyone agrees. It is a tough, practical blueprint for running a fair society. To understand why it works, we don’t have to look at modern political spin; we can look at the most famous disruption of power in human history: the radical love of Jesus.

Jesus made a point of sitting at the table with tax collectors, outcasts, lepers, and foreigners – the people society treated as invisible or unwashed. He simply loved the people the system discarded. When corrupt operators turned the Temple, the central religious and social institution, into a place that exploited poor worshippers, Jesus didn’t give a polite speech. He flipped the tables and disrupted corrupt systems.

In a Roman world ruled by military force and crushing dominance, Jesus taught that true greatness comes from serving others, feeding the hungry, and protecting the vulnerable. He redefined power. Jesus demonstrated that radical love doesn’t stay in your heart, it acts in public and steps in between bullies and the people being bullied. The biggest mistake governments make today is confusing charity with actual love and respect.

Just look at what happens every day outside government complex gates, like the Batasang Pambansa in the Philippines. Hundreds of exhausted people stand in long, grueling lines before sunrise, hoping to ask politicians for a “guarantee letter” just to pay for a family member’s hospital bill. When sick people or their worried relatives have to skip sleep, sleep on sidewalks, and gather stacks of papers just to prove they are poor enough to get emergency health assistance, that isn’t public care. It is a test of public endurance. It forces regular citizens to trade their time, energy, and self-respect just to survive, turning healthcare into a personal favor handed down by a politician.

Jesus’ radical love stood squarely against this kind of degraded, favor-currying system. He didn’t make the sick jump through bureaucratic hoops before healing them; He restored their health and their dignity instantly. As civil rights leader Cornel West famously put it: “Justice is what love looks like in public.” True love in public life means fixing the system so families don’t have to line up at political desks in the first place. It means creating universal healthcare where your medical bill is covered automatically because your life has value.

It is excruciating painful to see how partisan politicians love to split us up: turn neighbor against neighbor, push culture wars, and convince you that the person voting differently from you is your enemy. A politics of radical love rejects that trap. It shows us that the real conflict isn’t “left versus right.” It is “top versus bottom” where regular working families are getting squeezed by powerful groups, big corporate monopolies, and systems that ignore them.

When you look at public policy through the lens of radical love, you ask simple questions: Does this rule protect vulnerable people, or does it just help the rich get richer? Does this public office treat people with human dignity, or does it force them to beg for basic survival?

History shows us that this isn’t an impossible fantasy. Movements led by figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who grounded his Civil Rights work in the radical, unconditional love (agape) of Jesus, brought down legal segregation not through hate, but through unwavering moral strength. They proved that taking a stand out of love isn’t soft. It takes immense strength to attack unfair systems without turning into a cruel, hateful person yourself.

For too long, Filipinos have been told to accept political patronage, corrupt backroom deals, and endless bureaucracy as “just the way things are.” We have been trained to settle for politicians who act like lords handing out crumbs of charity, rather than public servants who defend our human dignity. The Philippines does not need another strongman who rules through fear, nor does it need self-serving elites who trade favors while the poor suffer.

This country desperately needs leaders who embody a politics of radical love. We need leaders who have the courage to flip the tables on corrupt patronage, who measure their success not by political dynasties, but by how few mothers have to beg for hospital letters and how many children are fed, educated, and secure. We need leaders who see every Filipino – rich or poor – not as a vote to be bought, but as a neighbor to be loved. That is the kind of leadership that restores self-respect to our people, and that is the only kind of leadership that will truly transform our nation and, as my husband once wrote in his own column, politics is too low and shallow a thing to divide us.

Ultimately, the revolution of love begins at the ballot box. For too long, our voting choices have been driven by fear, tribal loyalty, or short-term personal gain. Mga kababayan, let’s stop repeating the same mistakes – our votes must be motivated by a radical, selfless love for our fellow Filipinos. It is that simple and it is more than enough. We should stop settling for scraps once and for all or else we will be forever owned by those who hold the table.