By Alex P. Vidal
“Political debate is of no interest to me. What I want are practical solutions.”—Carole Bouquet
WITH more than a week to go before the U.S. Presidential Election on November 3, I missed the regular “fireworks” in my Elmhurst neighborhood for five straight days over the week; but when I came back on Saturday night (October 17), I got lucky to have a ringside eye-witness account of the ongoing heated verbiage among passionate senior members of the Pinoy community in this diverse section of the borough of Queens with a population of two million and three hundred inhabitants in New York City.
The area where the pro-Donald Trump and pro-Joseph Biden joust among the politically inclined Filipinos has been taking place for five weeks now, is in the intersection of the Elmhurst and Broadway Avenues, a 10-minute walk from where I live.
I’ve been a regular “attendee” and “eye witness” at the same time.
“I’m so pissed off with my friends in Astoria. Akalain mo may isa doon nilapitan ako may importante daw siyang sasabihin. Yun pala e coconvince lang ako na ‘mag democratic tayo ha.’ Sabi ko ano akala mo sa akin batang mosmos na puede’ng ma uto? Bakit wala ba kong sariling pag iisip?” boom Marcelino, 66, a confessed fanatic of President Trump, who “jumped ship” as a seaman in 1998.
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“May katwiran naman ang kaibigan mo. Based sa trend ngayon matatalo na talaga si Trump. Halos lahat ng mga swing states bumaligtad na for Biden,” gushed Josito, 68, who became a U.S. citizen during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. “As of this morning naka 15 points na ang lamang ni Biden. Mahirap na ma reverse yan.”
“Yun ang paniniwala nila,” Marcelino snapped back. “Ang mga media lang ang nagsasabi niyan. Mga liberal-controlled and corrupt media. Lalo na ang NBC, MSNBC at CNN mga fake news.”
Marcelino said he believed the Republican votes will “overwhelm” the polling centers during election day on November 3.
“History will repeat itself. What happened in 2016 (when Mr. Trump defeated Mrs. Hillary Clinton) will happen again this year,” Marcelino predicted. “Napaka tanga mo naman kung boboto ka pa kay Biden. Hindi ka na naawa sa Amerika. Parang wala ka nang utang na loob sa Amerika,” barked Marcelino, while looking at Augusto, 72, a retired clerk at Middlesex county’s Camden city in New Jersey.
Visibly irked, Augusto, holding a cane, ribbed Marcelino in a hoarse voice: “Hindi na maganda ang panlalait mo ha. Ilang bisis na yan. Ayusin mo ang pananalita mo.”
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Augusto had voted in the past for Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mrs. Clinton.
He considers Michael Dukakis, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Republican’s George H.W. Bush, to be “one of the most brilliant presidents the United States never had.”
At this juncture, the more calm and moderate Alberto, 63, intervened. “Let’s respect na lang the political choices of one another.”
Alberto, married to his second wife Lolit from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental in the Philippines, said he, too, had an “intense” disagreement with his first wife, a nurse who abandoned him, about politics but he never took it personally.
“Kung papatulan ko ang Marcelino na ‘yan baka mag away pa kami. Dada siya ng dada puro pabor kay Trump eh hindi ba niya naisip na halos lahat ng mga tao sa paligid nia puro Democrats?” Alberto intoned.
Chito, 46, a hospital worker from Leyte and one of the four Republican sympathizers in the crowd, sustained Marcelino: “Kung ako ang tatanungin, si Trump talaga ang dapat manalo. Okay sabi nila racist si Trump. Doon na tayo, but ang titingnan natin dito ay kung sino ang may mas magaling na plata porma; sino ang may mas mahusay na programs. Kung kay Biden tayo babagsak ang economiya ng Amerika. China will laugh at us. As an economist, Trump is good for Amerika.”
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“Tama si Chito,” quipped Mang Pepeng, 82, a former gunrunner from Nueva Ecija in the 70s. “Ang sa akin lang tumaas ang Dow Jones ng umupo si Trump. We need Trump to rescue our economy. Eh p_tang ina’ng mga Democrats na ‘yan pati ang BLM (Black Lives Matter) ginawa pa nilang mga heroes.”
Rainer, 70, a diabetic patient who moves around in a walker, enthused: “The issue is not only about racism and who has the better economic programs for America. We must also look at the issue on health care. Tingnan ninyo ang proposal ni Biden to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Biden wants to increase marketplace subsidies, adopt auto-enrollment, and offer a new public option available to those in the individual market or with employer coverage.”
Rainer, who also once tangled with Marcelino when he refused to junk Mr. Biden for Mr. Trump, explained that Biden’s plan “would also reduce the Medicare age from 65 to 60, establish a new long-term care tax credit, and increase funding for rural health and mental health services.”
Biden has promised to enact reforms to reduce prescription drug prices, lower other health care costs, and raise taxes on capital gains and ordinary income for high earner and heirs to the to finance the cost of his plan, Rainer explained before he became the first person in the group to leave.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)
