“The words of a president matter, no matter how good or bad that president is. At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite.” 

Since losing re-election by a landslide, Donald Trump grifted over a quarter of a billion dollars from his supporters, who didn’t read the fine print that their contributions go to pay his debts first, then the Republican National Committee, with only a fraction going to his legal fees.

Trump blessed Fil-Ams with a last gift before 2020 ended, extending his earlier orders banning parents, siblings, and adult sons and daughters of US citizens, spouses, and children of green card holders; and H, L, and J work visas that cover everything from IT professionals, business investors, and executives, foreign medical school graduates, and healthcare workers. The ban was extended from December 31 to March 31, unless revoked by Biden.

January 6, 2021 started off cooler than a polar bear’s toenails when both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their elections, flipping Georgia’s two Senate seats blue. More importantly, this gives Democrats control of the Senate. When each party has 50 Senators, the Vice President breaks ties in her other role as the President of the Senate. This broadens the range of possible judges, Cabinet positions, and ambassadors, and gives the Biden administration a better chance of pursuing policies like raising the minimum wage, making health care more affordable, or fixing the broken immigration system. This increases the possibility of proposals that would help Fil-Ams, like increasing the country cap for family-based immigrant visas, or following France’s lead in expediting citizenship (or at least work visas) for healthcare workers on the COVID-19 frontlines.

Stop the steal

Two weeks before we get a new Joe in town, MAGA world still hasn’t accepted that the election’s done. Even Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged that we have been two tribes living in two realities with two sets of facts, after senators who were graduates of Yale and Harvard law schools baselessly challenged Arizona’s electoral college votes. A few minutes after he said that, domestic terrorists draped in the latest MAGA 2020 collection stormed the Capitol, breaching it for the first time since 1814. In a reversal of 1898, there were Fil-Ams among the invaders, as confirmed by our ambassador to the US.

Unlike the disciplined British redcoats of two centuries ago, the red hats were unruly and yet untouched by the police, who even opened the gates and took selfies with them. Unmasked, they marched en masse through off-limits areas of federal buildings, broke windows, broke into Congressional offices, and got onto the Senate floor itself. It took about 3 hours for enough law enforcement to come and clear the area. They mostly stood around watching and waiting for orders, and the mob felt betrayed when the cops actually acted, because they felt like they were on the cops’ side, waving Thin Blue Line flags as they cosplayed in khaki and camouflage.

In that time, Trump supporters gleefully took selfies inside what should be one of the most secure areas in the world – the site of America’s government. They stuck partisan stickers on Senators’ desks, rifled through and photographed secure documents, carried off Congressional lecterns like war booty, and mainly showed off a very entitled attitude. Governments are funded by taxpayers, but these guys acted like they personally paid for the historic furniture that they smashed and the windows and norms they shattered. Despite their actions, their signs and their words continued the rhetoric about being better than radical leftist looters.

What’s the difference?

Scrapping a prepared speech about the economy, Joe Biden weighed in from his home state of Delaware, calling on Trump to calm the situation, knowing that he was probably the only person that could calm the Trumpers down. As Joe said, “The words of a president matter, no matter how good or bad that president is. At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite.” 

Eschewing his typical freestyle, Trump pre-recorded a strange message where he told his supporters to remember this day forever, but continued lying about the election even as he told them to go home. He told them that he loved them and knew how they felt, despite never ever having shown empathy in his life. A president that campaigned on law and order incited his followers to riot, and conspicuously abdicated his duty as commander in chief. Vice President Mike Pence took the lead in coordinating with local and federal law enforcement to defuse the situation, albeit much less aggressively than if the crowd were majority minority.

It’s easy to sensationalize and criticize images of Trump supporters being destructive toward federal buildings and property. It’s instructive that the consensus is that this would never have been allowed to happen if their skin was browner. But what’s really the difference between what was happening inside or outside Congress? Even after the riots, a majority of the Republicans in the House voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, along with 6 Republican senators, none of whom were actually from there. If anything, the vandalism in Congress by Congress is worse, and could have deeper ramifications. Buildings can be built, property can be replaced, but democracy is fragile, and faith in the American government has been shaken, possibly irrevocably.

The whole world loves it

Meanwhile, the world watched gleefully as the Capitol descended into chaos. China swept up the remains of Hong Kong’s democracy, Kim Jong Un admitted the failure of his economic policies, and divorce lawyers everywhere calculated the fees for Kim and Kanye’s impending divorce. Everything else that happened in the world got pushed off the headlines. Considering Americans’ tendency to act superior, the world enjoyed a taste of schadenfreude at America’s expense. All jokes aside, this won’t help the new administration re-establish America’s standing in the world.

Hopefully this debacle results in a better Republican party. Instead of dismissing hate, prejudice, and extremists armed to the teeth, they should get back to the ideas they historically espoused. It’s not bad to prefer less government interference, federalism, or fiscal conservatism. It’s just tough to believe in them when Republicans are cool with blowing up the deficit by trillions to spend on things they care about when they hold the White House and frugal when they don’t, or when states want the ability to discriminate because of Christian nationalist principles but at the same time also want to steal the election for Trump, or at least look like they’re doing so to continue to play to the base.

In the end, Congress came together to certify the 2020 election results as mandated by the framers of the Constitution, but who knows what will happen on January 20th at Biden’s inauguration. Rumors are swirling about Trump’s pilots having filed flight plans to Scotland that day, and several states are planning to send their National Guard to help. Trump released a statement committing to an orderly transition of power, but maintained his lies. While Facebook and Twitter finally suspended his accounts, he still has millions of supporters, including hundreds of thousands of Fil-Ams.

Stay tuned, and stay safe as we prepare for the next episode. – Rappler.com

Jath Shao became a lawyer to help people. He specializes in family-based immigration – the bedrock rice of the Filipino-American community.