WE'VE never had fair and free elections with a system that is rigged to favor the already rich and powerful. A competent, responsible but penniless patriot has zero chance of getting elected to office in this country.
Lacking a genuine party system, we’ve never voted for a social philosophy and corresponding governance style and program. We’ve always voted for the whims and caprices of self-glorifying individuals who evince nothing remotely resembling moral sense.
Our election system has never given us, because it can’t, a President of the majority. Winners have all been by a plurality of votes. Thus we’ve never had one we could rally around. We had one we ousted bloodlessly yet ever so unanimously.
We’ve been riding for a fall on our flawed election system and are now on the brink, from the look of things, of electing by a mere plurality of votes the son of a plundering and murdering dictator. The only way to stop this (a plurality win by the son) from happening would have been for all to unite around just one opposition candidate.
All the notable presidential bets are against Martial Law. They are even against another authoritarian administration like Duterte’s. Yet they are not willing to unite and prevent BBM from winning the Presidency by a mere plurality of votes.
We have, therefore, to presume they are not aspiring for the presidency to pursue the social goal (of the greater good to the bigger number) but their personal ambitions of wealth and power. If they know, if they care for, what is good for the country they would unite and not run the risk of the shame and disgrace of bringing back to power the son of a dictator we so bravely ousted in a non-violent show of people power.
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Albert Speer Jr.
Albert Speer was Nazi Germany’s Minister of Armament and War Production. He somehow escaped the death penalty at the Nuremberg trials and got away with a 20-year prison sentence.
His son, Albert Speer Jr (1934), is credited with saying, “I tried my whole life to separate myself from what my father did.” He is appreciated as one of the few children of Nazi leaders who recognize the wrongs of their parents. He said he did not hate his father but deemed it unthinkable to pursue a career in politics with his family’s tainted history.
Unfortunately, BBM does not have Speer Jr.’s social responsibility. More unfortunately our zombie-like leaders failed not only to bring the dictator to justice but also to educate the youth on the evils of Martial Law. And today, by failing to unite they are giving BBM the chance of a lifetime to win the presidency by mere plurality.
A crying shame and a disgrace, but it is what it is.