By: Anj Cab
Each election season reveals not only the character of the candidates, but the values of every voter as well. Regardless of one’s race or religion, what can truly make America great again is the premium that every individual places on the fundamentals, to the way things were before. The roots, so they say, determine the fruits.
Going back to basics. The United States used to be the sender of missionaries to nations which did not know God, including the Philippines in the early 1900s. God, who, as any deity-believing religion knows, catapulted the U.S. to being a superpower. The Creator of the Universe is the same Being that bestowed all human talents and natural resources that the America now utilizes for its enjoyment and richness. Preaching aside, only an atheist could deny this fact. But a majority of the population believes in a Supreme Power that began everything. Isn’t it that the national motto is still “In God we trust?”
From this belief springs forth the rest of the genuine American values that were passed on by the forefathers. The commonality between Filipinos and Americans is the belief in the sanctity of marriage and family. Traditional American families have become the ideals of other families around the world. Father and mother roles, especially in raising children, have become the epitome of a model family as shown in American classic films and books.
One would argue that it is from the obsolete past, wherein now a family can be seen with two females or two males doing mother and father roles. Whom to love and marry is the heart of the issue. Since the beginning of time, a man and a woman have been mandated by God to subdue every creature and procreate. Even science cannot make a biological man get pregnant and deliver a child! So much so, American values also advocate pro-life principles. Abortion might be able to save you from your cares and burdens only temporarily. One who has gone abortion has a whole life to spend facing each day in guilt and shame.
Moving outward from the confines of a typical American home with American family values, the society is a combination of all these sorts of moral compasses stemming from familial cultures. It is with this belief of protecting the family and its members that Americans are allowed by law to carry registered guns. Anti-gun advocates argue that this causes the chaos in regard to recent incidents and home-grown terror acts. But again, one has to go back to the fact that the lack of a quality relationship at home contributes to the uncontrollable hatred for what is sacred — life that is. It is this lack of God that pushes the inner demon in every gun carrier. Again, this leads us to go back to the basic American family values. There were no mass shooting incidents in the past even though the men used guns for hunting or even just for safekeeping for future protection.
It is common knowledge that clan by clan, America is a melting pot. Sojourners from all over the world, including the very first Filipinos and other Asian migrants, arrived and stayed all the way down to their second and third generations. There were no rigid laws back in ancient history when one would look at an immigrant and say that he or she should leave the U.S. judging merely by skin color. Suffice it to say, it is because of this openness that the United States has become what it is now in terms of manpower.
However, order and security dictate that it is time to follow the law and protect what is left for the legal citizens and migrants. This ensures that the future generations of real Americans (those who followed the rightful immigration process) will have access to jobs, health care, education, and basic government services. To be fair and just; equity versus equality — that is what is right for all who follow the law.
This equity-equality difference can bring us to the issue on capitalism and socialism; then lower taxes versus higher taxes. All these differences manifest the two extremes in the U.S. political debate. The list is long. Emotions are high. But the more sensible choice is up to you as a thinking Asian voter.
Are you for the Democratic Party that knowingly or unknowingly eradicates the original American identity in order to embrace a more generalized global view for the benefit of a few? Or are you for the Republican Party that keeps the genuineness of America, protects its core values in order to become great and bless the future generation? Just go back to basics and you can never go wrong.
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The writer is a former public diplomacy foreign service national senior staff of the U.S. mission in the Philippines and is now a media relations consultant based in Malaysia. She also has experience as a marketing practitioner for radio and TV networks in Manila before immersing in global political affairs.
