Daily Archives: May 17, 2022

Last week, voters in the Philippines went to the polls and, by an overwhelming margin, chose the son of the countrys deposed dictator as their next president.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., widely referred to by his nickname, Bongbong, ran on a ticket with Vice President-elect Sara Duterte the daughter of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist most famous for his policy of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers, who pushed the Philippines toward authoritarianism during his six years in office. Neither of these candidates ran away from their parents: on the contrary, they embraced them. And voters in the Philippines rewarded them for it.

Opponents and observers have raised questions about the legitimacy of the election, pointing to a climate of pervasive disinformation, reports of malfunctioning ballot-counting machines, and alleged voter fraud. But on Friday, Leni Robredo, the outgoing vice president and leading rival of Marcos, admitted defeat and urged her supporters to accept the majoritys decision.

That majority seemed to ratify a proudly illiberal governing ethos. During his presidency, the elder Duterte who was prevented by term limits from running again jailed political opponents, cracked down on press freedom, and built an online disinformation machine that buoyed the Marcos-Duterte ticket. And yet, at the same time, close observers of the Philippines say the strongman political style was authentically popular.

President Duterte has the highest approval ratings of any president in modern Philippine history, with his low points in the polls rivaling other presidents highs. That he proudly violated individual rights and attacked the separation of powers was not a turnoff, but a draw. Marcoss overwhelming victory underscored the point.

Duterte is the first president who represented an alternative vision for the direction of the country. Marcos is a continuation of that vision and wants to make that known, says Dean Dulay, a political scientist at Singapore Management University who studies democracy in the Philippines.

Its not that Filipino voters rejected democracy, exactly: survey data still shows strong support for holding competitive elections. Rather, its that they are rejecting liberalism: seeing constraints on power, including fundamental rights against being murdered by ones own government, as impediments to their leaders ability to bring about a better Philippines.

Marcoss victory on these terms is part of a worldwide illiberal turn. The past decade of global politics has shown that the Philippines is not the only country where strongman politics appeal to a large constituency; what its recent election shows is that this political style can be not only popular but durable. The liberal ability to address this reality is proving to be one of the defining political issues of the 21st century.

On many issues, including vital ones like the Philippines relationship to the US and China, its not very clear what a Marcos presidency will be like. His campaign was extremely light on policy, offering little in the way of concrete solutions to ordinary Filipinos problems.

What he did do, however, is link himself to two strongmen: his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and his predecessor, Duterte. The tactic succeeded, thanks in large part to the recent history of democracy in the Philippines and Dutertes ability to create an alternative to it.

In a 2021 article titled The ground for the illiberal turn in the Philippines, University of Chicago sociologist Marco Garrido argues that the experience of democratic politics after the 1986 revolution against Marcos Sr. failed to live up to voters expectations. Filipino politics had long been dominated by a coterie of wealthy and corrupt families; neither elections nor popular protest movements seemed capable of enacting fundamental social reform.

This string of failures has led many Filipinos to turn away from the promise of liberal democracy and reject people power as a means of achieving it, Garrido writes.

In the 2016 election, Duterte offered a clear break, despite being the scion of an influential regional political family.

As mayor of Davao City, a city in the southern Mindanao province roughly the size of Dallas, he pioneered a brutal tough-on-crime policy involving extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals (a policy that earned him the nickname The Punisher). A magnetic public presence with a tendency for outrageous statements he has bragged about extramarital affairs and, on separate occasions, referred to both President Barack Obama and Pope Francis as a son of a whore he sold himself as a plain-spoken alternative to the political status quo. In a tightly contested election with several candidates, he won a plurality of the vote.

In office, Duterte took a wrecking ball to the Philippines liberal-democratic institutions. The centerpiece of his administration was a war on drugs that adapted his Punisher approach nationwide, in which police and vigilante forces slaughter suspected drug dealers and users in the streets killing between 6,000 and 30,000 people.

This willingness to flout the rules extended to other basic liberal democratic rights. Since 2017, the Duterte government has imprisoned senator Leila de Lima an outspoken critic of the government on flimsy drug charges. In 2018, he hounded the chief justice of the Supreme Court and ultimately forced her out of office. In 2020, his government imprisoned leading journalist (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Maria Ressa on cyberlibel charges and revoked leading independent TV broadcaster ABS-CBNs broadcasting license.

Garrido terms this form of government a disciplinary state. The experience of democracy has taught many Filipinos, particularly the upper and middle class voters that form Dutertes base, he writes, to see the democratic state as a source of disorder: as corrupt, pliant (vulnerable to depredation by powerful actors), and populist (catering primarily to the lower class). In a disciplinary state, by contrast, a strong leader steps in and imposes order by strictly enforcing valued rules ... their willingness to overreach traditional bounds is a large part of their appeal.

In his research, Garrido found that Filipinos held these views alongside support for formal democratic institutions like elections. Instead of moving to outright dictatorship, they wanted to discipline democracy by circumscribing its scope with respect to certain freedoms, particularly due process and the right to vote.

Garrido sees this attitude at work in Filipino attitudes on Dutertes drug war. Though many Filipinos expressed some worry about the consequences of the policy, his data show that the policy remained consistently popular throughout Dutertes time in office reflecting the idea that its okay to break some rules and take some dangerous actions in pursuit of establishing order.

Dutertes approval ratings tell a similar story. He has been consistently popular, outstripping every other president since the fall of Marcos Sr. In October 2020, Dutertes approval rating reached a staggering 92 percent in one survey the highest recorded at the time for any leader on the planet.

An important explanation for these numbers, according to Garrido, is both simple and dark: illiberalism has proven to be popular.

The data suggest that Filipinos are willing to put up with extrajudicial killings, political repression, and the gutting of liberal institutions because they see Duterte as a strong leader. They question his methods but not their effectiveness, he writes. While there remains significant opposition to Dutertes strongman tactics, it would seem that in general Filipinos are developing a taste for illiberal rule.

Marcos Jr. doesnt have Dutertes personal charisma. What he does have is a strong support base in the countrys north due to his familys patronage network and an ability to link himself to both the past six years of governance in the Philippines and an earlier period of strongman rule.

Though his fathers dictatorship was famously brutal and corrupt, the Marcos campaign projected a vision of the ancien regime as a golden era: a time of domestic peace, low crime, and shared prosperity. By running with Sara Duterte, he was able to sell himself both as a continuation of the Duterte model and an avatar of make the Philippines great again-style nostalgia politics.

Social media disinformation about the actual history of the Marcos regime did play a significant role in spreading this message, though perhaps not in the way one would think. Dulay, the Singapore-based researcher, examined the data on Filipino views of the Marcos era and found that surprisingly few voters literally believed the lies Marcos Jr. and his boosters on YouTube and TikTok were selling. Instead, Dulay argues, the propaganda tapped into a general feeling that the Philippines had gone astray in the democratic era and that the Marcos-Duterte model represented something different and better.

What [the videos] actually evoke is a kind of emotional response this is how it used to be, look at our country now, he says. Its not purely about information itself, but the way that its conveyed: so much of it is the music, the feel of the video.

It is this gut feeling that the system wasnt working that Duterte picked up back in 2016 and that Marcos rode to victory in 2022.

The story of the Duterte-Marcos ascendancy is not a unique one: In broad strokes, backlash against a political system seen as corrupt and out of touch has empowered right-wing populists all over the world.

In 2010, Viktor Orbn won an overwhelming victory in Hungary against an incumbent socialist government mired in scandal. In 2014, Indias Narendra Modi defeated Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty that dominated Indian politics since independence. In 2016, Hillary Clintons unpopularity played a significant role in Donald Trumps shock victory. And in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidency amid a massive corruption investigation that implicated large swaths of the Brazilian elite.

These successful demagogues differ in many ways. But they all possess an ability to tap into public discontent with the status quo.

Their campaign messages varied by local circumstance, but all put forward a vision of re-establishing public order and social hierarchy. They alleged that the liberal elite was too soft on some subversive element of society be it criminals, immigrants, Muslims, or the LGBTQ community that was rotting society from within, and they promised to come in and clean house.

One temptation, common among American liberals in particular, is to dismiss this messages popularity as some kind of trick played on voters: the result of disinformation or a lack of political knowledge. But this is too simple a reading. Yes, lies and voter misperceptions have figured into the ascent of right-wing demagogues but there is also a genuine constituency for their illiberal message.

A useful close look at this dynamic comes out of Israel, also home to a resurgent illiberal right. In 2016, the Israeli sociologist Nissim Mizrachi published a study on the failure of his countrys left-wing parties to gain support among the socially marginalized Mizrahi Jewish community (Jews of Middle Eastern descent). His interviews, both with left-wing activists and Mizrahi voters, convinced him that there is a gulf in fundamental moral vocabulary: The Israeli left has proven incapable of understanding that the Mizrahi voters do not share their philosophically liberal premises.

Mizrahim, despite their inferior social and economic position relative to the Ashkenazim (European Jews), were not swayed by appeals to inclusive social policy or an expanded welfare state. Instead, Mizrachi finds, they express a vision that places obligations to the particularity of the Jewish people and Israeli citizens first. They disliked the lefts sweeping and thus threatening disruption of the boundaries of the Jewish collectivity in favor of universalistic solidarity.

The lefts conceptual toolbox, including its deep and correct belief that Palestinians are owed political rights by dint of their humanity, left it poorly equipped to understand what these voters believed. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who evolved into a more Trump-like illiberal demagogue during his historically long time in office, exploited this moral gulf to hold power: positioning himself as a champion of this alternative moral vision against the once-dominant left-liberal establishment.

Mizrachis diagnosis of the Israeli situation is worth taking seriously as a global matter. It is increasingly clear that there are large swaths of voters across democratic polities for whom liberal values are not fundamental, who see liberalisms champions in the political elite as out of touch or worse.

The challenge for liberals today is to hold two ideas in their heads at once: that far-right leaders are not only illiberal but a threat to democracy, and that there is a significant democratic constituency that finds their illiberalism not only tolerable but actively appealing. This is the lesson of the 2022 Philippine election and of other recent elections one that liberals ignore at their peril.

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The Philippine election is the latest example of illiberalisms popularity - Vox.com

In Brazil, 18 May marks the Anti-Asylum Fight Day. For decades, this movement of mental-health workers and human-rights defenders has tried to make society aware of the serious violations carried out in mental asylums. A lot has changed since their first manifestos were released in the 1980's, especially after the approval of the Psychiatric Reform in 2001, which led to the creation of a Psychosocial Care Network that became an international reference forhumanised mental-health care.

Since the mid 2010's, however, the financial resources allocated to these facilities have shrunk, flowing instead towards psychiatric hospitals or therapeutic communities - institutions, usually linked to religious organisations, that offer treatments to people with a problematic dependence of alcohol or other drugs and that focus on separating them from their homes and families, sending them to remote places far from cities. The report "Public funding of Brazilian therapeutic communities between 2017 and 2020" from the human rights NGO Conectas shows that approximately $100 million was invested in three years to these controversial institutions.

Furthermore, according to an inspection carried out in 2017, in all 28 therapeutic communities analysed there was some degree of at least one type of human rights violation. Leonardo Pinho, president of Abrasme (Brazilian Association of Mental Health), participated in the release event of Conectas' report and assessed that the therapeutic communities are installed without a clear and transparent project built upon the participation of the civil society. It is not, therefore, a proper public policy, as therapeutic communities rely exclusively on "political lobbying," he says.

A constant fight against asylums and madhouses - or whatever replacements are created afterwards - also happens in other Latin American countries. In Argentina, for example, the law to combat asylums was signed in 2010, but there have been few advances since then, according to the Observatory of Mental Health and Human Rights of the province of Crdoba: "Some of the slogans ('A 2020 without asylums') that accompanied the sanctioned norms ended up being mere expressions of wishes. The governments responsible for the implementation process, whether due to a lack of commitment or political will, ineptitude or apathy, never made the necessary investments to carry out the enormous challenges posed by the regulations."

Back to Brazil, a manifesto written by a group of psychologists for the celebrations of 18 May, 2022 tells the story of madness, even preceding madhouses as we currently know them. In the 15th century, it reads, the "ships of the mads" would take undesirable people away from society, "not to find a cure, not to dock somewhere" but "with no destination, just to drive them away." Authors then compare these boats to the ones used to transport slaves, which crossed the seas just to take black people from freedom to forced work, in order to affirm that nowadays asylum and policies for the war on drugs are designed to enforce racism.

"The selectivity with which black and white people who use drugs are treated is wide open," the text assesses. "Only by understanding the complexity of structural racism and the wounds of the asylum and the war on drugs will we, in fact, advance in the care of those people excluded in the name of mental suffering."

Image by Hans Eiskonen

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The anti-asylum movement fights for just mental healthcare - Fairplanet

Thirty-six years after the people of the Philippines swept the Marcos family from power in a peaceful popular uprising, they have returned it to the presidency via the ballot box. Last weeks electoral landslide for Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator, was a shocking and frightening moment for those who survived the violence of his fathers regime and witnessed the plunder of as much as $10bn from the country. The incoming president claimed more than double the votes of his closest opponent, Leni Robredo, a human rights lawyer and the incumbent vice-president.

Disinformation (extensive, heavily organised and lucrative for those behind it) has played a crucial role. Across social media, the true history of Ferdinand Marcos Srs rule of torture, executions, debt and economic crisis has been erased by the lie of a golden age of stability and prosperity. At the same time, its members were celebritised, with TikTok videos presenting them as an aspirational, influencer-style figures while Mr Marcos Jr sidestepped major debates and tough interviews. Simultaneously came relentless and often misogynistic attacks on Ms Robredo.

It is not just that the population is highly technologically literate but often less media literate. There are deeper issues. The People Power revolution of 1986 was unfinished. The political elites remained in place; influential families hold up to 90% of elected positions. Most of the money amassed by Mr Marcos Sr was never recovered, and schools failed to teach the new generations the full story of his rule. The political advance was not matched by social and economic progress; the political dynasties and big conglomerates have ensured that the Philippines remains one of the most unequal societies in Asia.

The outgoing president, Rodrigo Duterte, has also contributed. His brutal and erratic authoritarianism notably a war on drugs which has killed thousands, including children proved popular. He has strengthened the police and army, creating a culture of impunity, while undermining democratic institutions including independent media. He allowed the late dictator to be buried in a cemetery for war heroes, helping to rehabilitate his image. Critically, his daughter Sara Duterte decided not to stand for president, running (successfully) as Mr Marcos Jrs vice-president.

The Philippines must contend with the aftermath of the pandemic: almost a quarter of the nation now live below the poverty line. The country is balancing uneasily between the US and China, with repercussions for the wider region. Mr Marcos Jr has nothing to offer, though some insist that he will not be as ruthless as his father. He has already painted himself as a victim of the press.

Other countries should also take heed. As one leading expert on disinformation notes, this success reflects problems seen in many advanced democracies, not just in the global south; Facebooks public policy director for global elections previously described the Philippines as patient zero. Reiterating the truth is not enough. Reaching out to excluded communities and crafting compelling narratives is essential. Ms Robredos campaign created real passion at the grassroots, but the efforts came too late. The Marcos familys return to the top is a triumph of determination and has been a long time in the making. In that respect alone, their opponents and progressives elsewhere could learn something from them.

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The Guardian view on the Marcos familys return: bad news for the Philippines - The Guardian

Four candidates are running in today's Democratic primary for Senate in Pennsylvania, and the race has gotten some coverage for its nontraditional front-runner.

Rep. Conor Lamb, who represents the state's 17th congressional district, was considered the favorite early on but has struggled against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a brash, 6'8 former mayor who came to prominence in 2020 for picking fights with his Republican counterparts in states that claimed the presidential election had been stolen from President Donald Trump.

Going into today's primary, Fetterman holds a comfortable lead, even after suffering a stroke over the weekend. But on one issue, Fetterman stands out from the average Democratic front-runner: legalizing marijuana.

As Politico reported today, Fetterman supports legalization; he even sells campaign T-shirts with marijuana leaves. In fact, the top three Democrats in the primary support legalization to some extent, though Lamb previously voted against a federal cannabis bill in 2020, saying last month that he thought any effort toward legalization "needs to be done slowly and very carefully."

Indeed, while Democratic lawmakers have hemmed and hawed over legalization since taking power last year, many Democratic candidates are using the issue to stand out from the pack. So far this year, two candidates for U.S. SenateThomas McDermott Jr.from Indiana, and Gary Chambers Jr.from Louisianahave smoked pot in campaign ads. And in the Democratic primary for governor in Florida, the top two candidates spent the early days of the campaign arguing over who supported legalization more.

As Politico notes, this is a shrewd campaign strategy: Marijuana initiatives tend to drive turnout among younger voters, who are typically the hardest to get to show up. But this is more than just a youth issue: More than two-thirds of Americans support legalization, a record high. Even while acknowledging that the war on drugs has been a failure, President Barack Obama literally laughed at the idea of legalization and pursued prosecution of offenders as zealously as any of his predecessors during his time in office.

Even if Fetterman wins his party's nomination, he still faces a tough fight in November, as Republicans are favored to do well across the board. But the trend of Democrats (and some Republicans) who not only support legalization but openly advocate for it, is a welcome change and a sign that the issue might be moving in the right direction.

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Democrats Pivot to Pot for Votes. Will It Work? - Reason

Graphic by Owensboro Times

As mothers, it is of great concern for the immediate and future safety of our children. With the instability of our country and our county, we are putting our full trust into Bradley Youngman to protect OUR children, ALL children, and fight the war on drugs.

Our county cannot continue its current path. We need leadership with a vision and the skills of successful implementation. Brad has the plans and experience to protect us, our streets, our schools and his campaign has been run with that of full transparency.

Youngmans career started at an early age. Outside his high ranking military accolades, he started his law enforcement career while still in college at USI. He has continued to serve in numerous state and federal law enforcement agencies, offices and task forces as well as being involved in our community philanthropic events.

More than anything, Brad is a servant leader. He leads by example not just from the sidelines.

We ask you join us in supporting Brad at the polls on May 17. Vote for change. Vote for leadership. Vote for Brad Youngman.

Written byBeth Kelley and Lauren Lee

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Letter to the Editor: Youngman would be servant leader as Sheriff - The Owensboro Times

Acreage Holdings, Inc. ACRHF ACRDF ACRG ACRG will launch a social equity partnership with Kebra Smith-Bolden. Once approved by the states Social Equity Council, Acreage will support Smith-Boldens retail and cultivation operations in the Greater New Haven metropolitan area.

Smith-Bolden is the founder of CannaHealth, a medical cannabis certification provider.

Since 2017, CannaHealth has served thousands of patients across the state with a focus on providing safe and legal access to communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. Smith-Bolden is also a prominent industry advocate who has served in various leadership roles at Women Grow, the Connecticut Coalition to Regulate Marijuana, Connecticut NORML, the Minority Cannabis Business Association and the National Cannabis Industry Association. Smith-Bolden is currently a member of the New Haven County Juvenile Review Board and aims to create sustainable professional opportunities in the regulated cannabis space for communities of color as a social equity licensee.

In February 2022, Connecticut began accepting social equity cultivator licenses located in disproportionately impacted areas, defined as regions with a historical conviction rate for drug-related offenses greater than one-tenth or an unemployment rate greater than ten percent based on census data. The state has committed to allocating half of all adult-use business licenses to social equity applicants. Acreage plans to apply for a joint venture retail license once Connecticuts Social Equity Council opens the application process.

Kebras community-based business model seamlessly aligns with Acreages values, and we are thrilled to partner with such a prominent and successful industry advocate, stated Peter Caldini, CEO of Acreage. As Acreage expands its operations in the Northeast, our team will continue to pursue meaningful opportunities to support entrepreneurs and areas affected by cannabis prohibition.

Photo: Courtesy of Jeff W on Unsplash

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Acreage To Launch Social Equity Partnership In Connecticut With Kebra Smith-Bolden - Benzinga