High Crimes and Misdemeanors

What Philippines President Duterte teaches us about Trump's popularity.

Answer: People will ignore high crimes if the leader brings law and order in the name of patriotism. 

The ends justify the means.

CLICK: Asia Times. "Why Philipinos love Duterte"

The mainstream media treats Trump's support of Rodrigo Duterte as a matter of dishonor. Why Trump is supporting an authoritarian strong man! How could he?

The Philippine president is a nationalist authoritarian who flout the rule of law in order to bring law and order, in visible, shocking ways. He brags about killing people, 87 so far. This is newsworthy and memorable.

Duterte openly encourages extra-judicial murders of people suspected of being involved with drugs. He directed his police force to err on the side of killing too many people rather than too few. He did mass deputization of the public telling them to feel free to kill suspected drug dealers.  He told people to tape a sign onto the heads of people they killed, saying it is the body of a drug dealer and to leave the body on the streets. The police will know not to investigate, he said.

This was political theate. It got noticed.

Meanwhile, he established laws against vagrancy and public drunkenness. He established marshal law in an area that had Muslim militancy. 

Patriotic hero

And he demanded and got a return of the Balangiga Church Bells, which had been taken as a war trophy by US forces 120 years ago in the Spanish-American War. They were stored in warehouse at an Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The removal was a matter of national shame for the Philippines. The return was a matter of national pride. Bring back our bells!

Duterte stood up for the Philippines and delivered.  

Duterte is popular. 

Asia Times reports a December, 2018 poll showing him to have 78% overall satisfied approval, and a strong base of 54% who are "very satisfied." He is popular with the poor and middle class. He is especially popular with university graduates.

President for life. Duterte in angling the national Senate, the last vestige of opposition to him within the Philippines, to end term limits, so he can succeed himself.

There is a lesson here regarding Trump's popularity, and the frustration of Democrats, the media, academics, and the vast body of people dismayed at Trump's disregard for norms of Constitutional behavior. 

   ***Why are GOP legislators letting Trump flout the power of the Congressional purse?

   ***Why are GOP officeholders silent when Trump casually shows disrespect against people arrested, against dissenters at his rallies, against the media, against Congressional opponents? 

   ***Why is the GOP Senate allowing Trump to appoint and they confirm people whose primary--sometimes apparent sole--qualification is personal loyalty to Trump rather than to the institution and office they are to lead? 

The Philippines suggest an answer: people don't care about means, or process. They want results and they respond to big public gestures. Duterte demonstrates he will stop at nothing to get a result: law and order against drug crimes. 

High crimes--crimes against the state and against norms and process--are abstract. They affect people at the capital. Drug crimes are local. 

Democratic candidates for president considering impeachment speak solubly about the "rule of law" and point to Trump's obstruction of justice in interfering with the probe of foreign involvement in the 2016 election. There is talk of the emoluments clause. They say he is abusing Congressional oversight powers. These are high crimes, abstract and formal.

People don't care very much.

Trump speaks of "rule of law" when he says people have crossed the border illegally, that some come here and commit new crimes including rape and murder, that they steal jobs from native born people. He starts his rallies with heartbreaking speeches by mothers whose children have been murdered by Mexican nationals, here illegally. Trump is not dismissing rule of law. He says he is defending it. He is just choosing different laws.

He points to the crimes that affect people in their homes and jobs, and he dismisses Democrats as hypocrites since they appear to show less concern about the illegal entry than does he. He cares about murder, rape, drugs, and jobs.

Let the Democrats fuss about about obstruction of justice. They obstruct justice, he says.

Trump and Duterte understand the theater of law and order, combined with patriotism. It does not win every vote, but it is a popular formula. It is working for Duterte and it may work again for Trump. 

If Democrats don't clearly and visibly appear to care about immigration law, it undermines their attempt to cry foul over high crimes.