Column: State of the opposition 2: The fog of normalization

The political opposition needs to battle its way out of something worse than mere frustration or apathy. The second of a three-part opinion series, published in Rappler on August 31, 2022.

There is something final about losing an election. Even though the promise of regular elections consoles many of the defeated, the path to recovery—of pride, or property pawned, or purpose—can be so dark as to loom like a dead end.

Not even the experience of working with a genuine people’s movement can dispel this seeming finality; if anything, it may even sharpen the sense of defeat. Many who supported the Robredo-Pangilinan ticket must have thought the movement-powered campaign had come close to possible victory; it only needed more time. The total number of votes earned, 15 million, was (and is) bracing when seen in the context of the campaign’s start; having organized some of the largest election rallies in Philippine history, and having experienced a real surge in support in the last days of the campaign (an increase of about 5%, equivalent to over 2.5 million votes), allies and volunteers must have felt a deeper sense of disappointment when the total came up short.

That explains the sense of frustration, the depression that sometimes manifests itself as apathy (for instance, through the willful withholding of help from the needy who voted for the wrong candidate), or the self-defeating blame-passing that is roiling the Robredo base of voters. This week, we’ve even seen volunteers who had given their all turn on the former vice president herself, because to their mind she has failed to fight back decisively against those who spread lies about her on social media. A successful revolution may devour its children, but an unsuccessful campaign consumes its parents.

Column: The four REs of the Marcos restoration

All the talk of internal conflict in the new administration aside, the President and his family are committed to four overriding objectives. Published in Rappler on July 7, 2022.

What can we expect from the second Marcos presidency?

I suggested an initial answer in a column last March: First, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will “concentrate power in his office to authoritarian levels—without the need to impose military rule nationwide.” And second, he will “complete the rehabilitation of his father’s reputation, and … establish the Marcos legacy as mainstream history.”

Last April, at a forum on the future of Philippine democracy organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, I expanded on the second idea. 

I proposed that we can expect the Marcos family to pursue four overriding objectives; I called them the four REs.

Column: The Angat Buhay NGO is not enough

The movement that supported Robredo was also political. Published in Rappler on July 5, 2022.

True to her word, former vice president Leni Robredo launched the Angat Buhay non-government organization (under the registered name of Angat Pinas Inc.) on July 1, the day after she stepped down from office. And in keeping with her promise of continuity of service, the day before the launch she signed a contract with the Rotary Club of Makati, Southern Luzon State University, and the provincial government of Quezon to construct a dormitory for indigent students.

These twin events had all the Robredo hallmarks: prepared, innovative, calibrated, leveraging personal and institutional goodwill into an initiative that meets an actual need of a disadvantaged sector. And they help explain why the transformation of the massive “people’s campaign” that supported Robredo into what she hopes will be “the largest volunteer center in Philippine history” (as she said during her thanksgiving rally on May 13) is welcome, inspirational, necessary.

But the volunteer-led movement that coalesced around Robredo and her running mate, former senator Kiko Pangilinan, did not only promise the kind of leveraged initiative that improved people’s lives and that defined the work of the Office of the Vice President under Robredo; it also promised the kind of responsible, honest, and effective politics that Robredo and Pangilinan sought to practice.

In other words, the movement that supported Robredo and Pangilinan was also political.

Column: Fight against erasure, but guard against exaggeration

The democratic and progressive forces that coalesced around Leni Robredo have their work cut out for them, starting with reading the election results right. Published in Rappler on May 18, 2022.

An electoral map of the Philippines that is a beautiful visualization of the results of the May 9 elections is making the rounds on social media. Painstakingly rendered by Migs Caldeo, it tracks the presidential election by coloring every city or municipality won by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. green, every one won by Leni Robredo pink; it also shows those cities or municipalities in the Visayas and Mindanao won by Manny Pacquiao (purple) and those in Mindanao won by Faisal Mangondato (orange).

“Leading presidential candidate in each city or municipality as of 16 May 2022,” the caption reads. “Edited using Paint and extreme amounts of boredom,” Caldeo says in another tweet. 

I cannot independently verify the election data used; Caldeo says he used data from news websites, and I assume he is mainly referring to election results distributed to news organizations through the Commission on Elections’ transparency server before it was decommissioned on May 13. But the map seems to accurately track the partial and unofficial results available to the public. (I cross-checked the outcome of about two dozen places, and found them faithfully reflected.) 

The result is a striking piece of data art: beautiful, precise—and misleading.

Column: Marcos vs Robredo one-on-one debate, ASAP

Published in Rappler on April 26, 2022.

As far as I can tell, from the conversion stories I’ve read or heard about or have had told to me, the weakening in Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s pre-election survey ratings can be attributed to three issues: The unpaid taxes on the estate the dictator left behind; the continuing dishonesty about his education; and the failure to take part in competitive presidential debates.

Many other issues attach to Marcos Junior’s name, especially the plunder and the human rights violations that he and his family committed during the dictatorship, but in my reading, these have been either discounted or explained away by years of pro-Marcos propaganda or outright disinformation on social media. (I regret coming to this conclusion, but that is the reality I see.)

What has gained traction in recent months is a set of three related issues. To be sure, these push factors are complemented by the pull factors of the other campaigns, especially those of Vice President Robredo’s surging, volunteer-driven movement and, for a time, from Manila Mayor Isko Moreno’s chill, plain-speaking appeal. But in terms of vulnerabilities, these three are Marcos’s weaknesses.

Column: Ping Lacson’s premature endgame

Published in Rappler on April 18, 2022.

The first time Senator Ping Lacson ran for president, in 2004, he won over 10% of the vote. In the last two Pulse Asia surveys, the latest of which was released on April 6, he is polling at 2%.

This is not a surprise, because Philippine history teaches an unforgiving lesson: Either you make it to the presidency on your first try, or you never make it at all. The corollary to this history lesson is even more bleak: If you lose in your first attempt, you will fare worse in your next.

In 1992, Miriam Defensor Santiago earned 4.4 million votes, placing a close second to Fidel Ramos; in 1998, she got less than 800,000 votes. In 1998, Raul Roco won 3.7 million votes and landed a distant third, in an election Joseph Estrada won by a landslide; in 2004, his total dropped to a little over 2 million. In 2004, when Gloria Arroyo won, Eddie Villanueva garnered a little under 2 million votes, ending fifth and last; in 2010, he won 1.1 million votes. 

If history is any guide, then, Lacson will get substantially fewer votes in 2022 than the 3.5 million he received in 2004. His best survey result in 2004 was in the first half of March, a month after the official campaign started; 12% of voters said they would vote for him. His best in the 2022 election cycle is exactly half that, at 6%.

Lacson is headed for certain defeat. Despite having learned an important lesson from his 2004 run, which is to campaign this time with a vice presidential running mate, his candidacy has failed to capture the public’s imagination, to establish himself as the alternative, or to offer a compelling rationale for rewriting history.

Column: Enough time for ‘Ro-mentum’

Published in Rappler on April 11, 2022.

Last week was a true turning point for the presidential candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo. Fresh from another strong debate performance and the launch of a coordinated, month-long house-to-house campaign on Sunday, April 3, she launched impressive sorties into six provinces, which included large rallies in Duterte country (35,000 in Tagum, Davao del Norte on Thursday, April 7), in the so-called Solid North (76,000 in Dagupan, Pangasinan on Friday, April 8), and in Gloria Arroyo’s bailiwick (an extraordinary 220,000 in San Fernando, Pampanga on Saturday, April 9). The results of the latest Pulse Asia survey, conducted March 17 to 21, were released in the middle of the week, on April 6; they reflected a surge in her support for the first time since the large, joyous, volunteer-driven rallies became a trademark of her campaign. And they spurred greater enthusiasm among her volunteers, helping drive even more supporters to the rallies in Pangasinan and Pampanga.

If the Pulse Asia survey is an accurate guide, the gap between Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the survey leader, and Robredo remains wide; about three and a half weeks ago, he polled at 56% (down from 60); she polled at 24 (up from 15). Robredo remains very much the underdog; with only 28 days to Election Day, she needs to continue playing catch-up. The Robredo momentum, or “Ro-mentum,” to coin a term, is real. The question, as I asked on March 28, is about time, or the lack of it: Is there enough time for the momentum to swing all the way to victory?

Column: To win, Leni Robredo needs 22 million votes

Published in Rappler on March 28, 2022.

The surge in support for Vice President Leni Robredo’s candidacy is real, though it has yet to be reflected in a publicly available scientific survey. The large rallies and the pivotal declarations of support from local officials are only the most audible signals in all the election noise. It may only be a question of time, or the lack of it: Is there enough time for the momentum to swing all the way to victory? 

But I find it unhelpful, and even unhealthy, to think in terms of only one hue of pink as a symbol of support; to say, for instance, that after the massive rally in Malolos on March 5 and the declaration of support from Governor Dan Fernando on March 14, “Bulacan is pink.” I can understand why it is said; it is both rightful recognition (of a partial fact) and rah-rah rhetoric (to boost morale and drive the campaign). But the reality is there are various shades of pink—and Robredo doesn’t need all provinces and cities to turn full pink.

How many votes does Robredo need in order to win the presidency? I will try to answer this using regional vote totals.

Column: Dynamic race, static survey?

Published in Rappler on March 14, 2022.

Art by Nico Villarete

The latest Pulse Asia survey, conducted in the third week of February but whose results were released only on Monday, March 14, shows the main presidential candidates running in place. The February results are fundamentally the same as in January: Ferdinand Marcos Jr still at 60, Leni Robredo at 15 (down from 16), Isko Moreno at 10 (up by two), Manny Pacquiao still at 8, Ping Lacson at 2 (down from 4). The movements are within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.

To those of us following the campaigns closely, Pulse Asia’s February survey is disorienting—not because of the actual results, but because of the lack of movement in the results. A static survey to explain a dynamic race can cause political vertigo.

Column: What we can expect from a Marcos Junior presidency

The dictator’s son will seek to reshape the Philippines in his father’s bloated image. Published in Rappler on March 2, 2022.

In 2011, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. proposed changing Rizal Day from December 30 to June 19. He was a new senator, in his first year in office; he filed Senate Bill 2743 on June 18, the day before the country marked the 150th birth anniversary of the national hero. “The birthday of our national hero should always be a day of celebration of his life and of his great contribution to the country’s dependence from foreign domination,” he said.

As I had the chance to explain on the ABS-CBN News Channel that same week, that proposal to change Rizal Day from the date of his execution by Spanish colonial authorities in 1896 to the date of his birthday in 1861 was a mistake. December 30 is our oldest secular holiday—observed by the revolutionaries exiled in Hong Kong in 1897, the subject of a proclamation by Emilio Aguinaldo in 1898, constantly observed since then. The revolutionary generation, who were directly inspired by Rizal, saw his martyrdom as a defining moment in the shaping of our history. Six presidents—including Marcos Junior’s own father, on two occasions—took their oath of office on December 30, at a time when presidential inaugurations were integrated into Rizal Day rites.

Nothing came of the proposal; on hindsight, the bill seemed to have been filed as a belated attempt to extend (or to capitalize on) the significance of the Rizal sesquicentennial, the first to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the heroes (including Bonifacio, Mabini, Aguinaldo) born in the 1860s.

What does Marcos Junior’s willingness to change the date of Rizal Day imply for a second Marcos presidency? I have an idea.

Column: Meet Leni’s most effective spokesperson

Published in Rappler on February 23, 2022.

In the last two days, a video interview of a tricycle driver in Cupang, Muntinlupa, has gone viral. Ronald Carigo was asked one question—What do you look for in a president?—and he gave an eloquent answer that ran for a little under four minutes. Everything I look for in a president can be found in “Attorney Leni Robredo,” he said.

Like many others, I was moved by Carigo’s eloquence; his answer, mainly in Filipino but with some English strategically deployed, was substance that had found the right, the plain, style. But what raised his answer to another level was his earnest simplicity; he was Everyman, speaking truth on behalf of the powerless.

Column: Mobilization IS the message

Published in Rappler on Feb 18, 2022.

Art: Janina Malinis

As I have written before, and as I repeat on my election program on Rappler every time we air, “it isn’t just elections as usual.” The country’s democratic experiment is facing a make-or-break test on May 9, and regardless of how much Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte pay lip service to the ideals of democracy, their families have benefited mightily from either democratic collapse (the Marcos regime) or democratic erosion (the Duterte years). To take them at their word would be either sheer naïveté or extreme opportunism.

Understood rightly in that dimming light, the 2022 election is the most consequential vote since 1986. There are any number of ways to describe those potentially calamitous consequences—and some groups supporting Vice President Leni Robredo have already issued statements that warn about some of those potential calamities. Let me only point to those consequences that bear on our understanding of Philippine history and the Filipino’s sense of identity.

Column: Where to fight the ‘ABS-CBN 70’? In Quezon City

Published in Rappler on February 10, 2022.

Art: Alejandro Edoria

On May 5, 2020, the country’s largest TV network went off the air; the following July 10, the House of Representatives voted 70-11, at the committee level, to reject a new legislative franchise for ABS-CBN. President Rodrigo Duterte had imposed a death sentence on the network, and the 70 congressmen served as his willing executioners.

The shutdown and the franchise rejection were the worst attacks on press freedom since Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial rule in 1972, and it registered on the public. A Social Weather Stations survey taken in November 2020 found that 65% of voting-age Filipinos thought it was dangerous to write or publish anything critical of the Duterte administration, up sharply from 51% in July.

But the issue cannot be reduced to press freedom, as important as that is. In the election program I host, On the Campaign Trail, editor Jonathan de Santos, the chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, emphasized that more than 4,000 workers were laid off as a result of the shutdown and congressional vote. UP professor Jean Encinas Franco also noted the collateral damage in the area where the network is headquartered, in terms of business losses for restaurants and other establishments. Any campaign to hold the 70 congressmen to account, Franco said, should highlight those who lost their jobs.

Column: The deciding factors in the 2022 elections

Published in Rappler on February 8, 2022.

Ninety days out, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is acting like the overwhelming favorite to win the presidential election: selecting his interviews, evading debates, avoiding conflict. That these play to his own weaknesses (he is not known as a diligent, policy-oriented confrontational debater) must come as both relief and vindication; he is campaigning for president exactly the way he wants to.

This is possible largely because he and his running mate Mayor Sara Duterte both enjoy a commanding lead in the surveys. If the results were otherwise, he would necessarily find himself accepting all sorts of interviews, showing up at debates, breaking his own vow of unity to face (and face down) rivals.

Will the surveys then be one of the deciding factors, or even the crucial decisive one, that will shape the 2022 vote? The answer must be no—because scientific surveys only reflect public opinion. As I have written before, the “great democratic paradox at the heart of the entire survey enterprise” is that scientific surveys accurately reflect public opinion because “they do not in fact influence public opinion.” To use Social Weather Stations terms, the few who are “bandwagonners” (voters who change their mind to join the bandwagon of the front runner) cancel out the few who are “underdoggers” (voters who change their mind to side with the underdog). Survey results reflect public opinion at a particular moment in time, and that moment is shaped not by surveys but by other factors. It might be useful to think of surveys not as the message but rather as the messenger.

Column: Commissioner Guanzon’s dangerous balancing act

In disclosing her vote on the Marcos disqualification case, did the feisty official do right? Yes. Did she do wrong? Also yes. Published in Rappler on January 31, 2022.

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon did the right thing last week when she disclosed her vote on the disqualification petitions against Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in a calculated attempt to put public pressure on Commissioner Aimee Ferolino to finally release the decision of the Commission on Elections’ First Division. Today, two days before she retires from the Comelec, she authorized the release of her separate opinion.

But the attempt is fraught with risk. It could further damage the reputation of the entire commission, so soon after what looked like an organized campaign to undermine its credibility through an alleged hacking (suspicious) and then an immediate chorus of complaint (even more suspicious). And it could turn the invincible self-righteousness that Guanzon has characteristically wrapped herself in into a symbol of, even a provocation for, partisanship. That would widen the political divide even more in an election season, with an election commissioner herself as the driving wedge.

Column: High-risk and make-or-break: Marcos Jr.’s debate strategy

His actual and perceived strengths have allowed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to say he will skip the official debates. Wrong move. Published in Rappler on January 27, 2022.

Is the Marcos approach to debates—to avoid them, essentially—a “smart” strategy? It is certainly rational, in that it seeks to play to the actual and perceived strengths of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a presidential candidate. But is it guaranteed to be successful? Not at all. In fact, it has the potential to derail his candidacy.

Avoiding debates may seem like a winning strategy; in reality, it is high-risk and make-or-break.

Column: Duterte’s choices for President

Why doesn’t the President simply embrace his daughter’s position, support Ferdinand Marcos Jr for president, and be done with it? It’s complicated. Published in Rappler on January 24, 2022.

President Rodrigo Duterte ended 2021 a smaller figure than when he started it. I hasten to make clear: He remains the most influential member of the political class; his grip on the most powerful position in the government remains secure; his personal popularity remains high. But he came out of 2021 having dramatically failed to secure his overriding objective: choose the terms of his transition from office. In language the basketball-crazy country he has misruled for five and a half years might use, he was completely boxed out, again and again, in the year’s most important plays. 

It wasn’t the so-called lame duck syndrome that diminished the President, although his failure can only accentuate the negative in his last six months in office – it was the spectacular collapse of ALL his succession plans. Strip the President’s substitution strategy of all the drama and the noise, and his situation is clear. He did not get what he wanted.

Column: Duterte lost control of substitution circus he started

The factionalism in the Duterte ruling coalition has put President Duterte’s own post-presidency plans in jeopardy. Published in Rappler on November 15, 2021.

In the final twist to a long-running and melodramatic plot, President Rodrigo Duterte sent a representative to the Commission on Elections Monday afternoon to file his substitute candidacy for senator. But the politician who created the modern substitution circus with his presidential candidacy in 2015 seems to have lost control of the now-chaotic circus in 2021. 

Last Saturday, November 13, after a series of withdrawals and new party affiliations and substitutions among members of the ruling coalition that occupied media attention and confused the President’s supporters, Mr. Duterte issued a threat to his own daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

He said he had not been consulted about his daughter’s decision to run as the vice presidential running mate of ex-senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and in protest would run for vice president himself. He also said he could not support Marcos—the same politician he said more than once would have allowed him to retire from the presidency if he had only been elected vice president—because the son and namesake of the late dictator was “pro-communist.”

The President’s end-of-day decision to run for senator suggests that 1) he was not able to convince his daughter to run for President; 2) he has found a position that will help generate electoral support for both his daughter and his own candidate for president, Senator Bong Go; and 3) he will continue to have some leverage over Marcos and the Gloria Arroyo faction supporting Marcos.

Column: The debates in 2016 were the game changer

Published in Rappler on October 26, 2021. Social media may have been a factor in the 2016 elections, but it was the Comelec-sponsored debates that won the election for Duterte.

Right after the 2016 elections, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s social media campaign immediately claimed responsibility for his victory. But here’s a proposition: The real game changer of the 2016 elections was the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct presidential debates for the first time since 1992.

The three debates drew large audiences and created indelible images (including the vivid but ultimately illusory picture of a flag-waving Rodrigo Duterte on a jet ski); they sharpened contrasts between candidates and dominated multiple news cycles. They also allowed the less well-funded candidate—or, in the case of the lone vice presidential debate, the lesser known candidate—a free national platform to make the most of.

Column: Isko Moreno’s path to victory

Can the mayor of Manila win the presidency without Mindanao? Published in Rappler on October 19, 2021.

In 2016, Isko Moreno ran for the Senate, as a candidate of Joseph Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino that was allied with Senator Grace Poe’s Senate slate, called Partido Galing at Puso. He won 11.1 million votes and placed 16th—some 3 million votes behind Leila de Lima, who won the 12th and last Senate seat.

His was a viable candidacy; he was popular, campaigned like a seasoned local politician, and according to official Commission on Elections records, received the most among senatorial candidates in campaign donations. His total of P171 million was about P12 million more than those received by Joel Villanueva and Sherwin Gatchalian, and about P40 million more than the P132 million in campaign funds donated to Francis Tolentino. (READ: Tolentino spent most, Isko Moreno got biggest contributions)

But Villanueva and Gatchalian won; Moreno lost.

Column: Substitution is deception

Two takeaways from COC filing week: Substitution is a cynical gaming of the rules. And the President’s political allies looked lost, frustrated, desperate. Duterte is to blame for both. Published in Rappler on October 12, 2021.

The rule on substitution in election law is common-sensical. If a party candidate dies, withdraws, or is disqualified, the political party should be able to field a replacement if time permits. But President Rodrigo Duterte has turned that benign rule into a malignant loophole.

In the same way that an infrequent legal remedy was used by the Duterte administration to engineer the backdoor ouster of a Supreme Court chief justice, the administration is using the substitution rule to smuggle a presidential candidate through the backdoor. Under Duterte, substitution is the quo warranto of election law.

Column: The Filipino as cross-voter

My first column for Rappler. I try to draw attention to a practice in Philippine elections that isn’t often discussed, and which complicates the picture created by increased political polarization. Published on October 6, 2021.

The polarized nature of much of public discourse these days suggests that political alignments are self-contained, separated from one another in colored silos: red, yellow, orange, white. But in fact the practice of cross-voting, understood not strictly but analogically, is common—so common that millions of voters do it.

Cross-voting is when a member of one party votes for another party. Very few Filipino voters identify as party members, so the borrowed concept is applicable to this common practice only by analogy. Take a look, for instance, at the highlights of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) 2016 exit poll.

“The voters of 2016 ignored the pairings of the candidates even more than in earlier elections,” SWS’s Mahar Mangahas wrote soon after the elections. “As of 2 am on May 10, when the 2016 exit poll sample had reached 62,485 voters from 785 of the 802 VCs [voting centers], the [Rodrigo] Duterte vote percentage had reached 40 points, for a 16-point lead over [Mar] Roxas. Of his 40 points, only 13 came from voters of his cocandidate [Allan Peter] Cayetano; the bulk of 18 came from [Bongbong] Marcos voters, and another 6 were from [Leni] Robredo voters.”

In other words, some 15% of Duterte’s 16.6 million voters voted for Robredo as vice president. That’s almost 2.5 million votes. An astounding number, and given the trolling, turmoil, and tragedy that have overcome public discourse the last five years, somewhat difficult to wrap our heads around.

Column: The united opposition of … 1986

Published on August 24, 2021.

Even after the assassination of opposition leader Ninoy Aquino, and especially his funeral procession, [had] shattered the last remaining pretensions of the Marcos regime to genuine popular support, the anti-Marcos opposition wasn’t united. The focus on fighting the dictator’s regime was common to all—but that fight was not understood, or fought, on the same terms.

In May 1984, for instance, less than a year after the Aquino assassination, opposition forces were split on the issue of the first regular elections for the Batasan Pambansa, the parliamentary centerpiece of Marcos’ new constitutional order. Should the opposition field candidates even though the odds were long and the voting process was likely rigged? Cory Aquino campaigned on a pragmatic note: participation without illusion, she said. Some other opposition leaders, including one of the most formidable of them all, the “old man” Lorenzo Tañada, called for a boycott of the legislative elections. Among those who joined his campaign: Ninoy and Cory’s only son, Noynoy.

Column: “Mabuting tao“

A winning example from the past might have a lesson for the political opposition. This week’s column, published on July 20, 2021.

If memory serves me right, Vicente “Ting” Paterno ran for the Senate in 1987 on a simple campaign theme. While his track record was clear and clean, it was also complicated; he had served as a minister in Ferdinand Marcos’ presidential-parliamentary Cabinet, before becoming an independent assemblyman, then Metro Manila chair of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, then one of “Cory’s Candidates” for the Senate.

His campaign poster cut, or melted, that Gordian knot of complication with a warm but also accurate slogan: “Ting Paterno. Mabuting tao.”

As I have argued before, Cory Aquino had the longest coattails in Philippine history; in that first election for the Senate since the fall of the Marcos regime, 22 of her 24 candidates won. Paterno was one of the non-politicians who rode those same coattails; like them, he also had an impressive personal reputation, backed by a sterling curriculum vitae, that recommended him to the voter. In 1987, the only time he ran for national office, 9.6 million voters cast their ballot for him.

I am reminded of this virtually forgotten moment in history because it might have something to say to us today. Ten months before the first vote is cast, I’ll step out on a limb (again), and suggest that the 2022 elections will be about change.

Column: Leni and the power to convene

Published on June 22, 2021.

With the political class now focused on next year’s elections, it is even more important for us as voters and as citizens to distinguish signal from noise.