Column: Can democratic forces make common cause?

Published on March 16, 2021.

It should be a no-brainer, right? It’s right there in the name we use to identify the various groups: pro-democracy. But while preserving what remains of the democratic space is the primary objective, the bitter truth is “democracy” and “rule of law” are not winning messages. Even in the “snap elections” of 1986, Cory Aquino did not defeat Ferdinand Marcos on a restoration-of-democracy message; rather, the message after 20 years of Marcosian misrule was, simply, change. “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na.”

The idiomatic English equivalent, “We’ve had enough, this is too much, it’s time to change it,” lacks the punch of the original, but it has the advantage of reminding us that the last five years of abuse, bloodshed, cruelty, democratic erosion, and failure have brought us back to 1986: We really have had enough of the incompetence; the brutality is too much; it really is time to reject the incumbent.