People Power can overthrow autocrats
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| Minnesotans braved freezing temperatures to protest the tactics of federal agents. |
At Views From the Edge, we’ve always seen the AANHPI experience as a bridge between the struggles of the "old country" and the current fights here in the US. As the second Trump administration pushes the boundaries of executive power, the lessons of Feb. 25 , 1986 and the following four days are taking on a new, urgent resonance.
The parallels are getting harder to ignore. Just as Ferdinand Marcos used the "specter of communism" to justify martial law, we see the current administration using the "specter of the invasion" to bypass the courts and deploy federal power against citizens. He is already setting the stage for disqualifying the results of the upcoming midterm elections, which polls predict will be as much a vote against Trump as it is a vote for the Democrats.
But the Philippines gave us the antidote. People Power wasn't just a crowd in the street; it was a total withdrawal of consent from a corrupt system.
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| Scenes of People Power in the Philippines in 1986. |
For many Asian Americans—Filipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese, and others—the rhetoric of "strongman" leadership isn't a new political theory; it’s a family trauma.Historical Memory: We know what it looks like when a leader calls the press the "enemy of the people" and people simply disappear after being detained by federal agents.
When the Trump administration targets immigrants or rescinds birthright citizenship, Asian Americans are often the first to recognize the shift from democracy to autocracy. Our role is to sound the alarm before the "new normal" sets in.
Allies among us
In 1986, the Filipino concept of kapwa — the idea of a shared inner self and community — was what brought the nuns to the tanks, students to the streets and soldiers refusing illicit orders to fire on their fellow citizens.
In the current US climate, the Asian American community can be the "connective tissue" in a broad anti-authoritarian coalition. Whether it’s fighting the mass deportation machine or protecting the sanctity of the vote, our strength lies in moving beyond our silos to join Black, Brown, and Indigenous movements.
The 2022 return of the Marcos family to Malacañang Palace was fueled by a massive social media disinformation campaign that rebranded the Marcos dictatorship as a "Golden Age."
We see the same thing happening here with the whitewashing of January 6th, the erasure of democratic norms and the rewriting of history by removing the achievements of people of color from museums and textbooks and rebranding slavery as benign employment.
Asian American activists and content creators are uniquely positioned to fight these digital battles, using our bilingual and bicultural fluency to debunk the "strongman" myths spreading in our own communities and pushing the Christian white supremacist agenda to "make America white again."
View from the Edge: Democracy is a muscle, not a monument
The 40th anniversary of EDSA reminds us that a dictator’s power is actually quite fragile—it relies entirely on our belief that we are powerless.
Misinformation saying that both major parties are the same and our vote won't matter; Trump's regime trying to redraw Congressional maps; and making it harder for people to vote causes people to throw up their hands in frustration and not vote. Not voting is one more vote for apathy and that's exactly what Trump and his billionaire supporters who back the goals of Project 2025 want.
When the Filipino people realized that the tanks wouldn’t fire if the people didn't move, the regime collapsed. Today, the "tanks" are executive orders and threats of retribution against politicians speaking out, media spreading the truth and exposing the corruption and the use of brute force -- Trump's loyalist private army of ICE agents, Customs and Border Control member and the US military to instill fear in us.
The lesson from 1986 for us in 2026? Don't move. Don't comply. Stand together. Brave Minnesotans learned this this winter. The massive No Kings demonstrations are having an effect. Democracy demands participation, whether it be texting your Congressmembers, going to the voting booth, or marching in the streets. It requires action on your part. It demands People Power.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.
