Posted on 07/22/2016 10:45:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CLEVELAND — The four-day Republican National Convention came to a close on Thursday night, July 21, with Donald J. Trump “humbly and gracefully” accepting the party’s nomination for president.
The 70-year-old real estate billionaire and TV personality delivered a speech that clocked in at 1 hour and 16 minutes, laying out his plans on issues like immigration, national security and job creation.
“People who work hard but no longer have a voice — I am your voice,” Trump said, promising to repair Americans’ faith in government leadership.
Over a year after controversially announcing his candidacy, Trump was formally named the party’s nominee on Tuesday night, July 19, during a roll call vote. He secured 1,725 of the votes, defying odds that he would not succeed in the race that was once crowded with 16 other candidates.
For 83-year-old Emmanuel Tipon, an immigration attorney from Honolulu, Hawaii, Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again” has resonated with him.
“Many years ago, America was great. When I came here in the 1960s, it was a country you looked up to. It was peaceful, there was no divisiveness,” he said. “But the America today is no longer the America that I came to.”
Tipon was among a handful of Filipino Americans from across the country at the convention this week who said that a Trump presidency would signal a new chapter and restore Republican ideals in the country.
“It’s exciting to be here and I’m relieved that it’s finally over because it’s been a long road to [the nomination],” said Lei Ann Gleaves, a Fil-Am Trump delegate from Franklin, Tennessee.
Aaron Del Mar, a Fil-Am delegate from Illinois, added, “This is history in the making…This is going to be the first step of the path to victory in November.”
In addition, Trump’s appeal comes from his success as a businessman and his unfiltered speak.
“Filipino Americans are excited to see someone who has managed a business and will be able to fix the economy as it relates to them,” Ninio Fetalvo, Asian Pacific American press secretary at the RNC, said. “Fil-Ams on a daily basis are worried about jobs and having access to quality education for their children.”
The Fil-Ams the Asian Journal spoke to shared that the Republican principles go hand in hand with those of the Filipino culture: the importance of family, hard work, religion, self-reliance and individual responsibility.
Brunswick, Ohio Mayor Ron Falconi shared that, “Being a Filipino and a Republican is a natural fit. The Republican Party has been nothing but welcoming to me.”
For Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who is Filipino on his father’s side, identifying as a Republican goes back to the idea of the ‘American Dream,’ which many Filipinos strive for when they move to the United States.
“I think Donald Trump gives Filipino Americans the greatest chance for success. My father, who came from the Philippines, has always believed in the Republican principles of success, self-reliance and hard work. Donald Trump really embodies those. People don’t realize that Donald Trump has had business successes and failures, and has picked himself back up each time,” Reyes said. “Again, that captures and reflects the spirit of the Fil-Am community. It’s important for Filipino Americans to realize that the decision for president sets the tone for the country.”
These similarities are what Fil-Am Republicans are hoping to convey to others in their respective communities leading up to November.
“Certainly, there are not a whole lot of us who are active in the party. But I feel very blessed to be part of the Republican Party,” Del Mar said. “More Filipinos and Asians, in general, need to get involved more heavily in politics. We have a strong voice and really strong issues, but we need to take the next step toward having a positive future.”
Gleaves said it’s about fixing “the reception problem that the Republicans have with Asians,” while Tipon said it’s about challenging “why so many Filipinos are Democrats.”
“I ask ‘why?’ And they say, ‘to get welfare.’ You mean to tell me, you came to this country to get welfare? Why don’t you work? Who is going to pay for your welfare? People like me who are still working even though I’m 83 years old. I’m working hard and paying taxes so I can support these people — that’s not fair,” Tipon said.
Immigration matters
When it came to immigration, Trump on Thursday vowed to “build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration” and bring back a “lawful” system, to which the audience erupted in applause and led passionate chants of “USA!” and “Build the Wall!”
“My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Which is what we have now. Communities want relief. Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness,” he said in his speech.
The GOP nominee’s views on immigration struck a chord with Fil-Am Republicans, who agree that individuals should wait in line and come to the country through legal means.
“Anti-immigrant notions are coming from the left,” Falconi said, asserting “it’s absolutely not true” that the Republican Party is against immigrants.
Fetalvo called it a “shame” that many Filipinos are still waiting for a visa to come to the U.S.
“[T]he process is not fair to the people actually waiting in line and trying to do it the right way, similar to how my parents did,” he said.
“Trump just wants to make sure that the process is done in a legal manner. There are so many issues right now with national security and obviously, you can’t automatically say that because one undocumented immigrant committed a crime that relates to [undocumented immigrants] as a whole. But if these issues exist, Mr. Trump wants to [ensure] people at home are safe.”
The Fil-Ams interviewed also said that under Trump, the much-needed, comprehensive immigration reform that many Filipinos families are waiting for will come.
Reyes, whose state was among the 26 that sued the Obama administration, said the president’s executive order on immigration “wasn’t the right avenue.”
Under President Barack Obama’s plans, which were revealed in November 2014, up to 5 million undocumented immigrants could have been saved from deportation.
Last month, the Supreme Court arrived at a deadlocked 4-4 verdict on the case, leaving the decision to implement Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to the next administration.
The current administration, however, has asked the high court to rehear the case. If the Court accepts the petition, arguments will begin as soon as a ninth justice is sworn in.
“This is a country built because of immigration. My father has contributed much to the country because of his Filipino culture,” the Utah attorney general said. “But there is a reason why we have laws in place and nobody should be above the law. So I ask [Filipinos] to be patient and let us work with Congress. I’m frustrated too. All of our frustration doesn’t allow us to go above the law and allow us to do things we want to do the wrong way.”
“True immigration reform would allow Filipinos — those who want to be Filipino Americans — a chance to come forward and go through the process right,” he added.
RNC outreach
At an Asian Pacific American National Forum on Wednesday, July 20, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Republicans from across the country spoke about why they support the GOP nominee and how to engage their communities.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said that the party has “come a long way” in terms of reaching out to AAPIs.
“That’s something a competent party should always do. Unfortunately, for many years, we were just a party that would show up once every four years, three months before an election,” he said. “We couldn’t figure out why our percentage of the vote of AAPI voters kept going lower and lower and lower.”
The RNC has revamped its outreach efforts in the past three years, after seeing that it should continually interact with AAPI communities — not just every four years or during a midterm election. In 2015, the party launched the Republican Leadership Initiative (RLI), an effort to train millennial and minority voters and spread the party’s values on the grassroots level.
“We’re excited to see Filipino Americans involved with the Republican Party,” Fetalvo said. “For me, that’s very personal, because as a Filipino American growing up, I didn’t see many people involved in politics.”
Alan Cobb, the Trump campaign’s director of coalitions, announced that the campaign will launch an Asian American advisory committee.
“We’re going to have vigorous Asian American outreach all across the country, but particularly in battleground states,” he told the forum attendees.
Leading up to November, both parties are looking for ways to capture the votes of AAPIs, which “have the potential to be “the margin of victory in critical swing votes during the next six presidential election cycles,” according to 2015 study released by UCLA and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.
On the Democratic side, the party’s four-day convention will begin in Philadelphia on Monday, July 25.
Speakers for the event include President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and several Hollywood celebrities.
I have spent many evenings in an engine room workshop of a ship drinking beer, talking politics, and of course singing karaoke of 80’s American music with a lot of Filipinos after a day of work. I have yet to meet a Filipino since Trump began his campaign that does not like him.
Now if we could just get Americans, who want to change it from a capitalist to communist/socialist country, who are born here to appreciate it as much we would be much better off.
Great great people and the food.....oh I love it!!!!!
AND ... I have yet to meet a Filipino that has EVER had anything good to say about “that NAYgro”
If you’ve ever eaten a Mango in the Philippines, you would never eat the Mexican ones.
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