I came to Pierce County by way of the Philippines, a witness to how democracies fall

Remember Jan. 6, 2021, and pay attention. This is how democracies are lost.

I lived in the Philippines during the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. My family left because democracy had fallen.

The people voted for Marcos on so-called populist terms, even as he pocketed the people’s money, hopes and dreams to serve himself, his family and his cronies.

He used the people’s language – their angst and pain, their fear and distress of an uncertain future – to secure absolute power.

He presented himself as a hero, even as he weakened structures that held the country together (the judicial system, the free press, and civil liberties) – all behind the mask of law and order.

He promised to deliver the people from their suffering and took on the mantle of savior - at times sounding like a loving father, at times destroying and killing his opponents.

In truth, he had no intention to honor the power of the people; for if they claimed it for themselves, they would no longer “need” him.

The people never really needed him. They needed each other to solve deep-seated problems in the economy and the social structure. But Marcos could not let that happen; if he did, he would become irrelevant. He failed to see what true leadership looks like in a democracy.

My fellow Americans, we don’t need to look for some person to save us. We can and need to save ourselves. Together. State by state. City by city. Neighborhood by neighborhood.

We need to do the hard work of actually talking with each other. We need to do less blaming and far more tackling the difficult and complex work of solving structural problems in our economy and social fabric.

We need to give up false choices between people, planet or profits. We need to roll up our sleeves and create an economy built on shared values – one that marries security assured by public safety nets, resilience gained by protecting natural resources and prosperity made possible by socially-minded capitalism.

We are going to have to accept that we can’t have it all – not an all that excludes large segments of our population by race or class. We are going to have to listen to each other’s angst, pain, fear, distress and hopes – and be ready to learn and make compromises in ways that strengthen who we are at our collective core.

Wisdom does not reside at the extremes. When we let radical views shroud the fullness of reality, we create conditions for charlatans to use fear and mistrust to silence and divide us. When we look to demagogues to solve our problems, we release our fate to their whims.

When we allow egomaniacs to incite violence by word or action upon our republic with impunity, we are complicit. When we point fingers and embrace positions that will not stand the test of time, we hand our collective power to con artists, frauds and the misguided to do as they will.

Let us not cede our power so easily through silence or hope that someone will rise to rescue us because we are too busy to do the work ourselves. That’s not how democracies survive.

The people of the Philippines eventually deposed Marcos from office in 1986. It was bloody and the country has not yet recovered. There is another demagogue there now.

Pay attention. We are not the first presented with this lesson. But America is still that shining city upon a hill.

If we look all around, we will see who we need. It is us – rising and claiming our just place at the center of our democracy – to do the work of, by, and for the people.

We owe it to those who came before us, to ourselves and to our children to preserve our great republic and to be an example for the world.

Miebeth Bustillo-Booth is a Pierce County educator and former business owner. She lives in Lakewood.