alternatehistory.com

It is the year 1945. The greatest war humanity has ever seen is finally ending and among the millions of people in movement is a young Filipino family going from their wartorn islands to the promised haven of prosperity and peace that is Southern California. Settling in a working class Filipino neighbourhood in Los Angeles, young Rodrigo-called Rodney by his friends-proves an able student, eventually going on to becoming a lawyer. In an atmosphere of increasing struggle for civil rights by various minority groups in the late 60s and early 70s, Duterte becomes known as a community organizer and leader in the Filipino community despite his often controversial mannerisms and style. Gradually, preaching a populist message of law and order he finds himself becoming allied with the conservative forces in the city represented by Mayor Sam Yorty and is eventually elected to a city council in the late 70s. From there, he issues endless jeremiads against rising crime rates and urges the LAPD to be "unleashed" upon the streets of Los Angeles. Creating an network of support among middle-class and working-class whites as well as Asians and Latinos, Duterte is elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1989 in an upset race making him the first Asian-American mayor of a major American city. Quickly he unleashes all sorts of populistic measures including rooting out corruption, heavier spending on education and infrastructure, but most notable and perhaps infamous is his response to Rodney King. In a break with many liberals, Duterte actively defends the 4 police officers accused of beating King and even praises them. When the jury acquittal of them leads to riots, the mayor responds ruthlessly immediately deploying thousands of police officers on the streets of Los Angeles complete with shoot to kill orders. Though dozens of alleged "looters" are killed and thousands arrested, Duterte boasts that his quick measures minimized rioting in the city which endears him to right-wingers nationwide. Despite heavy opposition from many sectors, Duterte goes on to serve as Mayor until 2001 and takes credit for "turning around" Los Angeles in terms of crime despite tremendous allegations of brutality surrounding the LAPD which many accuse of becoming Duterte's personal army. However, Duterte then seems to take a break from electoral politics instead becoming a talk radio host with a compelling message of authoritarian populism that combines left-leaning socioeconomic views with urges to take harsh measures on crime and the ongoing war on Terrorism. The 2008 economic crash allows him to run for the Democratic nomination as the leader of the faction of the party opposed to President Gore by denouncing "neoliberalism", "open borders", and "the bankers". However, in a hard-fought race and Obama's endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton of New York Duterte ends up defeated in the primaries. In an act of defiance Duterte refuses to endorse Clinton declaring the election was "stolen from him". In the subsequent general race, Mitt Romney ends up narrowly defeating Clinton due to the economy and large-scale absentation by Duterte supporters. In the subsequent two terms of Romney (in 2012 he easily defeats an Obama run which Duterte sits out of), the recession seems to grow worse under Republican austerity policies. It seems as if Duterte will remain in retirement when in late 2015, he announces for a second time his candidacy for the Presidency doubling down on his populist platform. He denounces Romney as a "son of a whore" who "has cuckolded the nation in the name of the plutocracy" and on bread and butter issues becomes the most radical major party candidate in recent memory advocating single-payer, an end to private funding of elections, massive infrastructure spending, and so forth even as he advocates total air war against ISIS and unleashing the FBI on criminals even threatening to have the Koch Brothers, Martin Shkreli, and others "put against the wall". His eccentric campaign crushes his primary opponents and despite his reputation for womanizing and sexist statements makes Massachusetts progressive Elizabeth Warren his nominee. Some months later, he easily defeats the Republican ticket of Marco Rubio and Scott Walker to become the 45th and first Asian-American President of the United States of America...
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