I READ somewhere that “the young think they know everything, the middle-aged folks are suspicious of everything and the manamko’ believe everything.” I think this axiom holds a lot of truth at many levels.
The young don’t really want to listen to their elders because they believe they are “immovable” if you will. Recent studies show that the college aged student is more egocentric, less concerned with what’s going on around them and wrapped up in their own world. So there is no 18-24 voting bloc to speak of because they have grown up in a relative prosperity and know nothing of sacrifice for the most part.
So who are the political machines going to target? The manamko’, of course. Because not only do they vote because they care about the community and want to leave a better future for those same tempestuous youth but are also more vulnerable. Which is what happened in the ’06 local election when the old (and sick) folks were taken advantage of by Christian Conservatives like Felix P. Camacho and George Bamba.
The other group in the trio, those in the middle, is also susceptible because it is suspicious of everything. Fearful of immigrants like Filipinos, (or plant stories dividing themselves) when Filipinos and others built Guam and the United States through cheap labor like the blacks who gave their free labor and before that, women and children.
It is only through divisions and tear that unscrupulous politicians win elections locally and nationally. They have no positive agendas or any agenda for that matter. The sad part is not the politicians but the good folks who are professionals who work for them and do their bidding, at times unwittingly. Such as the doctors who were all too willing to “usurp” the power of those who served on the GBME. What CRIME did they commit to get tossed out?

MATT PHILLIPS
Mangilao, Guam