A president who tests the boundaries of democracy, making unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. Frenetic supporters of said president who cause disruption as they try to affect the outcome of a fair election. A country that has become so polarized that family members and friends have severed ties over politics. Fake news and misinformation turning once reasonable people into rabid conspiracy theorists.
Sound familiar?
As the world’s fourth-largest democracy went to the polls Sunday, the mood was apprehensive. In the end, Brazil rejected far-right populist President Jair Bolsonaro, whose “Trump of the Tropics” nickname doesn’t fully describe his rejection of decency, science, facts and respect for democratic institutions, including the country’s highest court. In his place, Brazilians elected a septuagenarian — again, familiar? — former President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva.
Lula, a popular president from 2003 to 2011 who lifted millions out of poverty, was arrested in 2018 on corruption charges. The Brazilian Supreme Court annulled his conviction after it determined the court that tried him didn’t have jurisdiction over the case, allowing him to run for office again. Clearly, Brazilians had conflicting choices going into Sunday.
Now the election is over but the nation remains polarized and in peril. Like Trump, Bolsonaro came dangerously close to reelection, losing by less than 2 points. The extremist movement he has launched is not going away, much like election deniers in the U.S. continue to dismiss the will of voters. In fact, nearly 300 of those election deniers are running for office on Nov. 8, according to a tally by The Washington Post.
That continuing embrace of extremism is partly thanks to narcissistic leaders who refuse to ride into the sunset gracefully. Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that he won in 2020. Bolsonaro remained silent for almost two days following his defeat. On Tuesday, he gave a two-minute speech in which he didn’t directly acknowledge his loss but said he will respect the constitution.
That allayed fears he might stage a coup. And yet there were plenty of dog whistles to his supporters when he spoke about “indignation” and a “feeling of injustice” about the electoral process. He didn’t disavow protesters who have set up roadblocks across the nation — forcing flights to be canceled and causing delays to food deliveries — though he urged them to remain peaceful. On Wednesday, his so-called “Bolsonaristas” continued to block major highways, some calling for a federal intervention to reverse the election results.
Demagogues like Bolsonaro and Trump thrive in chaos and upheaval. Without anger and distrust in democratic institutions, their political reason to exist ceases.
The bar for Bolsonaro has been set so low that, somehow, not overthrowing a new democratic government seems like a major accomplishment. Yet we cannot act as if his speech came anywhere near how a statesman is supposed to act. Nor can we act as though it’s not a big deal that two of Miami’s Republican members of Congress, Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart, voted against certifying the 2020 presidential results in Arizona and Pennsylvania based on unfounded allegations of fraud that judge after judge has thrown out.
The new ‘right’
“The right has truly emerged in our country,” Bolsonaro said, during his Tuesday speech.
He is, in fact, correct. Lula’s election will not end political turmoil in Brazil, just as Joe Biden’s victory hasn’t made Trump less relevant.
The movements Bolsonaro and Trump launched tapped into fear, distrust and anxiety about social and economic changes happening throughout the world. But American observers should refrain from looking at Brazil’s elections as merely a battle between the right and the left.
The “right” Bolsonaro and Trump represent sullies real conservatives. It sows division among fellow citizens and flirts with authoritarianism. It’s hypocritical, using fear of socialism — and the worry that Brazil could become another Venezuela under Lula — while deploying some of the same tactics of anti-democratic regimes. Bolsonaro, for example, said last year he wouldn’t abide by decisions made by a Supreme Court justice he has clashed with. He also has rallied his supporters against the high court. He dismissed the COVID-19 pandemic while 688,000 Brazilians died from the virus. He tried to undermine the approval of vaccines for children and spread misinformation about it.
Lula and other leftist Latin American leaders deserve every piece of criticism they get for their coziness with Fidel Castro and lingering admiration for Che Guevara. But Brazil wasn’t a socialist country under Lula. His running mate this time is the center-right former governor of Brazil’s largest state, and Lula forged alliances with centrists like Sen. Simone Tebet, who came in third place in the presidential elections.
What Brazil did experience for more than 20 years was an authoritarian, right-wing, military regime installed after a 1964 coup. The ideology of a regime that deprives people of freedom, though, shouldn’t be relevant. A threat to democracy is a threat to democracy, whether it comes from the right or the left. Unfortunately, too many people believe that “my strongman is better than yours.” In these polarized times, we are easily seduced by the prospect of our side winning at all costs.
On Sunday, a slight majority of Brazilians rejected that vision. They didn’t necessarily vote for a “leftist” government, but for a return to normalcy. But the victory feels bittersweet once you reckon with the fact that the fight against extremism is far from over.
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