Another victory for political derangement
What Brazilians voted against is obvious, but what they voted for is unclear
Who is Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president-elect? It’s a manifestation of the unhinged nature of modern politics that not only does Bolsonaro seem to defy easy definition, he also defies easy analogy. He’s been described by opponents and the international media as a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a fascist, an advocate of torture and an aspiring dictator. And because this is the era of political derangement, all that made him more popular, not less. The most common analogy is that he is Brazil’s answer to Donald Trump, but the comparison is somewhat off. Bolsonaro, 63, spent 17 years in the Brazilian army, and is proud of it. Trump, who graduated in the Vietnam era, avoided the draft five times. Army experience is politically charged in Brazil, which was run by a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. "I know what hierarchy and discipline mean. Without those, we will never have order and progress," Bolsonaro said last year. His views about the dictatorship have earned him the e...
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