Monday, October 8, 2018

Mark Weisbrot — Brazil’s Fight for Democracy

For the first time in decades, the threat of a military dictatorship is surfacing. No responsible journalism should ignore this threat, nor legitimize the extremism that strengthens it. And anyone who cares about democracy in Brazil would have to support Bolsonaro’s opponent in the second round of the election.
Consortium News
Brazil’s Fight for Democracy
Mark Weisbrot | co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. and president of Just Foreign Policy

1 comment:

Konrad said...

“For the first time in decades, the threat of a military dictatorship is surfacing.”

Military dictatorship. Oligarch dictatorship. Either way the masses are screwed.

“Many have made the comparison to Trump, and of course there are similarities ― especially in the overt racism and misogyny of the two politicians.”

Weisbrot gives no examples. With identity politics, accusations are automatically “proof.”

“The Economist, a conservative UK magazine, would love to see the Workers’ Party (PT) disappear from Brazilian politics, but even they cannot stomach Bolsonaro...”

The Economist is not conservative. It is neoliberal. It is wary of Bolsonaro because he has not been very specific about his economic proposals. Will Bolsonaro go full neoliberal, or will he lean toward “neoliberal-lite”?

The answer is that Bolsonaro will be a carbon copy of Trump. The Brazilian corporate media outlets are already starting to claim that Russia will “hack” the elections so that Bolsonaro becomes president.