| morenoingrato said:
Your lack of interest in politics does not negate the underlying causes of Bolsonaro's rise in the polls. The recession was due to Dilma's and to a certain extent Lula's mismanagement, a bubble which at some point had to burst. Blaming it on Temer is ridiculous. It is as saying the 2008/2009 recession was Obama'a fault. Didn't the unemployment in Brazil skyrocket in the past few years? And as a consequence, crime as well? Bolsonaro's sexist and homophobic remarks are inexcusable and I will not defend him for them, but perhaps it's not *only* about social issues and rather frustrated Brazilians worried about their standard of living and their families? He might also have authoritarian dreams but Brazil is not Nazi Germany, and his margin of win will likely be in the single digits. |
While not every authoritarian government is going to be like the Nazis, there are certainly some parallels in the rise of many authoritarian governments especially in democratic countries. Be they on the right or left, they are typically born out of chaos, typically when there is social and/or economic unrest (the two are often tied together). Look at the economic woes and the political chaos the Weimer Republic was in before they elected the far-right Nazis (the rise of Fascism in Italy is another such example). Going beyond the Nazis, you can also see similar parallels in the Russian Empire prior to the rise of the far-left Bolsheviks (the rise of Chavez in Venezuela can also be attributed to similar things) . Chaos and economic downturns fuels anger which in turn fuels the election of angry radicals (many of whom tend not to be so democratic). Also, I very much doubt the margin of the victory of these leaders matters much in the end so long as they are given the strings of power. If Bolsonaro really wants to start a military coup and manages to get the military behind him, then in practice that is all he needs to at the very least dissolve civilian democracy in Brazil (whether that would lead to him effectively consolidating his power, or throw Brazil into further chaos as the left and right start to clash on streets would remain to be seen).
