Brazil鈥檚 presidential election is set, amigos, more than 18 months before it鈥檒l even be held. And that鈥檚 sad news for Brazil, Latin America, the Americas 鈥� and Brazilians in America.
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I鈥檓 jumping the gun, you say? Maybe. Still, whereas in the U.S. we currently have just one political personality cult, Brazil has two 鈥� and the country鈥檚 Supreme Court just green-lit the presidential candidacy of the second cult leader. Brazil might as well print ballots now.
A face-off between current, right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and left-wing former President Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva for the October 2, 2022, contest will make for electrically polarized political samba in Brazil over the next year and a half. (The U.S. might even look bipartisan in comparison.) But when it鈥檚 all over, no matter the result, the future of Latin America鈥檚 largest nation 鈥� and Florida鈥檚 largest export market 鈥� won't look much brighter, possibly worse, than it does even at this frighteningly low moment.
READ MORE: Sick Man of the Americas: Bolsonaro's COVID Infection Reflects a Toxic Hemisphere
Consider 鈥� and I鈥檓 making sure I鈥檓 sitting down as I consider it 鈥� a second four-year term for Bolsonaro, whom critics already call the worst president since Brazil became a republic 132 years ago. His Neanderthal bid to restore what he calls the glory days of its brutal military dictatorship (1964-1985) has undermined the country鈥檚 democracy, torched record swaths of the Amazon rainforest 鈥� and, as a result of his knuckle-dragging denial of the pandemic, helped condemn Brazil to the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll after the U.S.'s.
While America鈥檚 COVID death curve is starting to flatten, this week Brazil for the first time saw more than 3,000 pandemic fatalities in a single day. Insidious COVID virus variants keep filling the country鈥檚 intensive-care units, and Bolsonaro just had to appoint the fourth health minister of his two-year-old administration.
Yet Bolsonaro appeared outside the presidential palace Sunday to yank off his protective mask and tell a throng of mostly maskless supporters that Brazilian mayors and governors who enforce pandemic restrictions are 鈥渓ittle tyrants hindering your freedom!鈥� Then he told them, ominously, to 鈥渃ount on the armed forces to protect your liberty!鈥�
A Bolsonaro-Lula face-off means electrically polarized political samba 鈥� but when it's over, no matter the result, Brazil's future won't look better.
Even so, betting against Bolsonaro and his Make Brazil Military Again movement is still probably as dumb as believing FiveThirtyEight polls that told you Donald鈥檚 Trump MAGA tribe was disappearing last year. Which is why Lula鈥檚 sudden political resurrection has so many beleaguered anti-Bolsonaristas feeling hopeful again.
On Tuesday, Brazil鈥檚 Supreme Court ruled the judge who oversaw Lula鈥檚 2016 corruption trial and conviction was politically biased. The decision, on top of another ruling this month annulling Lula鈥檚 conviction, opens the gate to his 2022 presidential candidacy. And, riding voters鈥� memories of the boom economy of his two-term presidency that ended a decade ago, the 75-year-old Lula has already charged ahead of Bolsonaro
EPIC CORRUPTION
So why aren鈥檛 Brazil-watchers like me clapping too? Because, while I certainly don鈥檛 regard Lula the Darth Vader Bolsonaro is, I also don鈥檛 think this particular leader of Brazil鈥檚 past is the one who can take it into the future.
I鈥檓 largely an admirer of Lula鈥檚 presidency and how it steered a capitalist-socialist 鈥渢hird way鈥� that raised some 40 million Brazilians into the middle class. In my interviews with him in those days he projected a basic decency that seems utterly absent in Bolsonaro. But when Lula left office I was still painfully aware of how much he鈥檇 cavalierly ignored during his eight years in Bras铆lia 鈥� things I really don鈥檛 think he鈥檚 either interested in or capable of fixing. Such as:
His economy鈥檚 low-tech, high-risk reliance on commodities exports. The five-alarm need to reform Brazil鈥檚 cancerously massive bureaucracy and upgrade its decrepit infrastructure. And most of all, Brazil's epic corruption 鈥� including that of his leftist Workers Party, his cult, which helped get his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, impeached five years ago and pushed so many Brazilians toward Bolsonaro.
Eighty percent of Brazilian voters here in South Florida went for Bolsonaro, too. They鈥檝e understandably soured on him since then 鈥� but they can鈥檛 stand Lula, either. So I鈥檒l ask them: who鈥檚 the woman or man who can be Brazil鈥檚 political third way?
You and voters there have 18 months to figure that out. Or cede Brazil to the political cults.
