Brazilian politics and its “turn to the right” main cause
Very recently I have had the opportunity to watch a video on YouTube entitled “Brazilian Right-Wing Presidential Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Stabbed at Rally”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOkt-TclK_0&t=487s
It was posted on an american “right-wing friendly” YouTube channel called “The Red Elephants”. Apart from the incongruence on the colour of the elephant’s skin and its ideology, the video consists basically on comments made by the youtuber about the recent attack suffered by Jair Bolsonaro — the main right-wing candidate and actual leader on the run for Presidency in Brazil — who was recently stabbed on the abdomen during a rally on the streets of the city of Juiz de Fora, in the brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
These kinds of campaignes or rallies, in which the candidates go “touring” the cities and states of interest during the elections, shaking the hands of the electorate in person (even kissing the cheek of elders or newborns, eating street junk food and so on), are really traditional in Brazil. Most part of the candidates who really hope to be ellected are aware it is an indispensable tool to do so.
For those who think this kind of campaign sounds weird or unrealistic, take a look at this humoristical video below (a satire) that will give you a picture of it (unfortunately, there are not English subtitles to make you get the irony out of the lyrics of the song, but the context is understandable).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hb3uLDgfbI
That being said, it is rational to assume that any candidate in Brazil — from the candidates to the National Congress to the local ones — could have suffered that stab, yet Bolsonaro’s supporters have been putting the blame on the left, as may be seen on the following article from NY Times.
Back to the initial video, there was an argument presented by the abovementioned youtuber that made me wonder whether it was an individual perspective or a generalized one. He said the idiotness/dumbness of brazilian population was the cause to the country’s economic/political/moral crisis, because the electorate insists in electing a party (Worker’s Party) which major representative — Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, or just Lula da Silva, like he is known in the global press— is, at this very moment, serving a 12 years sentence on a federal prison, due to money laundering and passive corruption and which last President, Dilma Roussef, was impeached during her last mandate due to an alleged budget scandal.
The youtuber expressed his reaction to Lula da Silva’s candidacy, along with the fact that he was leading the pools (at that time brazilian Justice still had not prohibited his candidacy) to support the dumbness of the Brazilian people.
However, necessary it is to say that Brazil, unlike the U.S. and many European countries, is a place still in development. And that does not explains reality very much. Data from IBGE — brazilian institute of Geography and Statistics — states that 52 millions of brazilian nationals (nearly 1/4 of the country’s population) are located under the poverty line, currently living with less than US$5,50 a day.
In addtion to that, there are the populist programs, one of which was established in the country by a former President (FHC) and strongly adopted by the Workers Party in their Government platform, just like the famous/infamous “Bolsa Família” Programme.
The “bolsa família programme” consists in the practice of the Federal Government of giving away a monthly amount of R$187,00 (US$46,60) (US$549,77 a year) to every family on a critical level of poverty (a simple “finantial aid”, like stated by Federal Govenrment) to families in critical situation, reaching almost 50 millions of people (a number close to that of those living under the poverty line) and 13 millions of families according to the Brazilian Governemnt website
These are impressive numbers. Let’s suppose it is real the number of 13 millions of families aided by the Programme, just like mentioned above. That would result on an incredible amount of money for the Government to support. Unnecessary it is to imagine the impact an investment of such amount would cause on public education, public health and so on, which are areas of real popular interest.
There is also the fact that it is nearly impossible for the National Congress or even the own President to even consider the possibility of eliminating the Programme, once it is already considered a part of families income.That is so true that every time rumours circulate in Brazilian society, concerning the end of the Programme (most of them expanded by fake news), there is a crazy run to public banks to anticipate their monthly “bolsa família”, just as the article below shows (Title of the article states: rumours about the end of “bolsa família” makes Caixa agencies get crowded in 12 states this sunday).
Critics of the Programme — there are millions of them — argue this practice stimulates population to accomodate and rely on the “alms” given to them, resulting on a cyclical laziness.
That may even be truth, but I would certainly disagree with the argument of the youtuber who said that the Worker’s Party has been ellected and reelected over the last 12 years due to the dumbness of people. These people want food on their tables, they want their basic needs to be met, and they will vote for a candidate who, at least supposedly, will garantee it to them.
I won’t vote for the Worker’s Party, but I do understand the reason why poor people have been voting for them. Populist campaignes like the ones presented by Worker’s Party are very attactive for those who still have immediate necessities, like constant hunger and unmet basic needs, so spread in a developing country like ours.
Brazilian medium class and the upper classes do not have to worry about that very much, since they have become able to a more consistent (yet fragile) economical independency.
That independency I am speaking about may be very familiar to american people. It consists in the possibility of ignoring the bad quality of public health due to the fact that you are able to contract a private health insurance program. And this is just an example out of the capitalism wonders.
The thing is that major part of the Brazilian population is poor. Period. And this great amount of voters will ellect populist candidates, simple like that. There is a lot more to discuss, of course, but I see that the turn to the right is mainly caused by the need that part of the Brazilian population has to ellect a candidate who will not focus his energies so much on populisms as the previous ones have.
