Brazil Offers America a Lesson in Democratic Maturity

Side note, the individual-level vote buying also happens in the US system unfortunately.

And after elections, yes, it just turns into negotiation with center parties that will sell off their support for vote-buying projects.

He's worse.

He openly plots the installation of socialism in this country, literally said he wanted to do it on national television. He suffered zero consequences.

The communist venezuelan dictator who Trump is on the verge of nuking? He rolled out the red carpet for him and pretty much gifted him billions of our taxpayer money. No doubt he's up to his nose in Iran's nuclear business as well.

It's not enough for him to covertly rob people of their hard earned money through his corrupt champagne socialist nonsense, he actually feels the need to minimize and normalize literal armed robbery as well. He's been filmed making shoddy excuses for literal violent crime. "I'm tired of seeing people die just because they stole a phone", he says. "It's just to make a little money and buy beer at the bar".

I'd take Bolsonaro over this guy any day. At least with Bolsonaro there's a chance for my country as a whole to prosper, if not me personally. Lula being president actually makes me want to turn to crime.

Imagine what it must feel like being a normal person living in a shithole ruled by organized crime. Imagine getting married and trying to raise a family, only to wake up one day and read on the news that 26% of your country's vast territory is dominated by violent drug trafficking borderline terrorist organized crime gangs so powerful they are essentially parallel governments. At this point it's possible they've even literally infiltrated the official government as well.

All because of crime abiding politicians like Lula and his communists.

Twice; there have been four impeachments of US Presidents, two of which were of Donald Trump during his previous term.

> Do Americans have optimism that Trump won't be their first dictator for life and will actually face consequences for his crimes?

I'm pretty confident that he WILL be a somewhat [0] dictatorial leader for life, but I think there are pretty good odds that this does not involve exceeding the maximum term limit set by the 22nd Amendment.

[0] somewhat only in that I don't think the total destruction of institutions that would make it an absolute dictatorship rather than an aspirational one that still struggles against things like courts that, while mostly tame, still give some effect to Constitutional rights and limits is likely to be completed before Trump is, though not for lack of trying.

> Do Americans have optimism that Trump won't be their first dictator for life

Yes! It's a very real and very big concern, and preventing it from happening is my primary political commitment for the next four years, but I'm pretty confident we'll succeed. I really want people to understand that when you declare he's already the dictator and nothing can change that, you are taking Trump's side, even if you shake your head sadly while you say it.

With two acquittals in the Senate.

Fact is for most of the population, especially the poorest, the dictatorship was not as oppressive directly against them. The secret police was going after intellectuals and universities. And censoring media of course. The average person only cared because the dictatorship was running the country economy into the ground.

It's a dictatorship today. Has been since at least 2019. The unelected supreme court is ruling the country.

> The kind that "disappears" and tortures journalists and political opponents.

Nothing's changed, that's still the case today. Plenty of journalists, opponents, judges dead in mysterious circumstances. Including the judge who mysteriously died and made room for Alexandre de Moraes, who the USA would go on to sanction via Magnitsky. Even Bolsonaro himself suffered an assassination attempt.

> People like the current president Lula, who was imprisoned during the dictatorship.

Yeah, because he's a socialist who openly schemes to install socialism in Brazil. You know, the exact thing the military dictatorship wanted to prevent.

He was also imprisoned during our democracy for record breaking corruption, before the supreme court threw out all the evidence and set him free to take out Bolsonaro.

> The USA on the other hand, has never had a dictatorship in living memory.

They've never had presidents that openly admit to plotting to install socialism in their country either. Good thing they have the CIA to get rid of such subversives. Socialism should be criminalized, just like nazism.

That's a serious understatement.

The supreme court has usurped the functions of the entire government. These unelected judge-kings regularly walk all over our elected representatives in the legislative and executive branches of the government with absolute impunity. They relativize the constitution, make up laws as they go along and generally rule the country however they see fit. They are so brazen as to raise taxes. The only people who can impeach them are politicians who can't afford to make enemies out of the guys with the power to judge them for corruption.

Watching some journalist preach about "democratic maturity" in the context of Brazil is just disgusting and reprehensible. Whatever people think of Trump, he's the only one who ever did a thing about this depressing situation so I'll forever thank him for it.