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Brasilian president Jair Bolsonaro pledges to respect the Constitution after the election loss. I am posting this here as an example of where culture war gets actually rather civilized. The race between Bosonaro and Lula was tight, and the former could have made serious trouble re. transition of power. Since that link is pay-walled and I have yet to figure out how to get archive.org to take a snapshot of what I am seeing, I will reproduce the parts that I find interesting.
[something something stocks, because it's Wall Street Journal]
[someone possibly well-known in Brasil calls for Bolsonaro to concede]
I am in US. There is one thing I expect my president to do: step down. So kudos to Brazil.
Is there a reason why the left in Brazil has no one younger than 77?
Lula is pretty much the only politician with nationwide expression for PT (his party), their previous candidate for the 2018 elections, Fernando Haddad, just lost a race for the governorship of São Paulo to a man who wasn't even from the state, and the former president, Dilma Rouseff, didn't even run this year. Since PT has a stranglehold on the left, acquired though fierce attacks on rival leftists like Marina Silva and Ciro Gomes, that means for a leftist, it was Lula or bust in the end.
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Giving a perspective from Brazil, I think you are overrating Bolsonaro. He never said anything about conceding or accepting defeat during his very short speech, he only thanked his votes, said that the current protests come from indignation and that the left's tactics should not be copied.
More importantly, most of his supporters were not dissuaded by such a thing, and there remains a lot of unrest, as seen by the trucker's blockades. Many of his more radical allies, like congresswoman Carla Zambelli, outright encourage such movements.
What would you estimate the baseline unrest to be? Do you think Bolsonaro's actions reduced, amplified, or did not affect unrest?
I believe some sort of unrest would be inevitable after the loss, given the animosity the right wing had acquired to the judiciary and the media, viewing then as having rigged the elections. They even started well before Bolsonaro or his sons made any sort of announcement (they went quiet for two days, and they were very prolific on social media). Bolsonaro's declarations, in any case, were weak enough that his most zealous followers either ignored it or took it as some 4d chess move. Alongside that, Bolsonaro was supported by some in the right (me included) only as a way to stop Lula and PT from returning to power, and for this group the protests are less for a second Bolsonaro term than stopping Lula's third term.
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Perspective from the relevant location is much appreciated. I hope you will post follow-ups.
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Non-paywalled Reuters article
Video of speech, with translation in hard subtitles
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Bolsonaro has always struck me as a bit smarter than trump, so it’s possible that he just recognizes when he’s beat.
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Ah, it’s good to hear. Especially from a politician best known in the US for similarities to Trump.
Unless the 45 hours were a particularly long delay?
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Archive.today is a little bit better at this sort of thing.
Thanks for the tip!
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