You’ve probably heard over the past couple days that former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in a landslide Senate vote. As long-time readers of mine know, I’m no fan of Dilma, who almost single-handedly ran the country I love into the ground while having a very basic grip on common sense and reality. After all, this is the woman who said that the environment poses a threat to sustainable development, renamed the human race the women sapiens, called cassava one of Brazil’s greatest accomplishments, and is so insecure about her own presidency that she called herself presidenta or “presidentress.” Her predecessor, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was indicted on corruption charges and, according to investigators, could face at least 15 years behind bars. The ruling Workers’ Party (PT) seems to be falling apart more by the day, so it’s reasonable to ask, what’s this all about?
Dilma’s supporters, known to Brazilians as petistas, claim that her impeachment was undemocratic and even Dilma has publicized this narrative, calling her ouster a coup d’état conspiracy orchestrated by her opposition. To me and millions of others, this idea is beyond ridiculous. When you vote for a particular candidate, you are also voting for their running mate; and, even according to the Brazilian Constitution, a Vice President should take power if a President should be impeached. So current President Michel Temer is being attacked by the very people who voted for him in the first place, ignoring the document they claim to hold so dear. They call him unelected, but that couldn’t be further from the truth; petistas just didn’t realize it. Even Bernie Sanders, who I voted for in the Democratic primary, defended Dilma and bought into her coup narrative. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also praised her in a press conference as well as in her book, Hard Choices. Unfortunately, these are positions I cannot defend in the slightest.
The interesting thing is Dilma wasn’t banned from public office after being impeached, and Forbes magazine said “The Senate vote was an evil genius move in only regard: it demolishes the notion that Dilma was being overthrown in a coup. That story is officially dead. No one is overthrown in a coup and gets to keep their political rights.” If her impeachment was really an undemocratic coup, Dilma’s so-called “conspirators” are being oddly generous to her, since she can run for office anywhere at any time. Though, I doubt the former President, who described herself as a representative of women and the poor, will even be elected to be the landlord of her new million dollar building only a few yards from Ipanema beach.
President Temer isn’t immune to criticism either; he’s also been engulfed in Operation Car Wash, the largest corruption investigation in world history, which bans him from running for office for another eight years. He also abolished the country’s ministry that takes care of minority rights and chose a cabinet consisting only of old white men when the majority of the Brazilian population is young and non-white. Dilma’s allies see him basically as a Hitler-like authoritarian figure who is willing to screw over the people to satisfy his own evil business-friendly plans. His economic plan, which he called “A Bridge to the Future,” calls for austerity measures like increasing the current retirement age, mass privatization, and decreasing public spending in order to get the economy back on track. This shift to center-right policies led to Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia ending diplomatic relations with Brazil and, to be honest, it’s probably a good thing that we do not keep ties with dictatorships.
The funny thing about Temer being in power is that corruption investigators can now shift their attention to the politicians in his Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). Petistas complained and moaned that the Workers’ Party was being disproportionately investigated and that corruption was rampant in other parties as well, but what they forget is that political investigations should begin with those who are in power at that particular point in time. Also, let’s just clarify that we cannot and should not accept a political party under criminal investigation just because other parties are also criminal in many ways. That’s the classic “lesser of two evils” dilemma which shouldn’t be how we live our lives.
So, that’s my probably 538th rant on Brazil, and I know it won’t be my last. As long as I’m allowed to have a platform to voice my thoughts online, I’ll do exactly that. When it comes to Brazil, only time will tell us where Temer will take the country and we should all hope he changes it for the better. Unfortunately, the people who seem to disagree are his own voters, who are willing to do whatever they can to make sure the government fails, for the good of the party. The rest of us are hoping the government succeeds, for the good of the country. That’s the key difference between both sides of this debate; the minority who wants failure and the majority who need success.
