Mark Blyth and Jim Green: Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election

I must confess to have not followed the political and economic situation in Brazil very much at all over the last few years, for reasons which would be obvious to most regular readers. My priorities were in great demand elsewhere.

This was a particularly interesting discussion, because it ties in what has been happening in Brazil with more general trends world wide, including the United States.

Greenwald: Lessons From Bolsonaro's Victory in Brazil

In the video below Glenn Greenwald discusses the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro, and what makes him substantially different from Donald Trump.

But he also ties in the dynamics that led to this election with the other recent political scenarios in Western democracies, like the US and the UK.

It is a short video and worth watching.

"The Right wing authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro cruised to a 10-point victory on Sunday night in Brazil, becoming president-elect of the world’s fifth most populous country and the most extremist leader in the democratic world. While some of the dynamics driving his victory are unique to Brazil, many of them are similar to prevailing political currents in North America, Eastern Europe and, increasingly, Western Europe.

Bolsonaro’s victory is highly consequential in its own right: For the 210 million people who live within the borders of the country, as well as for the region and the globe, he and his tyrannical movement now dominate. But beyond those consequences, there are valuable lessons to learn for all of the democratic world by understanding the sentiments that led Brazilians en masse to support someone who, a very short time ago, was relegated to the far fringes of political acceptability and whose ascension to power was unimaginable. I explored some of those key lessons in the eight-minute video."

Glenn Greenwald

You may see the original at The Intercept.