Here's what Jair Bolsonaro, Trump, and Putin have in common
The first line of Jon Lee Anderson's long-awaited profile of Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro in the New Yorker is a real killer. "The authoritarian leaders taking power around the world share a vocabulary of intolerance, insult, and menace..."
As Anderson writes, in Bolsonaro's Brazil--and around the world--"A budding authoritarian borrows from the Trump playbook."
Like many autocrats, Bolsonaro came to power with a suddenness that alarmed the i(C)lites. He had run a low-budget campaign, consisting mostly of a social-media effort overseen by his son Carlos. At events with supporters, he posed for selfies making a gesture as if he were shooting a machine gun. He promised to "reconstruct the country"-and to return power to a political right that had been in eclipse for decades. In the inaugural ceremony, he vowed to "rescue the family, respect religions and our Judeo-Christian tradition, combat gender ideology, conserving our values."
Afterward, Bolsonaro received a procession of foreign dignitaries, and as they stepped up to pay their respects the crowd greeted them with cheers or boos. The Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbin got perfunctory applause; the bolsonaristas seemed not to know who he was. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fending off charges of fraud and bribery, got a riotous cheer. Bolivia's President, Evo Morales, the only left-wing leader to attend, was subjected to shouts of "Get out, communist," and "indio de merda"-"fucking Indian."
Despite Bolsonaro's divisive rhetoric, American conservatives were enthusiastic about his Presidency. He had expressed leeriness of China and hostility toward socialists in Cuba and Venezuela; he promised to move Brazil's Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Donald Trump didn't attend the inauguration, but he tweeted his solidarity: "The USA is with you!" Bolsonaro, who sees in Trump a kindred spirit and an opportunity, tweeted back, "Together, under God's protection, we shall bring prosperity and progress to our people!"
I don't want to give it away, but the last line will make your blood run cold if you're hoping for someone other than Trump in 2020.
Jair Bolsonaro's Southern Strategy [newyorker.com]