Jair Bolsonario, one of the few politicians that make Trump sound circumspect, just missed coming to power in Brazil, according to BBC reports and a thousand excited postings in my Facebook feed. The latest count is Bolsonario 46% and his progressive rival Fernando Haddad 29%. Since Bolsonario didn’t break though 50%, there will be a run-off in three weeks.
Bolsonario has been grabbing headlines by saying stuff that Der Furor hasn’t said in public (at least not yet!), and by mobilizing a part of Brazil’s electorate even nuttier than our Trumpsters.
Among Bolsonarios greatest hits:
- “She does not deserve to be raped because she is very bad, she is very ugly”
- “I am in favor of torture—you know that—the people are in favor too. You won’t change anything by voting. Anything! Absolutely nothing!”
- “I would be incapable of loving a homosexual child”
quotes from TeleSur
A good summary of the Brazilian elections so far can be found here (with a fortunately inaccurate headline).