Setting an Example
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used in evolving Wikipedia article about the invasion of the Brazilian Congress)
It would have been premature to talk about the insurrection in Brazil before events played out enough to show us which way it would go. Now we can all see what happened.
It looks too much like the insurrection in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. The Washington Post ran side by side photos in its article noting the similarities, which it called “eerie.” BBC Radio 4 aired an unusually insightful interview about it this morning. It’s so obvious, people all over the world recognize it. It’s so bad, even the government of Turkey condemned it.
In Washington this plan very nearly succeeded. A miraculous confluence of individuals putting themselves on the line, individuals making the right choice at the right moment, and sheer luck kept the government of the USA from being shredded… that day.
But then the insurrectionists were allowed to simply go home. Since then, only foot soldiers in the insurrection have been punished. Judicial rhetoric about their crimes has been harsher than the sentences meted out. The architects and leaders have not only gone unpunished, many of them have been sworn into elected office again even though the Fourteenth Amendment says they are no longer eligible to hold office.
Bolsonaro and his people saw that and took it as an example.
What people or nations do sets an example.
What people or nations don’t do also sets an example.
Leaders who break the law should be held to account for doing so, just like ordinary citizen would be. When they aren’t, that sets a very bad example… not just for one country, but for others too. Would it be a national trauma to watch a former President be tried and convicted for trying to block the peaceful transfer of power? Maybe, but a mature nation upholds the rule of law even when it’s uncomfortable.
My American heart knows we didn’t and burns in the knowledge that now Brazil is suffering in ways that might never have happened if we hadn’t set a bad example.
Brazil seems to have learned enough from us to be determined to uphold its rule of law. I wish we had set that example first.
I actually expected this - after all, Bolsonaro was known as the "Tropical Trump" and refused to participate in the transfer of power. If the "most powerful country in the world" allows insurrection to happen without consequence to its most powerful perpetrators, the domino effect was inevitable. It disgusts me. All of it.
Same with Brexit in Britain and the trucker's convoy in Canada (even though truckers who work for a living were overwhelmingly against it.)
The groundwork for these attempted overthrows were laid out in the U.S. They appear to be part of the master plan of international fascism. The most appalling feature is the useful idiots who think they're fighting for freedom and against fascism!
If they were to succeed "freedom" for them would mean a gutting of social spending, including social security and the possible end of medicare, for starters.