Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva with the flags of Brazil and China behind him. Photo: Sergio Lima/AFP.
By Quantum Bird – April 9, 2023
Before getting to the point, let us take a look at this Twitter interaction:
Are you still a Democrat?
— shyyguy (@shyyguy52) March 28, 2023
I’m an Independent now. https://t.co/BtvqYwLVXf
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 28, 2023
Which means Republican
— LeonRunciter (@LRunciter) March 28, 2023
No, it doesn’t. But talk like this is a big part of why I left the Democratic Party. It’s always “Vote for us or you’re a right-wing insurrectionist Putin-lover,” which is the opposite of persuasive.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 28, 2023
The Twitter conversation above, between Matt Taibbi and his followers—probably members of the US Democratic Party—could very well have been held in Portuguese, between some member of the Brazilian labor and sovereigntist left and one of the militants of the left-wing parties that support the center-right broad front (astonishing, but yes, that’s it!) that governs Brazil at the moment. Basically, anyone who criticizes Lula’s current government is automatically labeled a Bolsonarist and becomes a target of attacks, irrespective of the tenor of the criticism.
This has created a curious situation: it has made the government hostage to its own radicalized woke militancy, which demands its daily dose of virtue-signaling and identitarianism, while not for a second failing to attack Brazil’s conservative societal structures—family, religion, unions—constantly providing ammunition for the maintenance and reproduction of Bolsonarism. If you want a political-electoral prospectus of the Brazil of 2025, look at the USA today.
Some analysts, native and gringo, have been talking about a renewed hybrid war, practiced by the very front in government. Maybe it is, but personally I would not dare to state it categorically yet. The mover is missing. In other words, the current political configuration was deliberately articulated as a power project whose sole objective was to get Bolsonaro out of the presidency. It has always been a grotesque chimera, involving actors of dubious character and dangerous connections, left and right, that from the beginning alienated the most critical sectors of the center-left, and has always lacked any minimally serious and qualified debate about a viable project of nationhood vis-à-vis the ongoing tectonic shifts in global geopolitics.
Thus, it is nothing new that the government follows an erratic trajectory, reacting to geopolitical facts in a chaotic, inconsistent and fragmented way. Whether acting on behalf of Atlanticist interests—issuing statements against the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine, allowing the foreign minister to covertly threaten Putin with arrest, and the Foreign Ministry to vote against Russia at the UN—or articulating trade agreements with China, without proper coordination with the other BRICS members and any consistent strategic formulation on energy, reindustrialization, and regaining full control of the territory. The only beneficiaries of the agreement with China, besides the Chinese, tend to be the soybean and other commodity exporting sectors, which historically concentrate the national income. At the Latin American regional level, Brazil is increasingly perceived as a representative of Yankee interests, inexorably losing stature.
Lula Arrives in China to Strengthen Brazil’s Ties With Largest Trading Partner
Lula and his party failed to repel Euro-US interference in domestic politics during the electoral period, and seem to feel indebted to the corresponding centers of power for the support received for their election, thus behaving accordingly, to avoid appearing ungrateful. They failed to realize that such interference was nothing but a typically Mafia-like offer, in which the thief sells protection against himself. The most astute domestic actors have always perceived Lula realistically: the indispensable element to legitimize the broad front with the popular vote. In other words, use the votes of the left to elect the right.
Some may argue that 100 days in office is too short to deliver results. Certainly, but it is enough to propose a clear government plan and proceed with its implementation. This plan should have been formulated a priori, during the pre-electoral period. It was never publicly discussed with the population during the election period. Apparently, time and energy were spent on political horse-trading and semiotic wars against the Bolsonarists, in social media, for the woke middle class of the big urban centers to see.
(Comunidad Saker Latinoamérica)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/AF
