Former army captain Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidential election against his leftist rival Fernando Haddad with 56% of the vote, placing a conservative in power for the first time in decades.
Jair Bolsonaro
The legacy media label him “far right,” which, translated to objective language, means that he is a moderate conservative. Pro-life, anti-establishment, and pro-gun, he promises to reform the economy, shave Brazil’s deficit, and shrink public debt.
Also, he pledges to reverse what he calls a bias in diplomatic relations. In practice, this means severing ties to various leftist dictators and ending the trash-talking of democracies such as the United States, Israel, and Italy.
Law and Order
Bolsonaro’s rise in popularity has been fueled by a spate of corruption in Brazil's leftist government and social policies that disintegrate the family and social cohesion. Under the left-wing regime, crime has spiraled out of control, and Bolsonaro has vowed to crack down hard on it. His firm stance on law and order has earned him a reputation as an admirer of the 1964-1985 military dictatorship in Brazil. Politics in that nation have moved so far left that punishing criminals is apparently considered the act of a dictatorship.
He is also famously portrayed as a misogynist and a homophobe, but to what degree these labels will actually inform Bolsonaro's policy is another matter. While President Trump has also been been assigned all kinds of unpleasant monikers, he has yet to take action against of the groups he supposedly considers inferior.
Bolsonaro has been called the Latin American Trump.
Parallels to Trump
Bolsonaro has been called the Latin American Trump, and the comparison to Donald Trump is not unwarranted. They are moderate centrists, but with a strong national agenda; both want to limit immigration and “drain the swamp.” The legacy media describe them as far right, verging on fascist.
Also, both are viewed positively by the market. In the lead-up to the election the Brazilian stock market boomed in anticipation of Bolsonaro’s victory, and the currency has strengthened.
With the majority and the markets on their side, how far left must the media be to label moderate conservatives as far right?
Only time will tell if the two outsiders will continue to track each other. Bolsonaro will surely be a welcome guest in the White House. No one knows the future, but do not be surprised if both Trump and Bolsonaro are re-elected on the strength of a surging economy.
