Brazil rides global wave of discontent and elects Bolsonaro

Hi, this is JR, the producer. Thanks for being with us for our one-hundredth episode!

The global wave of discontent arrived at the shores of the world’s fourth-largest democracy, as Brazilians overwhelmingly voted to elect the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro as their next president.

Hi everyone, welcome to Plain English, like JR said, episode number 100, and it’s fitting that on a milestone episode for us, we have a milestone topic to cover—a wave election in Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, and the latest to express its discontent with the political status quo.

Like always, you can find the transcript of today’s program at PlainEnglish.com/100. And if you’d like to join our email community, and get additional learning resources twice a week, you can sign up at PlainEnglish.com/mail .

Quick programming announcement. JR and I wanted to share some thoughts with all of you about what Plain English has become over these last hundred episodes, but we didn’t want to take any time away from the important topic that we have to discuss today. So JR and I are going to release a special episode to the podcast feed tomorrow, Tuesday, November 6. And we will dedicate that special episode to sharing a bit more about the program, how we make it, who listens, things like that.

But before we jump into the main topic, I did want to take a moment and say, on behalf of JR and myself, that we love doing this and we love getting to know all of you, and we appreciate that so many people around the world have invited us into their lives. You listen on your commutes, during your workouts, first thing in the morning, late at night, at work, on your breaks. And podcasting is such an intimate medium—unlike television or even radio, when you’re listening to a podcast, it’s usually one person listening on headphones or in the car. Especially in another language, you don’t passively listen—you’re actively concentrating. And I can’t tell you what a privilege it is to be invited into this special place in your lives. JR and I both know what it’s like to learn a new language: how hard it is, how frustrating it is, but also valuable it is in the long run. So, on behalf of both of us, thank you for including us in your lives, for letting us help you a little bit on this journey.

Jair Bolsonaro is elected president in Brazil

Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain and 27-year congressman, won a convincing victory in Brazil’s presidential election, shifting Latin America’s largest country rightward politically and jolting the established political order.

Bolsonaro came from relative obscurity to capture the deep emotions of a wide swath of Brazilian society, winning over 55% of the vote on October 28. Just a year ago, it would have been almost unthinkable to imagine such a shift in Brazilian politics, but his campaign, which featured anti-corruption themes and promises to control the country’s spiraling violence, struck a chord with Brazilian voters. After four elections won by left-wing parties, the country was ready for a political change.

Brazil has been consumed with an anti-corruption investigation called Operation Car Wash, which exposed graft and corruption on a massive scale, touching almost all political parties, the business community, judiciary, and government contractors. One former president was jailed and his successor was impeached; the current president has a 2% approval rating. Partly as a result of the investigation, Brazil has been in its deepest recession in recent memory.

With that as a backdrop, the country was ready for a change—and Bolsonaro promised the most jolting change, and promised it the loudest. In some ways, he won the competition of who could rail against the PT and corruption in the strongest manner. His opponent in the election, Fernando Haddade, was a generally temperate, moderate candidate, but was nevertheless burdened by the stained reputation of the Workers’ Party. He was the hand-picked stand-in for the jailed former president, and only entered the campaign in the last weeks of the first round. By contrast, Bolsonaro was not touched by the wide-ranging corruption investigation, which lent him credibility as the opposite of the established order.

His economic proposals would also represent a shift for Brazil. He has proposed to privatize some industries, sell assets, and reform Brazil’s unaffordable public pensions—in short, reduce the role of the state. A Catholic himself, he attracted the support of evangelical Christians, speaking openly about his religion and promising to restore traditional values.

Bolsonaro’s candidacy was deeply divisive within Brazil. The objections to Bolsonaro and his campaign run the gamut. Many are concerned that a former army captain, who served Brazil’s military rulers before its democratic reforms of 1985, will erode the country’s democracy. They note he has made positive comments about the period of military rule, named a reserve general as his running mate, and once defended killing opponents of the military regime. His promises to tackle rising violence are vague but unsettling to some: he has said he wants to lower the age of legal responsibility to 16 and he supports more citizens having guns to defend themselves. His opponents worry this will lead to a cycle of increasing violence and an authoritarian-style government crackdown. Some of the more passionate opponents say he is a threat to Brazil’s democratic future. Still others are worried about the increasing role of religion in government, since Bolsonaro frequently spoke in openly religious terms.

Bolsonaro also has a colorful history of past statements—he seems to have offended about every minority group in Brazil, whether that would be women, racial minorities or gays and lesbians.

They say that history doesn’t repeat itself, but that it rhymes. And so it has been with several jolting democratic events across the world in recent years. Bolsonaro’s election is similar in many ways to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, and to the elections of anti-establishment candidates as presidents of the United States and Mexico. Some might even say the 2014 election of Narenda Modi in India was the precursor to some of these events, as his BJP party swept out the party that had dominated Indian politics since independence. The decline in support for traditional, centrist parties in Germany, Italy, Spain and even Scandinavia is also part of this global trend. In this way, the world’s first, second, fourth, and sixth-largest democracies have all voted for a jolting change in recent years.

In his acceptance speech, Bolsonaro pledged to respect the constitution and began the conciliation process and the move to the center that so often follows a divisive election. He said he would respect the constitution and personal liberty, serve the interest of everyone, and abandon the “us versus them” rhetoric that had dominated the campaign. That sounds nice, but the campaign was especially bruising, with some harsh words being exchanged on both sides. Some of Bolsonaro’s supporters did not seem as generous to their opponents on the day after victory.

But tempers will likely cool in the coming weeks and the main test of Bolsonaro’s leadership will be his progress in implementing the agenda he campaigned on. He will have some momentum, as his PSL party increased its representation in Brazil’s Congress from just one seat to 52. But he has to contend with an unwieldy number of political parties—thirty—and the Workers Party is still the largest party in Congress, despite having lost the presidency.

Thirty opposition parties? That’s crazy. So, I hope I was fair with that summary of what happened in Brazil. Coming from the United States, where we had our own divisive election just two years ago, I know opinions can be pretty strong on both sides. And I suspect a lot of people were probably not happy with the final two options in this election, too, right? When so much of the country’s political class has been tainted by scandal, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of great options. In our most recent election in the US, I think a lot of people voted for the least-bad option. Certainly there were a lot of very committed supporters on both sides, but I can tell you there were a lot of people in the middle who voted for the least-bad option.

I want to say hi to a couple of people today. Cansel from Turkey is trying a novel approach. She’s listening to Plain English right before she goes to sleep. Hopefully while she sleeps she absorbs some of what’s playing and maybe she wakes up with a bunch of new words in her vocabulary. Worth a try, right? I also want to say hi to Lucas from Brazil. He’s coming to the United States soon and loves hearing about the US culture and expressions. He said he listens in the car and he also said he listens before going to sleep.

Do you think it’s possible that all these people are just being polite when they tell me they listen before going to sleep? Do you think maybe it’s because the program puts them to sleep? Hey—however, we can be of service is fine by me!