After degrading Brazil’s international image, tarnishing any decorum associated with being the country’s leader, and persisting with borderline criminal denialism during the Covid pandemic, Jair Bolsonaro is finally beginning to get his comeuppance.
The Superior Electoral Court’s decision to strip him of his political rights is most likely the first step into a realm of pain that should follow him. Mr. Bolsonaro faces a plethora of criminal investigations for a variety of reasons, and a prison sentence may be imminent.
It is undeniable, however, that Mr. Bolsonaro is a popular political figure. And his rapid and somewhat surprising rise from backbencher to president also energized the dormant right-wing proposal in Brazilian society.
Finally, a nation with an overwhelmingly Christian-conservative value system had a leader who could rally the masses against the larger-than-life leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. By October 2022, nearly half of Brazilians voted for Mr. Bolsonaro’s re-election, despite his atrocious pandemic management, poor economic results, and weekly doses of institutional crisis.
Stripped of his political rights for eight years, Mr. Bolsonaro may be on the verge of losing most of the relevance he built up during his 30-plus years in public office, famous for spewing hateful vitriol against political opponents and advocating tough-on-crime legislation more suited to post-apocalyptic dystopias than 21st-century society.
Nevertheless, there is a relevant audience for that discourse.
While it would be easier to pin these sentiments on a few bloodthirsty elites and a fascist-friendly middle class, the fact is that conservatism should not be a proposition without its representatives. More than three decades after the end...
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