Elon Musk Is Trying to Break Another Democracy
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son,
indicated as much during an April 8 appearance on Roda Viva, Brazil’s
highly regarded television interview show. The younger Bolsonaro—who, like his
father, is accused
of a litany of crimes—noted
that just as the Biden administration has sought to curb authoritarian
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro through sanctions, Donald Trump might do the
same to Brazil should he win the presidency in November: “This situation with
Elon Musk placed the spotlight of the world on us Brazilians here, what is
happening is not normal… We have to defend our democracy and with Elon Musk
being as close to Trump as he is, and if Trump is reelected president of the
United States, I think there is a real possibility of sanctions.”
Republicans likely see a fresh avenue to link their support
of Trump and right-wing populism to a broader international community. Trump
and his supporters were very much attuned to the energy behind Brexit and solicitous of
like-minded leaders in Hungary, Russia, and beyond. Furthermore, as Fabio de Sá
e Silva, a professor of international
studies at the University of Oklahoma, posited, “the American
right is interested in discrediting the Brazilian [Supreme Court] because, in
addition to having already left Bolsonaro ineligible, we can also
provide an example for how to punish a coup, something that Trump fears
suffering in the USA.”
At times like this, with the
stakes so high, it is worth being categorial: Brazil is a robust pluralistic
democracy. To assert otherwise plays directly into the hands of those wishing
to subvert the democratically elected government of the fourth-largest
democracy in the world. Despite what Bolsonaro, Musk, and their adherents might have the world believe, nobody in Brazil is being rounded up for sharing their
opinion. Nobody is being tortured or exiled for their ideas.