Brasilien trat für seine Demokratie ein. Warum nicht die USA?

Quico Toro: “While American prosecutors languidly dotted *i*’s and crossed *t*’s, Brazil’s institutions seemed to understand early on that they faced an existential threat from the former president. Fewer than seven months after the attempted coup, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court ruled Bolsonaro ineligible to stand for office again until 2030. Interestingly, that decision wasn’t even handed down as a consequence of the attempted coup itself, but of Bolsonaro’s abuse of official acts to promote himself as a candidate, as well as his insistence on casting doubt, without evidence, on the fairness of the election….

“I can’t help but wish that U.S. jurists had shown the nerve of their Brazilian counterparts. In their charging documents against Bolsonaro, Brazil’s prosecutors don’t mumble technicalities: They charge him with attempting a coup d’état, which is what he did. Brazilian law enforcement didn’t tie itself up in knots appointing special counsels; the attorney general, Paulo Gonet, announced the charges himself. The conspiracy ‘had as leaders the president of the Republic himself and his candidate for vice president, General Braga Neto. Both accepted, encouraged, and carried out acts classified in criminal statutes as attacks on the … independence of the powers and the democratic rule of law,’ Gonet said.

“Contrast that with the proceduralism at the core of the case against President Trump. After an interminable delay that ultimately rendered the entire exercise moot, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump not for trying to overthrow the government but for ‘conspiring to obstruct the official proceeding’ (that would lead him to lose power) as well as ‘conspiring to defraud the United States’—a crime so abstract that only a constitutional lawyer knows what it actually means.

“In ruling Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office, Brazil’s elections court did not engage in lengthy disquisitions on 19th-century jurisprudence, as the U.S. Supreme Court did in the Colorado case: They said that he had serially abused his power, which is what he did, and which is what renders him unfit for office. This bluntness, this willingness to call a spade a spade, was something the American republic, for all its institutional sophistication, seemed unable to match.

“As recently as 2014, one would have been hard-pressed to find anyone willing to forecast that Brazil’s institutions would prove more effective than those of the United States at protecting democracy from populist menace. Maybe Brazilians are just more comfortable with, and accustomed to, holding national leaders to account: The current center-left president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, spent more than two years in prison for corruption after his last stint in power. (Lula was ultimately freed and allowed to stand for office again when courts ruled that the judge in his initial prosecution was biased.) Or maybe it was the speed of response: Rather than waiting months or years to move against the rioters who took over the country’s governing institutions, the Brazilian police started jailing them and investigating the coup conspiracy almost immediately after it took place.”

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The democratic party has been languishing without any real drive or determination. They lack decisive leadership and a clear message. They have a passive and reactionary approach to any challenge they face and it seems like they do not have strong figures who are willing to take accountability and risk their political positions. I think this is a huge reason they lost the election. Theyre a ship without a captain and the american people wanted a clear path forward to address the problems that are impacting their quality of life.

While less than 30% of the US voting population voted for Trump, he still swept Harris aside because, for better or worse, he had a loud and clear message. He speaks in a way that rallies his fan base and exudes confidence (or hubris).

The democrats are in the middle of an identity crisis and I think the american general population isn’t excited to back the party. Most people I know were completely indifferent about Harris, but more so voted to oppose Trump. So, its no surprise really that given theyre floundering, the people in key positions lacked the drive to take decisive, immediate action. They are still lacking that initiative needed to counter Trump right now.

Brazilians, French will fight their government.

In moments of crisis, Germans in WWII and Americans will obey authority figures / turn off critical thinking.

It is also against the American ethic to protest on the scale needed to bring a government to its knees. To shut down cities. There is no “we the people” in the US. Just, We the state and you within it.

But for how long, the institutions are working. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they elect the far right again next year

“It’s only democracy when my side wins”