Opinion – Nelson Barbosa: The choice remains as easy as in 2016 and 2018

The time has come for us to start getting out of the hole we got ourselves into in the 2016 parliamentary coup and digging deeper in the 2018 censored election.

As in those years, the political choice of 2022 remains very easy. The difference is that now most opinion makers have realized the obvious: the demophobia of our elites tends towards authoritarianism, with the risk of falling into an almost fascist regime.

In the economy, after the failure of Temer’s toucan project, it became difficult to defend once again that the people need to wait for reforms, reforms and reforms, which never end, before improving their lives.

Reforms are needed, and my readers know that I have advocated several of them in this space. However, for those who are hungry and have no jobs, it is not possible to wait forever until the neoliberal kindergarten project succeeds.

In real Brazil, a government for all must combine reforms with immediate measures to create jobs, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality.

In politics, after the revelation that Operação Lava Jato was a political movement against the left, it became difficult to say that the country’s main problem is corruption, as well as that corruption only exists on one side of the political spectrum.

Until now, few ex-lava-jatistas luminaries have made a self-criticism of their contribution to the udenista surge that resurrected quasi-fascism in Brazil, but the partiality of our Justice and media is recorded for history.

Future generations will know who did what and when in the “lost decade” of 2013-22, as well as who stood for democracy and common sense even when it was not fashionable.

After the tragedy of Bolsonaro’s mismanagement in the economy, health, education, the environment and in so many other areas, no one finds “making a gun” funny anymore. Among the functions of the President of the Republic, there is also an example of behavior. We have never had such a bad example as Bolsonaro.

Bravery, apology for weapons, incitement to violence, encouragement of deforestation, disrespect for minorities, disrespect also for majorities, especially women, nepotism, serial cracks, secret budget, hundred-year secrecy, recurrent attacks on democracy, humiliation of Brazil in global scale and, to close the package, disregard for the suffering of thousands of families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic.

Our bolsonarista dystopia will certainly be the object of long studies, in Brazil and in the world, so that it never happens again. I say this knowing perfectly well that Bolsonaro’s eventual defeat will not end Bolsonarismo, as I also know that the current outbreak of common sense of ex-lava jatistas will not last forever.

As history moves like a pendulum, I only wish that the current broad front against fascism is eternal while it lasts, say, for at least four years, under Lula and Alckmin.

Finally, even the street corners of Brasília know that I have been voting for the PT since 1989, when we had elections for president again. On Sunday (2) I will do the same thing, voting 13 for Lula and for progressive candidates for the other positions, because the election is not just for president.

It is important to vote for governors, senators and deputies committed to a “Brazil for all”. How to identify these people? I suggest three criteria. Were you against Dilma’s removal in 2016? Were you against Lula’s arrest in 2018? Support Lula today? If the person has marked yes three times, they deserve your vote.

Good election to all and avoid falling for the crazy Bolsonarista provocation.