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**OCTOBER 31, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** What Brazil Teaches America
Actually delivering for working people matters. It also matters whether
elites support democratic institutions.
The two-point victory of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over
neofascist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro prompts comparisons with the
containment of neofascism in the U.S. But let's draw the right
lessons.
One is that Lula had an immense stock of goodwill to draw on from
Brazil's working people because of the stunning program of practical,
easy-to-grasp help that he delivered during his two terms of office
between 2003 and 2010. His program included the famous Bolsa FamÃlia
<[link removed]>, which gave cash
grants to poor families as long as their kids attended school and got
vaccinated. It was the world's largest direct cash program and thanks
to the Bolsa, Brazilian poverty under Lula dropped by 27 percent. Lula
also worked closely with Brazil's unions so that gains went to the
middle class as well as the poor, and he began reversing deforestation
in the Amazon.
**The Wall Street Journal** quotes a lab technician, Germano Silva
<[link removed]>,
recalling how under Lula's presidency he could afford to travel by
airplane for the first time instead of taking a long bus ride. He put
three children through college, thanks to a new government scholarship
program enacted under Lula. "My vote is one of gratitude," he said.
Until Biden managed to get a one-year universal basic income for
parents, Democrats delivered nothing remotely close over the past three
Democratic presidencies. They are now having to rebuild credibility with
cynical working-class voters, starting about 40 points down.
Lula, by contrast, delivered the kind of unapologetic help to ordinary
Brazilian people that a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren might have
delivered. On Sunday, the people reciprocated.
The second lesson, sadly, is that Brazil's democratic institutions are
better bolstered than ours. Lula has been certified as the winner in a
direct popular vote, and there is no counterpart to the Electoral
College or the formal certification by the U.S. House to invite
mischief.
Even so, Lula does not take office until January 1, and there has been
conjecture that Bolsonaro will find ways to overturn the election.
However, unlike in the U.S. in
**Bush v. Gore**, the courts would oppose that. And the military, which
supported coups in the 20th century as recently as 1964, leading to a
brutal 21-year dictatorship, is no fan of Bolsonaro.
A
**New York Times** piece in August quoted an interview
<[link removed]>
with LuÃs Roberto Barroso, a Supreme Court justice and Brazil's
former elections chief, about the last successful coup in Brazil, in
1964: "The middle class supported it. Business people supported it. The
press supported it. And the U.S. supported it. Well, none of these
players support a coup now." Also in August, more than a million
Brazilians, including former presidents, leading academics, lawyers, and
pop stars, signed a letter defending the country's voting systems
<[link removed]>.
Business leaders released a similar letter.
Another instructive comparison is the role of corruption in both
countries. In the U.S., working-class MAGA voters look past Trump's
gross corruption because in the absence of much practical economic help
from Democrats, they are convinced that Trump is on their side
culturally. In Brazil, Lula served time for an alleged corruption
scandal, a conviction that was eventually overturned. This history
didn't bother a majority of Brazilian voters, who have proof positive
that Lula is on your side.
One further comparison is the role of economic elites. In Brazil, the
business class backed the 1964 coup and many corporate and financial
leaders backed Bolsonaro in 2018 to end the long-dominant role of
Lula's Brazilian Workers' Party. This time, Bolsonaro's personal
instability and failed policies, including Brazil's COVID disaster,
gave just enough corporate leaders pause. In the U.S., corporate elites
don't much like Trump, but they back Republicans down the line.
Democrats have a lot to learn from Lula.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Republicans Have a Symbiotic Relationship With Crime
<[link removed]>
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Clash of the Titans in Maine
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Janet Mills and Paul LePage are no strangers to political acrimony in a
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How Governing Can Motivate Politics
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An alternate vision for how Democrats could bring the fight to the
midterms by taking action in Congress and the White House BY DOROTHY
SLATER & TONI AGUILAR ROSENTHAL
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