A leading candidate for president in Brazil was stabbed today while campaigning. Jair Bolsonaro, the leader in the polls was rushed to the hospital. He is out of surgery and has survived, but he remains in intensive care. Preliminary word is that he will survive without permanent injuries, but that could change.
Bolsonaro is a conservative candidate who has a strong following and engenders a lot of intense opposition from the left. His attacker is a socialist who says he was "on a mission from God". Although that sounds more like a line from The Blues Brothers than a reason for a political assassination by a far left winger, it is what he told the Brazilian police upon his arrest.
It's hard to say just how this attack will affect the race in Brazil. Assuming Bolsonaro survives, he may well get a major sympathy vote. It will also make it very hard for the other candidates to attack Bolsonaro while he is in the hospital. And just as the assassin believed he was doing God's work, the voters may see Bolsonaro's survival as a sign from God. One never knows.
More important than the outcome of the Brazilian election, however, is the example that this attack sets for America. An outspoken conservative hated by the left is attacked by a crazed socialist and almost murdered. It doesn't take too much imagination to think that such a thing could happen here if the left doesn't tone down some of its more strident (and false) criticisms of the President. Policy disagreement is one thing, phony smears are something entirely different. The level of anger has to be reduced, and that means that the media and the Democrats have to try to stick to reality rather than Fake News and personal attacks. The same is true of the right wingers who engage in tit for tat responses.
Bolsonaro is a conservative candidate who has a strong following and engenders a lot of intense opposition from the left. His attacker is a socialist who says he was "on a mission from God". Although that sounds more like a line from The Blues Brothers than a reason for a political assassination by a far left winger, it is what he told the Brazilian police upon his arrest.
It's hard to say just how this attack will affect the race in Brazil. Assuming Bolsonaro survives, he may well get a major sympathy vote. It will also make it very hard for the other candidates to attack Bolsonaro while he is in the hospital. And just as the assassin believed he was doing God's work, the voters may see Bolsonaro's survival as a sign from God. One never knows.
More important than the outcome of the Brazilian election, however, is the example that this attack sets for America. An outspoken conservative hated by the left is attacked by a crazed socialist and almost murdered. It doesn't take too much imagination to think that such a thing could happen here if the left doesn't tone down some of its more strident (and false) criticisms of the President. Policy disagreement is one thing, phony smears are something entirely different. The level of anger has to be reduced, and that means that the media and the Democrats have to try to stick to reality rather than Fake News and personal attacks. The same is true of the right wingers who engage in tit for tat responses.
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