Rodrigo Nunes: Of what is Bolsonaro the name?
One might refer to the fascist movements as the wounds, the scars, of a democracy that, to this day, has not lived up to its own concept: Theodor Adorno First things first: to speak of ‘Bolsonarismo’ is not the same as speaking of Bolsonaro voters. Evidently, whatever we can call ‘Bolsonarismo’ must have been a factor in Jair Bolsonaro’s November 2018 election; but the former army captain’s victory was overdetermined in all sorts of ways, and the electoral coalition that brought him to power is broader than any phenomenon we can accurately describe with that name. In short, not every Bolsonaro voter is a Bolsonarista – a distinction that it is both analytically and politically essential to make.
Smaller than Bolsonaro’s actual or potential electorate, Bolsonarismo
is at the same time bigger than Bolsonaro himself: neither created by nor
solely dependent on the individual from whom it borrows its name. This means
that the link between ‘leader’ and ‘movement’ is synthetic rather than
analytic, and its strength hinges not on some essential bond but on the
contingent fact that, having found himself at the crest of a groundswell at a
critical time, Bolsonaro now has more power to shape it than anyone else. In
short, my contention is that Bolsonarismo is a real convergence of different
trends in Brazilian society, with the potential to consolidate itself as a
major force for quite some time; but the arrangement of political forces that
expresses it is neither coherent nor necessarily stable. In fact, one of its key
sources of instability is precisely Bolsonaro and his sons, owing to their
divisiveness, shady connections and constant attacks on potential challengers
to their control over this political capital.
‘Bolsonarista’ thus refers to a social segment that has
acquired an explicit political orientation in the last eight years or so
through an interactive relation with leaders like Bolsonaro, even if the fact
that the latter came to dominate it is itself contingent. It can be estimated
at around 15% of the population; considering Bolsonaro’s approval ratings have
never dropped far below 30%, it comprises the solid, unwavering half of that
percentage…
https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/of-what-is-bolsonaro-the-name
