Brazil’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Election

Family used to be a safe space for Mauro Palermo. The Rio de Janeiro publishing executive and father of two girls fondly recalled Sundays at his grandparent’s home, where no matter who was running Brazil, siblings and cousins gathered to joke, gossip and settle the world’s problems over ham-and-cheese and cashew juice.

That domestic idyll vanished with the 2018 election. Mind you, family elders did their best to keep the peace earlier this month when Palermo’s aunt celebrated her 70th birthday on the eve of the first round of voting. But with splenetic right-wing army captain Jair Bolsonaro leading the race and now favored in a runoff with former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, an eleventh hour stand-in for the scandal-soaked leftist Workers’ Party, the truce couldn’t last.

No sooner did the celebration end than Palermo’s cousin took to Facebook to “disown” the family for its support of Bolsonaro. A Workers’ Party sympathizer, he claimed to speak for his sister, a lesbian, who although never ostracized among kin would be easy prey to the coming “fascists.” “Politics has contaminated our family,” Palermo told me. “What’s worse, with social media, isolated conversations are now public and permanent. There’s no escape.”