Lula Calls His Win a Victory Over Fascism While His Court Seizes a Rival’s Passport on Unproven Allegations
Steven Crowder laid out the contradiction in real time. Lula just declared his election a triumph of democracy over fascism and authoritarianism. At the same time, Brazilian authorities seized the passport of his political opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, over allegations of money laundering. No charges have been filed. The investigation is being handled by people, including Lula himself and certain Supreme Court justices, who have their own histories with corruption.
“Let’s steelman this, because I want to be clear about something. I absolutely believe that the election was stolen, looking at the numbers, and with incomplete information at this point. I see it as not mathematically impossible, but unbelievably unlikely. We did a segment on that yesterday.”
Crowder noted the pattern. An unproven investigation is underway against a political opponent. The people running it include figures who have been found guilty of corruption or who have the power to shut down investigations into themselves. Those same people ordered the passport seized so the opponent cannot leave the country.
“People may say, well, you know what, they say he’s going to be investigated for money laundering. Okay. Has that been proven? Also, who’s running the investigation? Is it people who have been found guilty of corruption? Not just the former president, now president Lula, political opposition, but Supreme Court justices and people in authority? So the alleged investigation that is going to be underway of a political opponent, where there have been no charges yet, from people, in some cases, who’ve been found guilty of corruption, and in some other cases, obviously, they should have been found guilty of corruption, but they have the authority to stop the investigations, those people are seizing the passport of a political opponent so that he cannot leave the country for alleged money laundering.”
The more troubling part, Crowder argued, is the reaction inside Brazil. Plenty of people on social media are cheering it on. They want Lula to be strong. They want political opponents removed. They see this as the proper use of power.
“I believe the election was stolen, but the more troubling thing is if you look on social media, you still see a lot of Brazilians saying, great, this is what we want. We need someone to be strong on this. We need Lula to get rid of political opponents. We need him to do this for us. And they will do the same thing to you. They will do the same thing to you. This is the political left. Historically, it doesn’t end any other way.”
That is the point. The left wins elections, then uses courts and institutions to neutralize rivals under the banner of defending democracy. The rhetoric about fascism is the cover. The passport seizure is the practice. History shows where that road leads once the machinery is in place and the public accepts it.