New Brazilian Education Minister: Hostile to Socialism and Trump, Friendly with Bolsonaro and Hillary
By Julio Severo
Just as evangelicals
were vital for the election of President Donald Trump,
they
were also vital for the election of the new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Silas Malafaia, an Assemblies of God
televangelist who has become the most prominent evangelical personality in
Brazil and mentioned
in the U.S. media as the responsible for leading Brazilian evangelicals to
support Bolsonaro, had this week
recommended as minister of Education in Brazil Guilherme Schelb, who is an
evangelical and an expert against Marxism and the gender ideology. Schelb was
also supported by the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus in the Brazilian
Congress.
Carvalho recommended Colombian
Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez.
This
is the second major recommendation from Carvalho that Bolsonaro has accepted.
The first one was of Ernesto Araújo as Foreign Minister,
seen mistakenly as a “Trumpist,” even though his admiration for Trump
has as a source the fact that he sees unfoundedly René Guénon and his occult
ideas in Trump. He is a counterfeit Trumpist.
Is also Vélez a Trumpist?
For those who, like me, despise
socialism, Vélez has several articles against socialism and specifically
against the Workers’ Party, the socialist party that ruled Brazil from 2003 to
2016.
Just some samples, drawn from Vélez’s
personal blog Rocinante:
*
In 2011, he published his article “The Gramscian Marxism, Ideological
Background of the Educational Reform by the Workers’ Party.”
*
In 2014, he published his article “Conservative Mindset.”
*
In 2015, he published his article “The Brazilian Conservative Tradition,” where
in the section “Conservative and Traditionalist Thinkers,” he mentions Olavo de
Carvalho.
*
In 2016, he published his article “The Lulist Schizophrenia.”
*
In 2016, he published his article “Dilma’s Damn Heritage: It’s Necessary to
Talk About It!”
The
good news is the Velez has been friendly with Bolsonaro and he has been hostile
to Lula and his Workers’ Party.
It is obvious that from 2011 to 2016
he consistently attacked socialism and the Workers’ Party, which gave to Brazil
former socialist presidents Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, firstly elected in
2002, and Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016.
So with such “solid conservative
base,” it is very strange that in 2016 he said, in his article titled “The
worst in Latin America came to the U.S. through Trump” (published on November
4, 2016, in the Brazilian magazine Amalgama) that
*
In the present circumstances, with crazy Trump talking bullshit indiscriminately,
certainly Hillary, to traditional Republicans, is a lesser evil.
*
Trump is an irresponsible populist.
*
In the case of the populist disease, it seems that it has migrated from our
troubled Latin America, where in the last fifteen years it partied in the
populist governments of Lula, Kirchner, Chavez, Morales and others. Registered
trademark of the disease: the irresponsible verbiage of a platform promising heaven
and earth, telling the unemployed what they want to hear, offering millions of effortless
jobs for tomorrow, and overthrowing the uncomfortable laws of fiscal
responsibility. Lula was master in this.
*
Trump is a populist chatterbox.
*
Trump’s preaching is not isolated. Russia also has its populist leader.
*
Hillary is likely to win the presidential election. It will be better for us in
Brazil… A populist in the White House would make a huge mess.
In his article titled “Trump
President: What About Now?” published on November 10, 2016 in his personal blog,
Vélez said,
*
Trump has been elected president of the United States: What about now?… I
confess I was disappointed. Another populist on the horizon, after Brazil got
rid of Lula and his gang! It is too much.
*
fateful election of Trump.
Since
2016, has Vélez changed his mind? Apparently this is not so. In his 2018 article
titled “Neopopulisms in contemporaneity: United States, Russia and China,”
Vélez criticizes Trump’s and Putin’s neopopulism. But I do not understand why
he included China, because in China there is only communism. Nothing else.
His
article gives positive prominence to anti-Trump journalist Michael Wolff.
Vélez said,
journalist
Michael Wolff… entered the White House with the consent of its owner,
interviewed a lot of people and published everything he saw and heard in the
explosive book titled “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which has
just been published in Brazil by the publisher Objetiva with the title: “Fogo e
fúria — Por dentro da Casa Branca de Trump.” Trump’s hissy fits and threats
that he would bar the distribution of the book were of no avail. Wolff’s
disputed book has sold more than 2 million copies and will sell even more.
Michael
Wolf’s revelations are bombastic. As he stressed in the interview given to
Brazilian magazine Veja (issue 2573 of March 14, 2018), you can expect the
offer of any media product of Trump. In that regard, Wolff said: “… Trump reads
absolutely nothing, ever. And he does not listen. This is the question: he does
not like to think. It’s the whole package. After a year in the presidency, I’m
still certain that he is unable to be president. My impression, in fact, only
worsened during this period… I think of Trump as a born salesman. He is trying
to sell his government to the population, but no one is willing to buy it so
far. Even in dealing with team members, he is this way: if you’re no longer
useful, you end up just becoming a product in liquidation on Trump’s shelf, but
the man is profoundly exasperating. He is not smart enough, lacking the
necessary knowledge for the presidency. He is not minimally stable. Everything
is possible with Trump in power. He is a crazy individual. He does not trust
anyone, he’s self-destructive, and he’s not trustworthy, either.”
Regarding
the private life of the U.S. President, the journalist stresses in the
interview: “One of the key features of Trump’s life is being highly womanizer
and obsessive. One of the things that makes life worthwhile for the president
is to take women from friends to bed.”
So
the bad news is that Vélez has been hostile to Trump, and he has been friendly with
Crooked Hillary Clinton.
Between
Crooked Hillary and Trump, there is no doubt for me as a conservative
evangelical: Trump is the only choice. Vélez sees exactly the contrary. His
choice of Hillary is irresponsible, because she is behind of several unnecessary
wars and suffering.
I do not see problems in Trump’s
populism or neopopulism, as condemned by Vélez. In 2016, in his populism Trump
condemned neocons and their eternal wars. This is a very positive populism.
I
am hostile to neoconservatism, because of its
warmongering nature. Neocons wage unnecessary wars not
only against other nations, but also against the original principles of the
U.S. Founders, who wanted the U.S. and its military minding only U.S.
businesses. In contrast, neocons want the U.S. military meddling in every
corner of this planet and injecting wars.
I
supported Trump’s antineocon populism in 2016. This is the reason I cannot today
support his betrayal of his own 2016 antineocon speech.
But
Vélez does not mention neocons or neoconservatism. He just mentions Trump in
his hostile feelings. He condemned the 2016 antineocon Trump and he condemns
the 2018 pro-neocon Trump. In sum, he is against Trump in any shape and form.
And he has obviously better feelings toward Crooked Hillary Clinton, who has
always been a neocon.
Occultists are very confusing. I do
not know if Vélez is an occultist, but he certainly has close connections to
Carvalho, who is a confusing occultist.
When
a confusing occultist recommends a friend to be a minister, and the president
welcomes it, despising an evangelical recommendation, what could result?
Bolsonaro
considers himself a conservative. He has about 30 years of service in the
Brazilian Congress. But he is unable to choose by himself conservatives for
Foreign Ministry and the Education Ministry. He is dependent on a Brazilian
immigrant in the U.S. who has a long history of astrology and occultism. The
astrologer picked for Bolsonaro a Colombian who sees himself as a conservative,
but dislikes Trump and likes Hillary. This is a very confusing “conservatism,”
isn’t it?
No true conservative would dislike
Trump to like Hillary. Even so, Vélez introduces himself as a “conservative
Catholic.” Carvalho confirms that he is so. Bolsonaro believes in Carvalho. And
Brazilians who voted for Bolsonaro believe in him. It is a chain of misleading
trust. I also voted for him, but I am not misled because I did not vote him for
god or messiah, and I did no vow of never criticizing his wrongs.
I
voted for him for him to behave as a conservative, not as a man dependent on a Rasputin. I did not vote for him to be a mere
middleman of a Rasputin. If he does not behave as a trustful conservative, it
is my duty as a conservative voter to keep him accountable.
After Bolsonaro chose Ernesto
Araújo and Ricardo Vélez
as his major ministers, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo said
that “Olavo de Carvalho has been consolidated as the main ‘mentor’ of
President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.”
Carvalho
is today to Bolsonaro what Steve Bannon tried to be to Trump. But Bannon was
not successful because Trump was smart and saw his opportunism in time and
expelled him from the White House.
So far, Bolsonaro has seen nothing.
Let us pray that he may become smart
in time.
Portuguese version of this article: Novo
ministro da Educação: hostil ao socialismo e Trump, amistoso com Bolsonaro e
Hillary
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