In the Brazil Congressional elections which were in October, a clown by the name of Tiririca (Portuguese for "Grumpy") won one of the Congressional seats. He ran a sensational campaign, with ads on Youtube that said things like "What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you." Brazil's Congress uses a proportional representation system to elect people (as opposed to our winner-take-all or plurality system), and according to the article this makes it somewhat easier for celebrities to get elected to office. But the biggest surprise for me was the fact that there was a legal challenge to Tiririca's candidacy, claiming that he actually "does not meet the literacy requirement for election. However, "electoral authorities indicated he could be removed from office if he failed to show he can read and write after the election." Thus, now that he has been elected, he was tested, but the results have not reached the public yet.I find it pretty surprising that he won this congressional seat so overwhelmingly. I understand that voters may be disillusioned with the politicians, but I don't think that voting for a possibly illiterate clown is the way to get that point across. This reminds me of how Stephen Colbert was on the ticket in some states in 2008. What do you guys think about this?
18 comments:
Wow. This just sounds ridiculous. The public has to be pretty fed up with government to allow this to happen...
This was hard to believe when I read this because it did not sound real. As Jess said....either the public is fed up with the government or whoever was running against him was pretty horrible.
It's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. The fact that people would even vote for a clown, literally, makes it clear that people get excited about celebrities that, all things considered, probably aren't the best candidates for the office (at least Schwarzenegger could read). Frankly, I'm not surprised that something like this happened. In a parlimentary system like Brazil's, if people become popular enough, sure, people will want to vote for them. It depresses me, though, to know that people assume charisma=good leadership. At least we can take comfort in the fact that you have to be a pretty popular clown to win in our winner-take-all system.
So what you guys must remember is that a clown is a profession. People all carry different types of professions, no matter how absurd they may be. Does this make them more or less qualified to become a Congressman, or hold any other public office? Look at California. A substantially famous actor and 7-time Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger, with little political experience, ran for governor and succeeded. He's actually become a primary proponent of green technology reform, and passed a revolutionary bill that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
It looks like you guys have something against Tiririca just because he is a clown, and there is some predisposed disposition that clowns are all dumb.
Also, the illiteracy angle is, at the moment, COMPLETE SPECULATION. No one knows whether Tiririca is illiterate; we have to wait until the results come out to comment on that. Anything premature analysis is completely invalid.
@Ryan:
Tiririca's profession is not what makes him unqualified for the job of Congressman; the fact that he himself admits that he does not know what a federal deputy does makes him unqualified. Tiririca's campaign had mostly been jokes and the like, and that does not demonstrate the necessary readiness for office. Also, whether or not he is actually literate, when we are choosing someone to lead us, there should never be any question or doubt about that person's education; if we are questioning their ability to read and write, we are inherently questioning their fitness to lead effectively. The fact that Tiririca must undergo such tests to prove his ability to read is a complete shame. If the people seriously expect him to lead, they shouldn't need a test. Schwarzenegger's literacy was never in question.
A goat has been elected mayor before in California, I believe. It happens when people lose their trust in government. But on a national scale? This is pretty shocking.
*goes off to campaign for President*
I agree with Rashmi on this post. It doesn't matter to me if candidates are indeed popular celebrities or not; it only matters if they can be an effective Congressional seat. Tiririca is completely open with his poor knowledge about Congress, as exemplified by the quote, "What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you." However, this quote also shows that he is a dedicated man who is be likely to be loyal to his constituents. Hopefully Tiririca can benefit his constituents as it is clear that the people trust him enough to give him a shot.
As for if Tiririca is more a delegate or a trustee model, I'd have to go with a delegate model. This decision may be mitigated by the fact that he probably doesn't know enough to make his own informed opinions, but it is a good thing that he can represent his constituents loyally.
All i have to say is that I would totally vote for Stephen Colbert or John Stewart for President. They have better ideas then most of the crackheads in Gov't now.
When I read this I was reminded of the rent is too damn high party guy. If someone has ideas to make a difference or wants to try and make a difference, why shouldn't they be able to? Profession is almost the same is how someone talks or what they look like, it shouldn't matter. I do think that he should be able to read and write, that's an important skill to have especially in Congress. Overall tho I think it's cool that a clown got elected into Congress, there's always firsts for everything.
Aristotle once said that law is reason free from passion. Well, no offense to Aristotle, but Reese Witherspoon and I disagree. Surely, it may sound "ridiculous" that a potentially uneducated clown was elected to nation-wide office, but what we have to realize is that the masses are not "stupid." They are quite simply through with their current administration and want to see some change, change that they can believe in. And they have entrusted the task of bringing about this change in Tiririca.
Now, Tiririca's disputed literacy is a moot point:
"The 45-year-old clown took a closed-door test in Sao Paulo's regional electoral court (TRE) to attest to his literacy, one of the requirements for serving as a lawmaker in the country.
During the ten-hour-long exam, Tiririca had to read aloud two newspaper headlines and write a brief dictation of a passage from a law book.
Authorities defended their original decision in allowing Tiririca to run for office. The exam ended well for Tiririca. He was approved and left court with a smile, greeting reporters."
Seeing that Tiririca has passed the administered literacy test and therefore qualifies to run for and hold national office, I don't see any problems with his ascent to and retention of his congressional position. If anything, we should be inspired by Tiririca's ascent--the odds were stacked against him, yet he managed to prevail. He may not have political background, but that very well may be for the better. Tiririca will not have to dance to the tunes of any partisan agenda and will be able to listen to his heart, follow his passions, and represent the constituents that so eagerly elected him. In any case, the results of his election are yet to be seen, but he has my well wishes and those of millions from around the world.
On a slightly unrelated note, I am very surprised that Colbert, a seasoned political analyst and scientist was equated to a clown with no political experience in the original post. There are a nontrivial number of flaws in that analogy (even if it was meant to be a hyperbole of sorts), but I will spare you of shifting the topic of discussion.
I agree with everyone, especially Alex, absurd to the point where its funny. I'm not exactly convinced that the public is excited about celebrities as I am about the effectiveness of the hype Grumpy's campaign had.
In the 2008 elections we saw a lot of hype with Hilary Clinton running to be "First Woman President" backed up by "The Clinton Brand", Barack Obama as "First African American President" and also Palin, though I'm not sure how to categorize her. Although those campaigns were not even close to the absurdity of Grumpy's there were people who supported who they did just prove their liberal views on race and gender.
Most people do not have in depth knowledge about the government and its operations. They may have been won over by Grumpy because they related to him, and figured their one vote wouldn't make a difference, not knowing that others might be thinking the same. But anyways for the sake of Brazil maintaining face, lets just hope Grumpy failed his test.
I'm just waiting for the days when our Presidential candidates will run on stage with microphones, backed up by their personal DJ. The elections have already become enough of a popularity contest.
@Amrit:
I was not at all implying that Colbert is equal "to a clown with no political experience." I was merely trying to say that Colbert was not serious about running, and he only got himself on the ticket in order to make a point, and I expected Tiririca's candidacy to be something similar: a way of making a point about politics today. I wanted to suggest that maybe Tiririca wasn't trying to be taken seriously, just like Colbert wasn't, but he, unlike Colbert, WAS taken seriously, and was actually elected.
What's funny about this article isn't really the absurdity of electing a clown to Congress. It's the fact that this is one of the first times that the electoral process has been, pardon the pun, truly turned into a joke. The problem isn't that this man is a celebrity or that he made a fool of himself during his campaigning. George W. Bush opened his mouth and inserted his foot countless times on the campaign trail; Arnold Schwarzenegger has done all manner of ridiculous things from playing a cyborg blowing stuff up to impersonating Angus Young in an AC/DC video (which I will, of course, show you.) The difference is that he openly admits his incompetence for the job ("What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you")
The point I'm trying to make is that for some reason, incompetence for the job is being turned into a selling point for Tiririca and candidates like him solely because it looks "anti-establishment." I find this troubling. There is, I feel, a major flaw to this whole line of reasoning.
If the "anti-establishment" gains power, then they become the "establishment." Tiririca may not have to "dance to the tunes of any partisan agenda", as Amrit stated, but he is still a member of that government and will still be affected to an extent by the influx of money from interest groups and cash flow. He will have to support some policy or another, and if he actually intends to begin a political career he'll find his backers and start working with them just like any other politician. If being part of the "establishment" is inevitable, as I believe it is (you're elected to the government, you're now in government, simple as that), then I'd perfer a candidate who knows what the heck he or she is doing.
Now, if I may defend myself for a moment against the accusations of elitism I know you're already going to throw at me. I don't think I'm being elitist at all in this respect. I don't think you have to be old or have eons of governmental experience to be the government. I'm just saying that the people running the government should have solid backgrounds in what it is they're going to be doing. For example, does Tiririca actually have any well thought out or interesting solutions to the problems his country is facing? (The answer may well be yes; I'm just pointing out the question.) If the answer is yes, then fine. I take no issue with that. But what I take issue with is that the man seems to be making incompetence a reason that he should be voted in. Look, I don't care if you've already been a politician or not, but if you're running for office you sure as hell better know what it is you're going to do, who it helps, and how it will benefit the country at large.
In short: To modify a common metaphor, as long as you're bringing some "food" to the table that's worthwile, it doesn't matter how long you've been sitting there or where you were before you sat down. But please, make sure you can cook.
And after all that, if you need a good laugh, here's that AC/DC video featuring The Governator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2KM-_zpCno
Things get "interesting" at about 1:50, though the song's not bad and probably worth your time.
What's funny about this article isn't really the absurdity of electing a clown to Congress. It's the fact that this is one of the first times that the electoral process has been, pardon the pun, truly turned into a joke. The problem isn't that this man is a celebrity or that he made a fool of himself during his campaigning. George W. Bush opened his mouth and inserted his foot countless times on the campaign trail; Arnold Schwarzenegger has done all manner of ridiculous things from playing a cyborg blowing stuff up to impersonating Angus Young in an AC/DC video (which I will, of course, show you.) The difference is that he openly admits his incompetence for the job ("What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you")
The point I'm trying to make is that for some reason, incompetence for the job is being turned into a selling point for Tiririca and candidates like him solely because it looks "anti-establishment." I find this troubling. There is, I feel, a major flaw to this whole line of reasoning.
If the "anti-establishment" gains power, then they become the "establishment." Tiririca may not have to "dance to the tunes of any partisan agenda", as Amrit stated, but he is still a member of that government and will still be affected to an extent by the influx of money from interest groups and cash flow. He will have to support some policy or another, and if he actually intends to begin a political career he'll find his backers and start working with them just like any other politician. If being part of the "establishment" is inevitable, as I believe it is (you're elected to the government, you're now in government, simple as that), then I'd perfer a candidate who knows what the heck he or she is doing.
Now, if I may defend myself for a moment against the accusations of elitism I know you're already going to throw at me. I don't think I'm being elitist at all in this respect. I don't think you have to be old or have eons of governmental experience to be the government. I'm just saying that the people running the government should have solid backgrounds in what it is they're going to be doing. For example, does Tiririca actually have any well thought out or interesting solutions to the problems his country is facing? (The answer may well be yes; I'm just pointing out the question.) If the answer is yes, then fine. I take no issue with that. But what I take issue with is that the man seems to be making incompetence a reason that he should be voted in. Look, I don't care if you've already been a politician or not, but if you're running for office you sure as hell better know what it is you're going to do, who it helps, and how it will benefit the country at large.
In short: To modify a common metaphor, as long as you're bringing some "food" to the table that's worthwile, it doesn't matter how long you've been sitting there or where you were before you sat down. But please, make sure you can cook.
And after all that, if you need a good laugh, here's that AC/DC video featuring The Governator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2KM-_zpCno
Things get "interesting" at about 1:50, though the song's not bad and probably worth your time.
Everyone stop stop... just stop and take one BIGGG step back and look at the whole picture... May I remind you that we are in a time where the unexpected always becomes the expected and gosh darn everything is possible now?
Ronald reagan was an actor, before he became California Governor and later president, do our governator is not as big of a deal.... our president is black, they turned michael jackson white and turns up dead, a governor left for argentina to see a mistress, at some point we almost hit 5$ a gallon for gas, our budget deficit is in the trillions, the gulf was hit with two hurricanes ....and an oil spill while we were in a draught and the midwest was in a flood and the east coast was in a heatwave... and we're not even in college yet.
Isn't anyone here FILIPINO or Doesn't anyone follow BOXING?! Welter Weight Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao is a congressman in the house of representatives in the Philippines..... while congress is out of session, he still boxes... he just fought antonio margarito!
Remember that this is Brazil we are talking about, not America. In America we find characters like Jimmy McMillan in the Rent is too damn high party. In the Philippines they have a boxer for congress.
So it just so happens that a clown is in congress in Brazil. Who cares? This is more political gossip and nonsense than hard issue politics. Nobody really has seen whether he knows politics or not. We're all questioning whether he's going to do a good job when he hasn't even started yet. No matter how humorous the idea may be, give the guy his chance. Afterall, he did win his election..
-raymond lim
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