Four days ago Caetano Veloso, who knows about imprisonment and repressive regimes, nailed what he sensed might happen in Brazil tonight:

Many artists, musicians, filmmakers and thinkers saw themselves in an environment where reactionary ideologues, who — through books, websites and news articles — have been denigrating any attempt to overcome inequality by linking socially progressive policies to a Venezuelan-type of nightmare, generating fear that minorities’ rights will erode religious and moral principles, or simply by indoctrinating people in brutality through the systematic use of derogatory language. The rise of Mr. Bolsonaro as a mythical figure fulfills the expectations created by that kind of intellectual attack. It’s not an exchange of arguments: Those who don’t believe in democracy work in insidious ways.

Repeatedly the majority of voters who chose Bolsonaro emphasize his strength, lack of corruption, decisiveness. Perhaps a party in power since 2003 asked for trouble. Perhaps anxiety about…