A recent opinion article I saw in the Guardian—the U.K.’s leading left-leaning news outlet—proposed that the real reason why there was an impeachment effort underway to oust Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s deeply unpopular and embattled president, is not so much because of the country’s ongoing recession—its worst in years—or the incredible corruption that has beset the Rouseff presidency. Rather, the Guardian offers, it is simply a rear-guard action by Brazil’s political right—who control the country’s newspapers—to overturn not just Rousseff herself, but undo her entire party, which has prevailed at the national ballot box over the last few election cycles.
It’s a handy theory, and we often see the same kind of charges thrown around in the United States when one party seeks to undo the legislative work of their rivals by challenging new laws in court. But the case the Guardian makes is different, and so off-target that I am reminded of a terrific merchandising campaign the U.K. satire site The Daily Mash spearheaded a few years ago:
