Trump is an instinctive authoritarian who chafes at the restrictions of the US constitution, but does not attack it directly. Bolsonaro praises the "glorious" period of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), in which he served as an army officer, and claims that its only error was that "it tortured, but did not kill". (It did, actually. At least 434 leftists were killed after being tortured.)
Trump is a racist, but he talks to his white "base" in dog-whistle code. Last year Bolsonaro said that the members of black rural settlements founded by the descendants of slaves "don't do anything. I don't think they're even good for procreation any more". No dog whistle there.
Trump pulled the US out of the climate change treaty, and Bolsonaro wants Brazil to do the same. But Bolsonaro also wants to privatise and "develop" the entire Amazon: "Not one centimetre will be demarcated for indigenous reserves."
Trump is a sexist who was once caught boasting on tape about "grabbing pussy", but mostly avoids such language in public. Bolsonaro told a woman member of Congress that "I'm not going to rape you, because you're very ugly." He believes that women should not get the same salaries as men because they get pregnant, and said that he had a daughter in "a moment of weakness" after fathering four sons.
Trump is an undisciplined narcissist who claims to be a tough negotiator, but will generally roll over if you throw him a few concessions and let him declare a "victory". His short attention span disqualifies him as an aspiring dictator even if he were that way inclined.
Bolsonaro, however, is a serious man. He has made a former general, Hamilton Mourão, his running mate, and promises to fill his Cabinet with other generals. In a recent video produced by Haddad, he can be seen arguing: "You won't change anything in this country through voting ... You'll only change things by having a civil war and doing the work the military regime didn't do. Killing 30,000 ... If a few innocent people die, that's all right."
Bolsonaro doesn't talk like that now, but there is no reason to believe he has changed his mind. Brazil's 200 million people may be in for some nasty surprises — and beyond the country's borders Bolsonaro's presidency will encourage neo-fascists and would-be military dictators in other countries.
That's the real concern, and it extends to other continents too. The wave of non-violent revolutions that spread democracy to every part of the world in the past few decades seems to have gone into reverse.
In some countries, like Thailand and Egypt, the generals are openly back in power. In others, like Turkey, Hungary, and the Philippines, "illiberal democracies" run by strongmen have replaced the genuine article. Even in long-established democracies like the US, the UK and Italy, the nationalists and populists dominate the scene.
How bad will it get, and how long will it stay bad? Quite bad and for quite a while, one suspects. The world is not yet heading back towards big great-power war, but we are entering the last critical decade before climate change overwhelms us with a growing number of governments that are not only potentially violent but militantly ignorant.
Gwynne Dyer's new book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work).
