Brazil Is Not An Acquisition

There is a small flaw in treating the Western Hemisphere as a collection of potential acquisitions: the properties keep holding elections.

AP reports that Lula defeated Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil's Sunday runoff, 51.8% to 48.2%. The result complicates Trump's regional ambitions. Both governments still have reasons to cooperate, while conservative gains in Brazil's Congress constrain Lula at home.

That is a political outcome, not a certificate declaring every progressive wish hereby granted. But it is a useful reminder that Washington's preferred seating chart is not the guest list.

The pleasing part isn't the fantasy that another country has voted to become America's opposition party. Brazilians were choosing their own president. Turning them into supporting characters in our Trump drama would reproduce the same arrogance with a better soundtrack.

The principle worth defending is simpler: other people's consent is not an annoying technicality in your strategy. It is the part that tells you whether you actually have an agreement. If your coalition requires everyone to be independently sovereign until they independently choose someone you dislike, what you wanted was a branch office.

Cooperation does not require affection, either. Negotiating with a government you didn't choose is not a humiliating exception to diplomacy. It's a fairly substantial part of the job description. The alternative is spending your entire term furious that foreign voters failed to read your endorsement as an instruction.

So put down the acquisition checklist. Pull up another chair.

The person on the other side of the table works for somebody else.