Calmes: The Jan. 6 committee did the country proud but it hasn’t changed our calcified politics. It has just highlighted how far from the center we are and what we can expect now and in the future.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 report, a question has begun to be raised. That is if the center is so firmly in place, and if it won’t change with the times, what about the other side? After all, those who favor the center are not as unified in their support as they are in their opposition. One of our two major political parties is now split nearly in half and many people who voted for that party in the past are turning their backs on their party now that the Jan. 6 report has been presented. The other major party has been split into several factions and that, too, is a problem for the country. The coalition in government broke down last year when Mr. Lula was elected, forcing a change in the composition of the Cabinet and the country. Yet the Center Party and the Leftovers who voted against the Jan. 6 report are also divided in several ways. They do not share a common platform. They have not come to an agreement on the way they are going to be governed.
The Center Party, as a parliamentary force, should look more and more like the Christian Democrats. Its roots are in the Brazilian Catholic Church. Its main party is the Democratic Social Party, with a majority of its members coming from that party. The Christian Democrats and the Leftovers, on the other hand, have been formed by the Brazilian labor movement, the trade union movement and by the Socialist Party. The Center Party has always been and is still the party of labor, trade unions, the Christian Church, intellectuals and those who are left-leaning politically.
But the Center Party is not the same as the Christian Democrats in the United States. The Brazilian Center Party consists of some of the most educated and most committed people in the country, and it