That’s the only explanation I can think of for a surprising election result I will likely never see in the US of A:

Environmental campaigners and Green party activists heralded a breakthrough today after a former rubber-tapper from the Brazilian Amazon who rose to be a world-famous rainforest defender became the central figure in the second round of the country’s presidential election.

Marina Silva, who was raised in the Amazon state of Acre and was illiterate until the age of 16, failed to make the second round but came away with 19% of the vote, far higher than pollsters had expected. […][

“It is a spectacular result,” Alfredo Sirkis, the Green party’s president in Rio de Janeiro, told the Guardian.

Sirkis said the record vote meant the Green party would be able to force debate on crucial environmental issues in the lead up to the second round. Such issues included controversial changes to Brazil’s forestry code, which environmentalists claim will further damage the Amazon rainforest, and Brazil’s commitments on climate change in Copenhagen.

The O Dia newspaper in Rio de Janeiro, where Silva came second with 31.52% of the vote, described a “green tsunami” in its front-page headline.

“Marina Silva’s face will not be on the ballot on October 31 but her electoral ghost will decide the second round,” the newspaper said. “She has become the central figure in this campaign,” said Altino Machado, an Amazon journalist and blogger who has known Silva since the late 1970s.

Imagine that. A Green Party candidate winning 20% of the vote. Of course, in the land of the Fox News Ignoramuses and with corporate “persons” spending whatever they like to ensure our elections provide the result they prefer, no green candidate is likely to ever be a force that changes the dynamic of US presidential and congressional elections. Well, that and the electoral college which would make voting for a Green Party presidential candidate a wasted effort.

No, the United States is like a fading red giant star that looks more powerful than it is because of its bloated military, but which will soon collapse upon itself as it burns away all of its remaining resources of ingenuity in the fires of ignorance, blindness, greed and disinformation. We are rapidly losing our economic power as the world economy decouples from the US, and our diplomatic influence is at a low ebb as well.

As the US declines economically (thanks to our elite’s continued allegiance to insane Conservative promoted and middle class killing “free market” economic policies), eventually our military power will decline as well, until all we will have left is our nuclear saber to rattle mindlessly and ineffectually every so often. Meanwhile, China, Brazil and other forward looking nations will dominate the coming century.

I congratulate Marina Silva and her party. At least they will build on their political influence and hopefully will make a difference for our future on earth. At this time I cannot foresee any significant US impact in terms of diplomacy regarding climate change treaties, the development and investment in alternative energy technologies or even common sense economic policies so long as the Mega-corporate/conservative reign of error (which benefits the few at the expense of the many) dominates and distorts our political scene.