American politics might seem a little crazy, but if you take a look down to South America, you’ll realize things aren’t half bad.
We might have a lot of clowns in Congress, but none of them were ever actually in the circus. Brazilians, though, just elected a former clown named Tiririca (“Grumpy”) to Congress. Francisco Oliveira Silva won the Sao Paulo federal deputy seat after running behind slogans like “It can’t get any worse” and “What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don’t know. But vote for me and I will find out for you.” Despite potentially not meeting the literacy requirements, “Grumpy” was allowed to run, winning by more than 600,000 votes.
Brazilian soccer great Romario also won election to Congress. Let’s just say the dubious 1,000-goal scorer is no Bill Bradley.
In Bolivia they might not elect any former players, but they do allow rival politicians to face off on the soccer field. On Sunday, Bolivian president, Evo Morales, played in a friendly match against a team led by political rival Luis Revilla, the mayor of La Paz, to inaugurate a field in the capital city.
A few minutes in, an opponent clipped Morales on the shin. Moments later, the President got his payback.
After the game, police tried to arrest Daniel Gustavo Cartagena (for getting kneed in the balls?), but Revilla intervened. I have a feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll be hearing from Morales and Revilla.