On May 14, 2022, we published the following reflection on this blog: Monday, May 14, 2012 IDEAS OF CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF TURNING The turbulent times we live in lead us to reflect on our role in this process of choosing political representation, which ultimately decides for us and largely determines the secondary status of citizenship in the struggle for the interests of various social groups. We also offer our place in legitimizing or advancing the socioeconomic and political contexts in which we live. Since we are currently preparing to elect regional representatives, we offer a first approach to discussing this topic, which will define another stage of our future as citizens.Education, Citizenship, and Voting. The educational process, the exercise of citizenship, and the political participation of citizens are inseparable. Education and citizenship embody an emancipatory and libertarian character regarding the conditions for the expansion of human rights. The political and social equality of citizens is based on education for democracy against the "hijacking" of rights, speech, and participation. Words are the great "magic wand" in the exercise of citizenship. Since they serve two masters, citizen education is crucial in wielding this weapon: argumentation, which instructs citizens in distinction, comparison, analysis, and choice. Words anesthetize, infuriate, excite, condemn and absolve, silence and ennoble, deny and command, dominate and liberate. In this sense, Stuart Mill states in the book “Considerations on Representative Government” (p.80-1) that: “... the only way to suppress the instincts of the democratic majority is through the educated minority, but as democracies are normally constituted this minority has no organ through which to channel its influence...” Education seems fundamental to the exercise of citizenship and the realization of human rights, not only because it equips citizens for social struggle, but also because it makes them socializable and, most importantly, because it empowers them to direct and control power. Education itself is a factor in inequality because it determines and is determined by social and economic differences. Today, information seems to be the primary "currency" of social exchanges and access to social codes. Education, in itself, does not magically promote equality, but it is an essential part of the change that can be wrought in citizens through political and social participation. Considering that democracy is based on popular sovereignty, citizens are also government and must exercise this power through the democratic practice of participating in the public discussion of collective interests. The flaws arising from democratic practice are linked to each culture's form of political organization. In Brazil, the representative system blends with direct democracy mechanisms such as plebiscites, referendums, and popular initiatives. In this process, the more incipient a citizen's political education is, the more they are at the mercy of leaders who legitimize themselves more through populist, clientelist processes of moral, religious, and economic appeal than through a commitment to fostering collective consciousness. The issue of citizen participation has been a subject of discussion from the Greeks to more recent authors such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, Stuart Mill, Bobbio, and Maria Vitória Benevides, author of the book "Active Citizenship." Political representation presupposes two essential aspects: how one represents others and what one represents. Representation implies the delegation of power. The gap between what is proclaimed and practice has sparked discussion about fiduciary representation, which means a free mandate whereby citizens give their representatives "carte blanche" through their vote, and representation based on mandatory mandates, in which the mandate belongs to the party, not the candidate, and is tied to the interests of those represented. The latter has not been possible in Brazil due to its incompatibility with our monarchical practice, a veneer of democracy where parties suffer an identity crisis. In this sense, legally constituted representatives represent groups in power and not the people, leaving the latter vulnerable to abuse of economic power. To the same extent that voters feel disconnected from their political representation and party ideology, they are also disconnected from their class representation. Representative leadership, in some cases, defends a party program to the detriment of class interests when its members represent a spectrum of ideologies. Consequently, some class entities are vulnerable to pressures from power. It is essential to open mechanisms for popular participation, free from manipulation, partisanship, and corporatism, for the democratic discourse to be realized. It is not enough to recognize human rights; they must be respected, promoted, and protected. The current political phenomenon seems to reprise the most retrograde populist tactics in a new version, more intelligent and strategic than those of the 1930s and 1960s. Republican practices are in reality replaced by old monarchical customs in the most bizarre versions, such as L'Etat C'est moi (It's My State), the perks granted to certain interest groups, regardless of the Law that establishes equal rights and, more broadly, the Social Contract. Party political practice argues to convince democratic and ethical deviations that it is not an oligarchy because, in reality, representatives were elected by popular vote. Thus, the implicit discourse of responsibility transfer is maintained, where, for these people, if there is a mistake, the people are to blame, since they ratified the choice of their representative with their vote. What is not discussed is the conditions under which this popular legitimization was achieved by a mass of voters co-opted by a wide variety of appeals, ranging from pseudo-religious discourse to the humiliation of economic power that subjugates consciences. In this sense, the electoral justice system has demonstrated its attentiveness and active involvement in the process of combating this practice that threatens democratic hopes. Coming from the 2022 text, we realize that at times we were even naive, driven by the hope that new political actors and those in power would be committed to freedom, democracy, and respect for the majority of the Brazilian population. To our disappointment, we have gone from a state consolidating democracy to a narco-state, the result of collusion with authoritarian ideologies that do not correspond to the cultural identity of the Brazilian people. Recent events shock us as the legislative branch is annulled, constitutional freedoms are ignored, and citizenship is vilified. Corruption, organized crime, and personal power interests have undermined and instrumentalized all branches of power in the country. Brazil is in mourning. Brazil hides its face in shame, and citizens are arbitrarily promoted from free people to slaves. It is the new wave and the new version of Dictatorship that brings the nation to its knees, destroys its economy and subjects tax-paying citizens to forced services (new taxes, censorship, lack of freedom, persecution, humiliation and threats). The remedy may be cruel, with the people paying for the abuses and incompetence of some of their self-proclaimed bosses in the "Big House." There remains hope for the strength of the people and for external democratic forces to uphold Christian and democratic values. We citizens repudiate and ignore the dictatorial actions of figures in the powers that be who accuse none of crimes and protect criminals as allies of power. We stand in solidarity and are part of the majority of the population that rejects all these abuses. We hope that the strength of democratic countries like the United States and democratic European countries will help us overcome this humanitarian disaster Brazil is experiencing. This is not about ideology, but about citizenship, freedom, and democracy.