Earlier this month, Brazil did something the United States couldn’t: it punished a president who tried to overturn an election. Jair Bolsonaro lost in 2022, claimed fraud, encouraged his supporters to storm Brasília, and is now serving a 27-year sentence for subverting democracy. Donald Trump lost in 2020, made nearly identical false claims, watched as his most fervent supporters sacked the U.S. Capitol—and he’s back in the White House. That contrast is telling. It goes to the heart of whether democracies can enforce the rules that make them democracies in the first place. Brazil’s message is clear: accountability is possible, even in a deeply polarized society. The United States’ is equally stark: polarization can become an alibi for impunity.