Orban has condemned the idea of a “mixed race” society in Hungary.
Trump declaimed that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."
Trump welcomed Hungarian leader Viktor Orban to his Mar-a-Lago home last week, offering unqualified praise for Orban’s strongman approach to politics.
“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban. He’s fantastic,” Trump said during a reception Friday evening. “He does a great job. He’s a noncontroversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it. Right? He’s the boss.”
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Under Orban, Hungarian democracy has withered. There are still elections, but ones in which there are no significant threats to his ruling coalition. Orban has often allied with the autocratic leaders of China and Russia against other European nations and against NATO. But understanding of this shift hasn’t permeated the American consciousness, allowing Orban to be celebrated as a strong leader by Trump and the broader right without the baggage that comes from, say, bolstering positions held by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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When Americans have been asked how they feel in the abstract about the broader prospect of a strongman leader — such as whether presidents should be empowered to break rules or to subvert the media, Republicans and conservatives have been more supportive of those ideas than have liberals or Americans overall.
Among them is Donald Trump, seeking to return to the White House
Orbán’s Hungary is a textbook case of democratic backsliding, characterized by state capture of public institutions; assaults on minority rights, especially migrant, Roma, and LGBTQ rights; aggressive nationalist rhetoric; and attacks on the rule of law.
In 2011, the introduction of a new constitution marked a pivotal shift in Hungary’s political trajectory, pushing it toward an electoral autocracy, by which autocratic leadership gains power in elections that are neither free nor fair. The new constitution and accompanying legislative changes initiated a strategic redrawing of electoral districts, a culling of parliamentary seats from 386 to 199, and the adoption of the so-called winner compensation mechanism, whereby a proportion of votes from the losing party in elections are tallied for the winner.
Viktor Orbán’s actions have punctuated a critical moment of challenge to democracy and the trans-Atlantic security order.
Under Orbán’s leadership, Fidesz took advantage of these changes to further consolidate its grip on power. Beginning in 2014, Orbán’s allies started to acquire the country’s major media companies. They transformed news outlets into voices for the regime—or closed them down altogether. By 2019, media control resulted in 80 percent of public affairs programming being directly or indirectly financed from sources connected to the ruling party. The government also introduced one of Europe’s strictest foreign agent laws, which requires nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign financing to identify themselves and, in some cases, prohibits non-Hungarian entities from operating in the country. These conditions forced the Central European University to all but cease operations in Budapest in late 2018.
Yet the gravest threat to Hungarian democracy has come in the form of attacks against the judiciary: Budapest established a new tier of special administrative courts, transferring oversight directly to the government; packed the Constitutional Court of Hungary with partisan judges; and extended term limits from nine to 12 years—though authorities have since suspended parts of these laws.
Until we can tackle the epidemic of fear, we're going to fall under authoritarian rule.
Trump's rise was the result of a fearful electorate in which Osama and Obama were equally threatening. Republican politics are based entirely on fear motivation. Fox News, et al, are fear messengers 24/7.
Fearful people want a strong figure to make them feel safe. The fact they have chosen Donald Trump of all people is a cosmic joke, but if not him, they'd cling to some other autocrat.
the Founders really missed the boat when it comes to dealing with a domestic insurgency like MAGA.
Apparently, there is nothing in our founding documents that prevents a political party that embraces autocracy, fascism, and kleptocracy, and is willing to foment violence to achieve their anti-democratic goals. We already knew the Founders had a blindside when it came to women and people of color. It is surprising that we have gotten this far without a Constitutional crisis.
Orban is in power because he rules the media with an iron fist. But also because the people of Hungary enjoy benefits and a standard of living the people of America can only dream about- and hope that if Trump gets in power again, the little that they do have is not going to be taken away.
Hungary has government sponsored health care, prescriptions, paid maternity leave, subsidies and all encompassing help for young families and children, a right to abortions, strict gun control, price control at the pump, and the list goes on. Hungarians do not go bankrupt due to medical bills, or have to decide whether to buy insulin or food.
What Orban is so famous for in the US, his anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, pro-Christian, anti-muslim, anti-media, anti-liberal education stance is no different from what Republicans, and especially Trump, espouse and want to force on the rest of us.
That is the massive difference between Trump and Orban. Trumps' voters settle for absolutely nothing in exchange. While Orban's voters enjoy benefits Trump voters aren't even "woke" enough to expect.
Current law in Hungary on abortion:
Abortion is regulated under the Act LXXIX of 1992 on the protection of fetal life. Under this law, an abortion is normally allowed until 12 weeks. However, in certain circumstances the limit can be extended to 18, 20 or 24 weeks.
Victor Orban, the authoritarian leader of Hungary and Putin’s only ally in Europe, who recently met Trump in Mar-a-Lago, says that if Trump wins the election he’ll cut off all aid to Ukraine and the “war will be over” (Russia will take over Ukraine.)
3 comments:
Oh well. No big deal. As the pendulum swings. Destroying liberty and freedom across the globe. A new post modern dark age of ignorance and greed is flourishing as the sheeple follow their masters into subservience.
There they are. Putin, Orban, and Trump are the Western Axis of Evil bent on destroying Western democracy.
The one thing Trump admires most about Orban is how he shut down all media opposing him and essentially made him dictator for life, since no one can run against him.
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