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Why is the Right Obsessed with Hungary?

Is the American right aspiring for an authoritarian state?

By Monica Leigh FrenchPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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Photo by Dalton Caraway on Unsplash

Tucker Carlson is one of Fox New’s most controversial “journalists.” He hosts a nightly show called Tucker Carlson Tonight in which he promotes conspiracy theories, tells flat-out lies, and attempts to “own the libs” with his dystopian rendition of journalism.

I’ve become so desensitized to the lying and conspiratorial nature of discussions after seven years of former President Donald J. Trump in the spotlight, so nothing Carlson says really shocks me. But something that happened recently-a trend I’ve been noticing cropping up around the country-really caused me to pause and think.

Tucker Carlson is no longer romanticizing authoritarian regimes; he’s openly embracing them. It’s not just him. The American right is moving frighteningly close to an authoritarian party.

Tucker’s affinity for Hungary is on display during his nightly show when he filmed in the nation over the summer and a new documentary he put out on Fox New’s streaming service called “Hungary vs. Soros: Fight for Civilization.” In this documentary, he casts Hungary in a light that may be quite different from reality.

Carlson highlights Hungary’s “traditional, Christian, family-oriented culture,” and investigated the nation’s significant incentive program to encourage their people to have large families and their stringent immigration policies, which included building a wall on their southern border.

Carlson emphasized the anti-immigration policies of Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, and the 2015 European refugee crisis, during which the heavily militarized wall was erected. Orban’s policies were the opposite of the European Union’s more tolerant asylum policies.

Orban and his party made border control a key issue while campaigning in 2015 and 2018 and seized a majority in the Hungarian Parliament with his anti-immigrant rhetoric. The next parliamentary elections will be held in April and Trump has already endorsed Mr. Orban.

Trump and Carlson are not the only figures on the right to embrace Hungary’s government. Every year conservatives have a meeting called the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where they discuss policy initiatives, stoke the culture wars, have workshops with various conservative figures, and host guest speakers that are usually rising stars in the Republican Party.

This year, in addition to having CPAC in Orlando, Florida, the Republicans decided to host CPAC in Budapest, Hungary. Far-right leader, Viktor Orban was invited to speak. He called for a united conservative movement to sweep across the globe, calling 2024 a decisive year.

“We need to take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels,” Orban declared at CPAC. “We need to coordinate the movement of our troops, because we have a big challenge ahead of us.”

According to CPAC’s website, they chose Hungary because it’s “one of the bastions of the conservative resistance to the ultraprogressive ‘woke’ revolution.” American leaders have watched Orban counter the liberal culture in Hungary and they’ve been inspired by his work. But is Viktor Orban’s Hungary a model to which to aspire?

During CPAC, Orban railed on gender issues and critical race theory, while complaining about cancel culture and tech censorship. He bragged about stopping illegal immigration with the border wall and excoriated the media, which he accused of broadcasting the agenda of the left. He noted that journalists are being taught in universities that profess left-wing ideologies.

Orban told the American conservatives to build their own media empire, which they already have, to fight against the Western media which has been corrupted by a liberal perspective.

The conference was hosted by Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights, which is funded by the government. The fact that the government spends public money on a partisan activity gives you an idea of where its priorities lie.

People came from all around the world to attend this conference. But notably, most Western media outlets were kept out. Hungary’s state-run media and a few other news outlets, including CBS News, were allowed inside to cover the event.

An independent press doesn’t exist in Hungary. Orban’s administration has done all they can to put political and financial pressure on any remaining free press in the country. The outlets are often taken over by Orban’s wealthy allies. Hungary’s real journalists are being driven out in droves.

Is the American right headed in the same direction? Under Donald Trump’s administration, Fox News was as close as we’ve come to a state-run news outlet. At the time, President Trump would watch Fox & Friends and other morning news shows and tweet policy initiatives based on what he was hearing on Fox.

He often called into their live shows, and he made it known when they dared to say something that didn’t fall in line with his delusional narrative. Fox News executives knew that they had the President’s ear and would often talk to him directly through their shows.

When Viktor Orban regained power in 2010, he immediately went to work at dismantling the democratic foundation that sustained a healthy society. Orban and his allies won the 2010 election in a landslide, allowing them to rewrite their constitution and alter electoral laws to provide an advantage to his party.

Since this occurred, Orban’s party achieved constitutional supermajorities in two elections, despite their failure to obtain over 50% of the popular vote. The Constitutional Court has been stacked and lower courts have been undermined. Anyone who is critical of Mr. Orban is censored or silenced.

This is the dream for the American right: an illiberal society in which one party (the Republican Party) has total control. Senator Mitch McConnell already twisted Senate rules to allow him to stack the Supreme Court while Donald Trump was in office. Now the SCOTUS has a large conservative presence at 6–3.

They go after the independent press and call it “fake news” any chance they get while erecting their own little media echo chambers that are more infotainment than news. Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart, and One America News Network (OANN) don’t even attempt to be nonpartial.

The mainstream media certainly has its flaws, but it’s stood as a pillar of our democracy for as long as democracy has graced our nation. They at least try to report accurately and without bias.

Now Republicans are going after our elections, trying to rig the rules in their favor by putting Trump loyalists in key positions. It seems as if they’re copying Viktor Orban’s playbook.

There is only one reason that CPAC was held in Hungary and that’s because the American right wants to emulate Orban’s success in creating a conservative, Christian, white bulwark while pushing down on immigrants, non-Christians, members of the LGBT community, and journalists.

It’s extremely scary that one American political party is headed in this direction. Our democracy has safeguards in place, but it’s foolish to think we can preserve these checks and balances when one side isn’t playing fair.

It’s imperative that we fight for our country — a nation that should not be modeled after Hungary and a strict authoritarian. This is not politics as usual. We’re fighting for our very way of life. As for the Republicans, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

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About the Creator

Monica Leigh French

Student. Writer at www.medium.com/@MonicaLeighFrench. I’m mostly inspired by writing about personal experiences, politics, addiction, and mental health issues. Pink Floyd fanatic. Twitter: @french_monica.

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