"It had looked like an impossible quest. Orban and his cronies dominated the media, persecuted and smeared opposition politicians and changed election laws to benefit his party, Fidesz. Orban had seemed to achieve what the Hungarian sociologist and political theorist Balint Magyar (no relation) calls “autocratic breakthrough” — the point after which it’s impossible to unseat an autocrat using elections. Illiberal politicians from other countries made pilgrimages to Hungary to learn from Orban; CPAC, the gathering for American national conservatives, started staging an annual convention there; and Vice President JD Vance visited Budapest in advance of the election, in a show of support for Orban. And yet Hungarians handed Tisza not just a victory but a constitutional majority, enough power to reverse Orban’s changes to Hungarian laws and institutions. The triumph was stunning — unique in our era of democratic backsliding — and it holds clear lessons for the United States.
In his inaugural speech to Parliament, broadcast on giant screens set up around the square, Peter Magyar said that voters had handed him a mandate “not just to change the government, but to change the system. To start over.”
Previous opposition politicians had described Orban’s regime as “corrupt,” a relatively mild term suggesting some aberration from the government’s intended function. Peter Magyar made no such accommodation. Borrowing a term coined by Balint Magyar, he has called it a mafia state — a fundamentally criminal enterprise. Third lesson: Don’t mince words.
Another lesson lies in the issues that motivated Magyar’s voters. Hungary’s economy is a mess, but post-election polling by Median, an organization that had predicted election results with uncanny accuracy, shows that voters saw corruption as the most important issue by far. In other words, Hungarians seemed to see the damage that Orbanism had done to the nation as more important than any harm they felt they had suffered as individuals. They were united by a sense of moral outrage."
Opinion | Hungary Showed How to Defeat an Autocrat
Millions, literally millions, of people are resisting the assault on democracy so he can become a dictator. His concentration camps (they don't conform to the legal standards a prison has to meet) are mostly not happening. He planned on building enough to cage political opposition after the election. But most communities told him to take a hike. There's millions of protesters, of course, but there's also an army of lawyers fighting his criminality.
After Clinton's impeachment trial ended, Republicans looked a lot worse than the Dems... A Republican lawyer was asked, as he left the trial, about it.. "It was just politics" They had given up on running the country in a corrupt lunge for power. Sound familiar?
That hasn't changed. What I started saying back then was that it was a fight.
I didn't say the obvious, it's not just a fight to save democracy, look at other countries, and the wreck left behind when they finally get kicked out.
In his inaugural speech to Parliament, broadcast on giant screens set up around the square, Peter Magyar said that voters had handed him a mandate “not just to change the government, but to change the system. To start over.”
Previous opposition politicians had described Orban’s regime as “corrupt,” a relatively mild term suggesting some aberration from the government’s intended function. Peter Magyar made no such accommodation. Borrowing a term coined by Balint Magyar, he has called it a mafia state — a fundamentally criminal enterprise. Third lesson: Don’t mince words.
Another lesson lies in the issues that motivated Magyar’s voters. Hungary’s economy is a mess, but post-election polling by Median, an organization that had predicted election results with uncanny accuracy, shows that voters saw corruption as the most important issue by far. In other words, Hungarians seemed to see the damage that Orbanism had done to the nation as more important than any harm they felt they had suffered as individuals. They were united by a sense of moral outrage."
Opinion | Hungary Showed How to Defeat an Autocrat
Millions, literally millions, of people are resisting the assault on democracy so he can become a dictator. His concentration camps (they don't conform to the legal standards a prison has to meet) are mostly not happening. He planned on building enough to cage political opposition after the election. But most communities told him to take a hike. There's millions of protesters, of course, but there's also an army of lawyers fighting his criminality.
After Clinton's impeachment trial ended, Republicans looked a lot worse than the Dems... A Republican lawyer was asked, as he left the trial, about it.. "It was just politics" They had given up on running the country in a corrupt lunge for power. Sound familiar?
That hasn't changed. What I started saying back then was that it was a fight.
I didn't say the obvious, it's not just a fight to save democracy, look at other countries, and the wreck left behind when they finally get kicked out.
