whutTHEYsay
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- Jul 9, 2014
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600 01 tbwms Here is Victor. Victor$Orban Don$Trump Vlad$Putin Elon$Musk at war with western liberal democracy - What have you done Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan?
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appears alongside Donald Trump at the CPAC conference in Dallas, Texas this week. Max Butterworth / NBC News
Aug. 4, 2022, / Updated Aug. 5, 2022, By Patrick Smith
He has extolled the value of racial purity, is vehemently anti-immigration, has cultivated close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and was a speaker at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, in Dallas.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, 59, is widely criticized around the world for systematically dismantling his country’s nascent democracy during his 12 years in power — but that hasn’t stopped him from emerging as a darling of many on the right in America.
Orbán told a cheering crowd of conference delegates that he and other conservatives were in a battle to protect Western civilization against the forces of liberalism and mass migration.
Hungary's controversial prime minister addresses CPAC crowd in Texas. 05:39
“If you separate Western civilization from its Judaeo-Christian heritage, the worst things in history happen," he said.
"Let’s be honest, the most evil things in modern history were carried out by people who hated Christianity. Don’t be afraid to call your enemies by their name. You can’t play safe but they will never show mercy.”
“Politics are not enough. This war is a culture war," he added.
Former President Donald Trump and his onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon are also speaking at CPAC, America’s top conservative conference. And both are fans of Orbán’s. Trump endorsed Orbán in January, three months before he was re-elected to a fourth term, and Bannon called the Hungarian leader “Trump before Trump” in a speech in Budapest in 2018.
While Trump was voted out, Orbán, the first European Union leader to speak out in support of Trump’s campaign in 2016, looks unassailable, with control over the media, the legislature and the judiciary in Hungary. Meanwhile, the fractured left-wing, centrist opposition is marginalized.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who has interviewed Orbán and hosted his show from Budapest for a week in 2021, describes Hungary as a “small country with a lot of lessons for the rest of us.” In January Carlson released a documentary titled “Hungary vs. Soros: Fight for Civilization” — a reference to George Soros, 91, the Hungarian-born Jewish businessman and philanthropist who has become a scapegoat for Orbán and his allies.
One Hungarian writer, Balázs Gulyás, said that in praising Orbán, Carlson had depicted Hungary as a “conservative Disneyland.”
Ahead of this week’s conference, Trump released a picture of him and Orbán together. “Great spending time with my friend,” Trump said in a press release. “We discussed many interesting topics — few people know as much about what is going on in the world today. We were also celebrating his great electoral victory in April.”
Trump welcomed Orbán to his estate in Bedminster, N.J., this week.Vivien Cher Benko / EPA
“Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. It feels so functional and free — you get there and think ‘this can’t possibly be a dictatorship,’” says Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociologist at Princeton University and an expert on Hungarian politics.
“That’s because Orbán’s repression is a very 21st-century repression,” she said, adding that the country’s democracy had been eroded through changes to the Constitution, rather than through violence.
Freedom House, a Washington-based human rights advocacy group, rates Hungary as only a “partly free” country. In its rating for 2022, it said Orbán had used law changes to “consolidate control over the country’s independent institutions,” pass anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT+ policies and hinder opposition groups, journalists, universities and nongovernmental organizations.
In promotion of Orbán’s “family values” agenda, Hungary banned adoption by same-sex couples in 2020 and removed the right of transgender people to legally change gender. Hungary has also refused to ratify the Istanbul convention, a legally binding international agreement aimed at preventing violence against women signed by 34 European nations.
Republicans such as Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who said the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was largely a “peaceful protest,” have praised Orbán’s border policies. What exactly attracts the U.S. right to him?
“The reason that Orbán keeps winning is he has the control of a dictator,” Scheppele said. “So the question is, what are the Republicans in it for? Are they tilting away from the principle that the peaceful transfer of power is a bedrock of democracy, against the thought that whoever wins a majority should take power, the idea of separation of powers?
“How far do they want to go on this?” she added. “I think that’s the scary
www.nbcnews.com
whut 250219 tbwms00601
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appears alongside Donald Trump at the CPAC conference in Dallas, Texas this week. Max Butterworth / NBC News
Aug. 4, 2022, / Updated Aug. 5, 2022, By Patrick Smith
He has extolled the value of racial purity, is vehemently anti-immigration, has cultivated close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and was a speaker at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, in Dallas.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, 59, is widely criticized around the world for systematically dismantling his country’s nascent democracy during his 12 years in power — but that hasn’t stopped him from emerging as a darling of many on the right in America.
Orbán told a cheering crowd of conference delegates that he and other conservatives were in a battle to protect Western civilization against the forces of liberalism and mass migration.
Hungary's controversial prime minister addresses CPAC crowd in Texas. 05:39
“If you separate Western civilization from its Judaeo-Christian heritage, the worst things in history happen," he said.
"Let’s be honest, the most evil things in modern history were carried out by people who hated Christianity. Don’t be afraid to call your enemies by their name. You can’t play safe but they will never show mercy.”
“Politics are not enough. This war is a culture war," he added.
Former President Donald Trump and his onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon are also speaking at CPAC, America’s top conservative conference. And both are fans of Orbán’s. Trump endorsed Orbán in January, three months before he was re-elected to a fourth term, and Bannon called the Hungarian leader “Trump before Trump” in a speech in Budapest in 2018.
While Trump was voted out, Orbán, the first European Union leader to speak out in support of Trump’s campaign in 2016, looks unassailable, with control over the media, the legislature and the judiciary in Hungary. Meanwhile, the fractured left-wing, centrist opposition is marginalized.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who has interviewed Orbán and hosted his show from Budapest for a week in 2021, describes Hungary as a “small country with a lot of lessons for the rest of us.” In January Carlson released a documentary titled “Hungary vs. Soros: Fight for Civilization” — a reference to George Soros, 91, the Hungarian-born Jewish businessman and philanthropist who has become a scapegoat for Orbán and his allies.
One Hungarian writer, Balázs Gulyás, said that in praising Orbán, Carlson had depicted Hungary as a “conservative Disneyland.”
Ahead of this week’s conference, Trump released a picture of him and Orbán together. “Great spending time with my friend,” Trump said in a press release. “We discussed many interesting topics — few people know as much about what is going on in the world today. We were also celebrating his great electoral victory in April.”
‘21st century repression’
The effects of Orbán’s takeover are in many ways subtle, and Hungary does not outwardly appear to be an authoritarian state.“Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. It feels so functional and free — you get there and think ‘this can’t possibly be a dictatorship,’” says Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociologist at Princeton University and an expert on Hungarian politics.
“That’s because Orbán’s repression is a very 21st-century repression,” she said, adding that the country’s democracy had been eroded through changes to the Constitution, rather than through violence.
Freedom House, a Washington-based human rights advocacy group, rates Hungary as only a “partly free” country. In its rating for 2022, it said Orbán had used law changes to “consolidate control over the country’s independent institutions,” pass anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT+ policies and hinder opposition groups, journalists, universities and nongovernmental organizations.
In promotion of Orbán’s “family values” agenda, Hungary banned adoption by same-sex couples in 2020 and removed the right of transgender people to legally change gender. Hungary has also refused to ratify the Istanbul convention, a legally binding international agreement aimed at preventing violence against women signed by 34 European nations.
Republicans such as Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who said the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was largely a “peaceful protest,” have praised Orbán’s border policies. What exactly attracts the U.S. right to him?
“The reason that Orbán keeps winning is he has the control of a dictator,” Scheppele said. “So the question is, what are the Republicans in it for? Are they tilting away from the principle that the peaceful transfer of power is a bedrock of democracy, against the thought that whoever wins a majority should take power, the idea of separation of powers?
“How far do they want to go on this?” she added. “I think that’s the scary
Critics say he runs an 'open dictatorship.' Why is Viktor Orbán a star at CPAC?
“The reason that Orbán keeps winning is he has the control of a dictator,” said one political scientist. “So the question is, what are the Republicans in it for?"
www.nbcnews.com
whut 250219 tbwms00601
