A DISTURBING REPUBLICAN VISION FOR AMERICA

  

The claim that the small Eastern European country of Hungary has become a Republican political utopia, to be replicated in America, seems ridiculous. How could a nation with a population of less than 10 million and a short history of European style parliamentary government have anything to offer the conservative right in the United States?

Yet, Donald Trump and his minions have often embraced Hungary’s elected Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, as a model to emulate. Recently, Tucker Carlson, the Fox News commentator, moved his show to Hungary for a week. He visited with Mr. Orban and gushed about his achievements. This year, the Conservative Political Action Conference, an influential annual gathering of conservatives in America, will be held in Budapest.

 Last summer, the conservative NYT columnist, Ross Douthat wrote, “Orban’s interventions in Hungarian cultural life, the attacks on liberal academic centers and the spending on conservative ideological projects are seen as examples of how political power might curb progressive influences.”  If the Republican Party finds in Orban an exemplary political figure, it makes sense to review his policies and political philosophy. Who is Viktor Orban, and what changes has he made in Hungary that have grabbed the attention of the American right? 

Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe.  It is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west.  Viktor Orban first came on the political scene as a member of the center right, similar to Angela Merkel of Germany. By the time of his second stint as Prime Minister in 2010, he had morphed into something quite different. He boasted of becoming a proponent of an “illiberal” form of government. At the heart of his ideology was the principle that liberal multiculturalism must be defeated. For Orban, illiberalism means that Hungary is for the Hungarians. What follows is a summary of the policies adopted by Hungary since Orban has been Prime Minister.

Border Security The American right is enamored with the barbed-wire fences at the Hungarian border that appear clean and orderly with none of the chaos so common at the American Southern border. What is left unsaid is the Hungarian policy of denying food to families held in immigration detention centers. Viktor Orban’s anti-immigration propoganda has convinced many citizens that he is all that stands between them and a hostile Muslim invasion.

Elections While vote counts are not outwardly rigged in Hungary, elections are often one-sided affairs. Almost all of the campaign donations and advertising support Orban’s political party, Fidesz.  Bogus opposition parties are organized as a means of dividing the legitimate opposition vote. Observers have characterized the Hungarian Parliament as “a window decoration for a one party state.”

Hungarian Constitution Within months of taking power, Orban and his majority in the Parliament began rewriting the Constitution.  The country’s constitutional court was expanded in size, and Orban filled the new seats with loyalists. Another provision forced all judges over the age of 62 to retire so that these posts could be filled with friendly jurists.  As a result, The Prime Minister’s illiberal policies are guaranteed court approval.

New Legislation National laws were passed permitting Orban to fire civil servants en masse and replace them with partisan supporters.  Orban installed hand-picked department heads to run election supervision and the national media apparatus. These offices had been non-political under previous laws.

Independent Journalism and Media Orban’s government used the new constitutional provisions and legislation (through exorbitant taxing schemes) to silence independant media organizations. They were forced to sell to the state or to oligarchs aligned with the new illiberal system of government.  By 2017, 90 percent of all media was owned or indirectly controlled by Orban’s political party, including regional newspapers.

Reshaping of the Hungarian Electorate Because Orban’s opponents were denied state sponsored employment (and discriminated against in receiving government benefits) almost a million citizens, or one tenth of the population, left Hungary for Western Europe. Many lost their right to vote against Orban in Hungarian elections.

To boost the number of his supporters, Orban offered citizenship and voting rights to more than one million non-domestic Hungarians living in nations surrounding Hungary. These voters support Orban at a jaw-dropping 95 percent. Within Hungary, the Prime Minister has offered his supporters popular tax breaks, loans and access to medical clinics.

The Business Community Profitable Hungarian Corporations and successful small businesses report a troubling trend of mafia-style tactics to force them to sell out to Orban’s friends. If an offer from the state or an oligarch to purchase a successful company is refused, the organization is choked into submission by high taxes and smothering regulations.  Enriching Orban’s allies and neutralizing perceived threats guarantees a high degree of undemocratic social control.

Education The Orban government has reshaped the public school curriculum to remove opportunities for critical thinking that might encourage students to question the government’s policies. Liberal university centers have been denied funding and shut down.

I was going to end this commentary with the observation that Republicans should be careful what they wish for in praising Hungary’s political system. On second thought and most troubling of all, these policies may be exactly what many right wing Republicans are seeking as they follow Donald Trump down the rabbit hole into the next election cycle.

 

 

 

WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT?

 

For the past several months, I have been paying close attention to conservative talking points from right wing media and from family members and neighbors who still have Trump signs in their front yards. I knew that my regular diet of progressive opinion pieces and cable television analysis was missing something. A recent article in Foreign Affairs (The Real Crisis of Global Order, by Alexander Cooley & Daniel Nexon, January/February 2022) helped me make sense of it all.

When reducing the raging arguments across America to their essence, one issue stands out. Each political party and its followers claim that the other side is taking steps to destroy democracy.  Each believes that it is the last bulwark to prevent the demise of our longstanding American constitutional Republic into an unrecognizable form of government.   

Democrats and Republicans have separately developed a model for America that precludes compromise. As explained in the Foreign Affairs article, “There remains the overwhelming crush of intense political polarization, hyperpartisan scorched-earth tactics, and legislative gridlock…After 30 years of dysfunction in the country, the political and foreign policy establishments have failed to reckon with this reality.”

The epiphany for me is that the political battle being waged is not about losing democracy. It is about choosing sides on an acceptable form of democracy with a distinct plan for America. The Republican vision is centered on saving white culture. Democrats want diversity with policies based on universal equality.

Not unlike today’s Republicans, many nations that hold regular elections have adopted illiberal democracies that are against immigration and in favor of a stronger executive branch. This approach often includes attacks against an open media and against legislative checks and balances. However, if a majority of voters continues to favor such a system, it remains a democracy in spite of its tilt toward nativism.

In today’s political climate, it is easy to forget that only 70 years ago our country was still fighting anti-democratic forces seen in domestic political movements, parties and politicians. Our 1950s federal government permitted the authoritarianism of racial segregation and bias against Jews and other minorities.  Women were discriminated against at work and had little protection from domestic violence. Adults were jailed for expressing their sexual preferences.  Democratic elections were a sham in Southern states. Yet, we labeled ourselves the leader of the democratic free world. 

Today, many Republicans are in favor of a more illiberal democracy that would counter what they view as the “replacement” of white political, social and cultural control with a takeover by black/brown and secular tendencies. A recent study revealed that almost all the Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol on January 6, were from communities that had experienced an uptick in minority populations over the past decade. Other polling has disclosed that in order to push back against this perceived loss of white influence almost half of the American electorate is willing to embrace limitations on voting rights and to permit partisan challenges to election results. More troubling, according to a new national survey by the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, almost one-third of Republicans say they think violence may be necessary to solve the problems facing the United States brought on by progressive policies,

Democrats insist that Republicans who support Trump are responsible for the impending collapse of democracy. They equate the political developments over the past year as a sure sign that Republicans intend to transform America into an authoritarian state.

Not to be outdone, Republicans also accuse Democrats of attempting to subvert democracy. The allegations include the fabrication of criminal charges against Trump so that he cannot seek reelection, doing away with the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court with liberal justices, and changing the Filibuster procedural rules in the Senate.

A look behind the curtain reveals that democracy is a convenient foil and not the real issue. If saving democracy were at stake, the conflict would be between a powerful central state and a small political elite waging war against society as a whole. Our present conflict is between two equally matched segments of society each attempting to use democracy to impose its vision of America on the other.

Americans have been down this road before in choosing between two diametrically opposed views of their country. In 1858, the societal conflict between North and South lead to the Civil War.  In 1968, the conflict between baby boomers and their elders over the Vietnam War and civil rights appeared irreconcilable. The United States survived both.

The interesting question is whether America, with today’s stark divisions, can be governed at all. I find some encouragement in the words of Historian Richard Hofstadter, who wrote during the violence of the late 1960s as follows. “When one considers American history as a whole, it is hard to think of any very long period in which the country has been well governed. And yet its political system is a resilient and well-seasoned one that has shown the ability to summon enough talent and good will to cope with its afflictions.”

In whatever fashion the conflict is resolved, I do not believe that a society  based on Trumpism or one committed to socialism is in our immediate future.  The kind of country most of us can tolerate (together) lies somewhere in-between. I am confident our democratic constitutional republic will reach a messy moderate result, as it always has.

 

 

 

 

IN SEARCH OF EMPATHY

 

Finding empathy has been on my mind this holiday season. I often recall one of my favorite quotes from Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. “First of all, if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  Numerous philosophers and famous people have attempted to define empathy. None has captured it better than Atticus has. As we close out a year of deadly pandemic, destructive weather and political insurrection that threatened the very heart of our democracy, no human emotion deserves more of our attention than empathy for one another.

Most of us spent the year wondering why we do not understand half the country or how they think. We grumble to our own tribe: “The other side is not rational; they never make sense.”  Rather than take Atticus’s advice on empathy, we have used the pandemic as an excuse to stay physically and emotionally distant. We cocoon in social media with our comfortable self-serving opinions. After all, it is much easier to stick with those who agree with us than to risk entering the cold, dangerous world and trying to understand the positions of others.

Perhaps the first step in seeking empathy is to gain some perspective. Before progressives vilify all Trump supporters and anti-vaxers, or conservatives attack those who brought Biden to the White House and criticize mask mandates, pick up the New York Times “Year in Pictures 2021.” Take time to view the photographic summary depicting the millions of humans who suffered unfathomable tragedies. After spending a moment contemplating each photograph, the disputes tearing us apart politically seem rather inconsequential by comparison.

Many of the photographs highlight the pandemic. As we close out 2021, over 800,000 Americans (500 in Washington County) and almost 6 million individuals around the world have perished from COVID. The loss felt by each family in their own unique cultural, ethnic and religious context is the same heart-breaking grief. The photographs record open crematoriums in India, stacked bodies in East Los Angeles and football-sized cemeteries in Brazil.  To feel empathy for each family who must carry on is what makes us human.

The photographs go on to chronicle the natural disasters that killed tens of thousands around the world and left many more homeless. In America, the weather events seemed endless. The forest fires in our drought-stricken West that get worse every year.  Rising sea levels causing the collapse of an upscale condominium in South Florida. A winter storm that overwhelmed the power grid in Texas. Hurricane Ida coming ashore as a category 4 storm in Louisiana.  Most recently, the destructive power of unpredictable tornadoes in Kentucky and neighboring states. 

We need each other to repair the damage and to move forward as a nation and as responsible members of the international community. Differing political views are healthy and are the foundation of a working democracy. However, such views cannot be permitted to stand in the way of compassion for those that are less fortunate or who have suffered loss.  We must never lose the ability to have empathy for and to seek understanding from those with whom we disagree.

Returning to the chronology of photographs, many are depictions of brave individuals attempting to gain democracy or enforce their civil rights. Russians rallying in support of the jailed opposition leader who challenged President Vladimir Putin.  Protestors seeking a return to democracy clashing with security forces in Myanmar and in Hong Kong.  Rebel soldiers closing in on the capital in Ethiopia. Veiled women teachers trying to keep schools open for girls in Kabul, Afghanistan. A portrayal of one of many Chinese re-education camps, where millions of Muslim Uighurs are interred and subjected to severe human rights abuses. An impromptu celebration on the streets of Minneapolis following the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. 

We should all pause and permit these photographs that illustrate political violence and civil rights violations to be seared in our memories. Our democratic republic is not guaranteed. There are reasons that democracy flourishes in some nations but falls to authoritarianism and anarchy in others. Our system of government is hardly the natural order.  To make democracy work, we need empathy and understanding for all the political, social and cultural differences America has to offer.

Empathy is the opposite of anger and helps us reunite fractured communities. Empathy has the power to bring together people who would otherwise never meet to make our diversity a positive force. It has the ability to teach us, to heal us and to reach us in moments of isolation, when we think nobody understands, in times of illness and natural disaster.

In short, empathy is exactly what we need as we enter the new year and continue to face the perils of a pandemic, severe weather and political upheaval.