I’ve been reading-up on this lately and hope to write something intelligent soon. In the meantime, I found Damon Linker’s piece at The Week helpful.
Here is a taste:
Trump’s big win was thrilling for many on the American right, and his four-year-long act of trolling the left (“owning the libs”) was enormously satisfying while it lasted. But other than appointing a slew of conservative judges to the federal courts, it’s not clear how much long-term change he accomplished.
Orban’s rule in Hungary has been different. He’s imposed stringent limits on immigration, pushed back hard on efforts to mainstream progressive views of sexuality and gender, and instituted an aggressive pro-natalist policy. It’s far too soon to judge the effects of these changes, but they are undeniably efforts to enact a culturally conservative agenda that would reverse the moral and social trends of recent decades.
That is what American conservatives admire about Orban. They don’t see him as a corrupt autocrat they can emulate. They see him as someone who unapologetically fights and wins culture war battles from the right — who shows it’s possible not just to halt the leftward ratchet but to reverse its course.
Read the entire piece here.
