An authoritarian has been toppled in Hungary. The rise and fall of Viktor Orban should provide a lesson for nations in the grip of authoritarians, and those struggling with creeping authoritarianism. And that especially goes for
the United States.
Viktor Orban was in power for sixteen consecutive years. His total stay in power was twenty years. Up until he lost the recent Hungarian election by a landslide, Orban was the North Star for right wing populists. His rise to power, and subsequent iron grip on Hungarian politics and society was the primer that guided budding dictators in Europe and
the United States.
In the late 1980s, Orban was himself a liberal dissident, a brave individual who championed the Hungarian, anti-Soviet movement. He was the Viktor Orban who, during his brighter days, stated in a speech,”The best weapon against tyranny is to steel oneself . . .” Orban’s benefactor during those days was none other than philanthropist George Soros, who was, and still is, perceived by the right wing, worldwide as the bane of civilization. If it isn’t Obama, or a Biden, or even Hillary, then it must be George Soros who’s behind some sort of Satanic globalist plot.
Orban’s first political shift came in 1998 when he moved from liberal to center-right conservative, a position that earned him his first term as Hungary’s Prime Minister. As they say in basketball, “no harm, no foul.” In this first term, Prime Minister Orban was pro-Western and pro-NATO.
Four years later Orban was defeated by Hungarian Socialist, Peter Medgyssey, and Orban and his Fidesz Party made a radical hard right turn and in 2010 Orban won re-election as Hungary’s Prime Minister. By now Orban had repudiated his former liberalism and Soros, his former benefactor, and was proceeding on a corrupt, despotic path that would lead to the downfall of Hungary, the ruination of its economy, and the putrefaction of Hungarian society.
Lesson one: Never assume that the lust for power won’t eclipse integrity and long standing beliefs.
“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a–hole like Nixon… or that he’s America’s Hitler”. ~ J.D. Vance in 2016. J.D. Vance who has shown that he will march under any flag that he thinks will propel him up the power ladder. J.D. Vance, who maligns immigrants while being married to the daughter of
immigrants from India.
“NATO is an important alliance. If NATO didn’t exist, we’d have to create it.” ~ Marco Rubio, who, as recently as 2023 co-authored a bill that would prohibit any President of the United States from withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) without Senate approval or an Act of Congress. The same Marco Rubio who was once taken seriously as having expertise in foreign policy. The Marco Rubio who has now become a full fledged member of the Trump cult and has taken to disparaging NATO and our (once) European allies.
Lesson number two: Believe what’s before your very eyes.
Once back in power, Orban and Fidesz adopted the now familiar attributes of hard right nationalists; anti-immigrant scapegoating, sharp often false, criticism of NATO, and the use of nationalist, pro-family and right-wing Christian rhetoric. Orban aligned himself with Putin, while criticizing Ukraine in its struggle for survival against Russia’s illegal war. Orban packed his administration with sycophants and cronies. He harrassed universities, and he strong armed business leaders to gain their loyalty. He criticized and threatened judges who he deemed disloyal. By 2022, he was railing against what he called a “mixed-race world”. Orban had commandeered the rewriting of the Hungarian Constitution in a way that restricted LGBTQ rights, packed the judiciary in the favor of the ruling (Fidesz) party, tightened citizenship laws, and emphasized so-called Christian and family values. There was a crackdown on what Fidesz termed “wokeness.” The regime engaged in a historical revisionism that aligned with Orban’s particular ideology. Orban’s government engaged in a full on culture war. Minorities were marginalized, socially and in official history. The government had become a corrupt, moneymaking enterprise for Orban and his family and friends. Cronyism was rampant. The media had been bought and paid for and any holdouts were silenced. So-called intellectuals and liberals were prosecuted and harassed.
What does this have to do with the United States?
In the BT times (Before Trump), Republican politicians would have criticized Orban, particularly in response to the Hungarian prime minister’s cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin, along with the Hungarian leader’s increasingly antagonistic stance towards NATO and the EU.
During Trump 1.0 the relationship between Trump and Orban warmed noticably. His cowed Republican Party followed suit. By 2021, the relationship had become an unabashed love affair. Tucker Carlson was the chief matchmaker after having visited Orban in Hungary. In 2023, Orban spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas. Trump, J.D. Vance, and the Republican hierarchy touted Orban’s policies that would become a model for Project 2025.
Simply take out the name Orban and replace it with
Trump.
Just over a year into Trump’s second administration, America has adopted the now familiar attributes of hard right nationalist governments; anti-immigrant scapegoating, sharp often false, criticism of NATO, and the use of nationalist, pro-family and right-wing Christian rhetoric. Trump has aligned himself with Putin, while criticizing Ukraine in its struggle for survival against Russia’s illegal war. At the start of his administration Trump and members of his cabinet have sacked those who were considered to be critical of Trump. The Trump Administration has been packed with sycophants and cronies. Trump criticizes and threatens judges who he deems to be disloyal.The rights of the LGBTQ community are under threat. Trump has railed against people of color, including his most recent reference to Somali Americans as “garbage.” Trump has consistently and blatantly tried to circumvent the Constitution. The Trump Administration is engaged in a full on culture war. In trying to root out so-called “wokeness” and DEI, the administration has fired qualified government workers and replaced them with toadies. The Trump regime has engaged in a historical revisionism that aligns with the Christian nationalist, right wing ideology of Project 2025. Since taking office, Trump has turned the presidency into a corrupt, moneymaking enterprise for himself, his family and his friends. Since taking office,Trump’s net worth has skyrocketed to an estimated $6.3 billion to $7.3 billion. The Trump Administration has harrassed, threatened, and extorted the media, universities and private business. Liberals and so-called “elites” have been threatened and harrassed.
Lesson number three: Heed the historical lesson of forming temporary coalitions.
In 2024, the American electorate would be tested. It was literally the political equivalent of an open book test. All the answers were available; the chaos of Trump’s first term, Trump’s explicit promise of retribution, his explicit promise of an authoritarian style administration, the threat of Project 2025, and the Republican Party’s close relationship with Viktor Orban and almost apologetic stance towards Putin.
There were also the lessons of history in which politically unaligned factions have coalesced to defeat authoritarian rule. The American voter could hardly be expected to know the 1930 coalition that formed between the left and center in Finland to defeat the extreme right Lapua Party. But the American electorate did have the example of France’s recent repudiation of right winger Marine LePen as evidence of how a temporary marriage of traditional political foes can foil a threat from hard right populism.
How did America do in its 2024 test?
F-.
In busying themselves with splitting political hairs, Democrats and Independents managed to split their vote – or not vote at all.
Now, in 2026, Peter Magyar’s victory in Hungary has provided American voters with the most recent example of the value of coalition. Faced with a continuation of rule under Orban, Hungarian liberals turned out for the center-right Magyar. For Hungarian liberals a vote for Magyar may have been something of a bitter pill, buy they did what was necessary. The Hungarian left will live, in a much stronger position, to fight another day.
The American voter is in the midst of another test; the 2026 midterm elections. Will Democrats again split hairs or will they swallow the bitter pill for the betterment of the country? Will they turn out to vote for a Democratic candidate on the ballot who doesn’t allign completely with their views, but stands the best chance to defeat a Republican? Because lesson number four is:
Win big.
Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party won by an overwhelming margin, getting 53.5% of the vote to Orban’s Fidesz Party’s 38%. Did Orban have a plan in place to overturn a close election? Maybe, but if he did, the landslide defeat might have dissuaded him from putting that plan in motion.
Assuming that there will be free and fair elections in November, centrist, left leaning, and hard left progressive Democrats and Independents, along with reformed former Trump supporters need to coalesce so that the margins of any victories are large enough to cast no doubts whatsovever on the results.
Trump’s DOJ, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Trumpy secretaries of state should not be allowed the slightest opening to challenge elections, and Speaker Mike Johnson can be offered no excuse to stall the swearing in of newly elected Democrats as he did with Adelita Grijalva of Arizona.
These lessons all hold true for the 2028 presidential election. And still
I fear that Democrats will find a way to turn off swaths of voters. Vomiting all over itself is something that the Democratic Party does with aplomb.
Lesson number five: Be a Peter Magyar and not a Merrick Garland.
Almost immediately following his election victory, Peter Magyar asked for the resignation of Fidesz backed Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok, along with Fidesz sympathetic judges. “We expect the resignation of Orban’s puppets,” Magyar said. “May 31 is the deadline until when they can submit their resignation. After then, we will live with our mandate and legal possibilities to remove them from office.”
It took nearly two years for Attorney General Merrick Garland to begin to lay the groundwork for investigating Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents, and for interference in the 2020 elections. In the end, Trump and his fellow criminals were able to run out the clock and
here we are.
If the Democrats manage to take control of the House (and hopefully the Senate) in November of 2026, Congress should do whatever is in its power to clean house. It should seize back the power that Mike Johnson surrendered to Trump.
Business leaders who have corruptly curried Trump’s favor should be hauled before Congress to explain their behavior and should be put on notice that criminal prosecution could be in their futures in the event that a Democratic administration is in power in 2029.
Impeachment proceedings should be set in motion for members of Trump’s cabinet, especially Pete Hegseth, Kashyap Patel, the Attorney General (whoever that may be), Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And those are just for starters.
In the event that a Democrat becomes the next president, there can be no indecision. The new administration should immediately rip out the corruption of the Trump Administration root and branch. Trump loyalists from the cabinet level down to mailroom clerk should be summarily let go and investigations should commence immediately into corruption. The entire Trump family should be subject to criminal investigation. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner should be investigated, charges brought if appropriate, and if convicted, they should serve time in jail.
Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Gregory Bovino, and Tom Homan should all be investigated for their brutality, and corruption, and where applicable, criminally charged. If convicted, any member of the administration, along with colluding private citizens should be made to serve jail terms. And this should apply to any agents who obeyed illegal orders, and/or acted illegally on their own.
ICE should be disbanded and subsequently reconstituted into a department that justly, correctly and humanely enforces immigration laws.
In the event that Trump issues mass pardons then states attorney generals should look for opportunities to prosecute criminal activity on state charges.
Whatever monuments to himself that Trump has put up should immediately be torn down and his name purged from public buildings, street signs and any other location that bears his name. The name Trump should be removed from the Kennedy Center, the wrecking ball taken to the ballroom, and the Trump arch (if it’s constructed) bulldozed. The name Trump should be made synonymous with malfeasance and criminality and should in no way, shape or form be held in official honor.
It isn’t a matter of retribution. It’s a matter of justice. Justice that wasn’t served the first time around. It’s a message that nobody, n-o-b-o-d-y, is above the law, particularly the rich and the powerful.
It’s a signal to any future wannabe American dictators that in the end, they will be held in perpetual contempt and their legacies left in tatters. The message must be sent that there will be no tolerance for the kind of corruption, ineptitude and lawlessness that characterize the Trump Administration..
Congress should go to work passing strong anti-corruption laws, and strengthening the guardrails that were found to be shockingly weak. An out of control, partisan Supreme Court needs to be legislatively reined in.
The power of the pardon was supposed to be a merciful one. It has become a political tool that allows individuals to act corruptly and unlawfully with the confidence that the President of the United States will grant them a “get out of jail free,” card. Congress needs to immediately correct the flaws that have politicized the power of the pardon.
In 2024, Hungary provided Americans with a frightening look into their own future. Americans covered their eyes. Americans ignored all of the evidence of calamity and corruption that was laid before them and the result has been global chaos.
Two years later, Hungary has provided Americans with the example of how to correct its 2024 mistake. Let’s hope that Americans have learned their lessons.
The Life in My Years 