A PAGE FROM VIKTOR URBÁN’S PLAYBOOK

JANUARY 16, 2025 – We who’ve been branded as “extremist, radical, leftist Democrats” (there being no other kind of Democrats, apparently), are accustomed to drawing parallels between Germany in the 1930s and America in the 2020s. These apt comparisons are supported and amplified by a broad cast of historians and political scientists who are intimately familiar with the historical record as well as with the unfolding transcript of today’s proceedings.

None of us, however, needs to reach back to fascist Germany 90 years ago; arising in our own times is a much closer example, namely in Viktor Urbán’s Republic of Hungary. I say “Urbán’s” because by steady design he has hijacked the institutions most critical to a functioning democracy: education, the judiciary, and the media and forged them into agencies of his personal lock on power. He has become effectively one with the state.

The tactics and endgame of the Hungarian prime minister bear a disturbing likeness to what is happening in our own country. One of the most critical underpinnings of a democracy is free, critical, and independent journalism. In Hungary, Urbán arranged for wealthy oligarchs to acquire and consolidate multiple independent media outlets. The firms were then “donated” to a “foundation” governed by party members having proven loyalty to the Dear Leader Urbán. Now 85% of the media in Hungary are under his thumb, which means he now controls the message. If anyone criticizes his regime, they are excoriated by his captive media and effectively ostracized from their careers and professions. The consolidation of one-man rule in Hungary is now nearly complete.

What’s most disturbing about his autocratic thrust is that it’s been praised enthusiastically by the incoming American president, the Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC) which wraps itself in the American flag, yet invited Urbán to appear as a special guest speaker, and the head of the highly influential Heritage Foundation, which prides itself as custodian of “traditional American values.”[1] A bevy of rightwing commentators are in sycophantic and opportunistic lock-step with Trump, CPAC and the Heritage Foundation.

Recently, we’ve witnessed a chilling analog to the Hungarian model of control. First Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, then Soon-Shiong, owner of the L.A. Times nixed endorsements of Kamala Harris for president. Then came ABC’s recent capitulation in Trump’s defamation suit against the network. And now? Now, CNN, NBC, CBS, AP, and even Politico and The Hill have fallen in line with the party line—that being the party of the personality cult. Yesterday, each of these outlets announced that Michelle Obama will not be attending the inauguration. No motive on the part of Michelle had to be stated, given her well known and long-standing principled dislike of Trump. In the same reportage about her not attending, we were informed that Hillary Clinton and Barbara Bush do plan to attend. The juxtaposition of Michelle’s absence and Hillary and Bush’s attendance seemed designed to be a cut against Michelle and a nod to the Dear Leader—If Hillary, in particular, can swallow some pride and attend, why can’t Michelle? What was conspicuously absent, however, in the story published by each of the aforementioned outlets was any mention of Trump’s refusal to attend Biden’s inauguration in 2020. Call me cynical—but not naïve: none of those news organizations wants to get sideways with America’s version of Viktor Urbán.

For years, the supremely insecure Trump has savaged journalism. His surrogates too have long denigrated journalism, characterizing it propagandistically as the “liberal media,” with the implication that they are the only media in America, despite the explosion of rightwing podcasts, websites, talk shows, and aggressive propaganda (as opposed to opinion) platforms such as FoxNews, Washington Examiner, Epoch Times, Newsmax, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Western Journal, National Review, Washington Times, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, RedState, Hannity.com, The Federalist, and Daily Signal, PJ Media, and Trump’s own Truth Social—to name a few. When the master of distortion refers to journalists as “enemies of the people,” he conveniently ignores the army of rightwing media stars, as he takes the front page from Viktor Urbán’s playbook.

We are deep into dangerous territory. At this juncture there is no way back; only a perilous way forward. What I most fear is that all too many Americans will break into one of two camps: The camp of sycophantic, opportunistic compliance with the edicts and dictates of the new regime . . . OR . . . the camp of sincere belief that illiberal treatment of journalism, disregard for the rule of law, contempt for the common good, and ill-informed, ill-advised impulsivity are the antidote for “all that ails us.”

Watch out. The steamroller has been in motion for months. It will soon shift into high gear. The Putins and Xis—and Urbáns—of the planet can’t wait for the collapse of American power and corresponding justification for their own suppression of liberal democracy, wherever it should raise its bothersome flag.

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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson

[1] As far as Trump himself is concerned, I have no idea what “values” he espouses beyond his tiresome vacuous slogan—Make America Great Again, which for the past four to six years has been reduced to an acronym that sound an awful lot like “maggot.”