Worth noting, also, that JD Vance’s endorsement & presence in the Orbán campaign correlated to a roughly 2.5% drop in Orbán’s poll numbers —according to poll data from just before his arrival & just after his media blitz in Hungary — meaning JD Vance didn’t simply fail to help the “illIberal” authoritarian cause writ large and Orbán’s campaign within it: it actively *hurt and unpopularized them*
The authoritarian answer is a confession: we authoritarians are frightened, selfish, tribal, easily manipulated, and ultimately willing to trade our freedom for the security of a strong hand. We are not fully human, because we were disenfranchised by crappy parenting.
It is not the view of free people. We are free because we are emotionally whole, a vibrant intelligence from perineum to midbrain. Not free from doubt, fear, and the other threats to ego, but balanced, envisioned by Nature itself, evolved to be sapiens. Free to make balanced decisions, to live balanced lives, free to walk the fine lines of discovery and beyond-earthly joy.
BTW, according to my quick Google search, less than 9% of the American people like or trust Putin. And yet the putative leader of the free world unreservedly backs his puppet. It’s yet more proof that America is not a democracy at the moment. Everything Trump is doing is wildly unpopular, from this grotesque criminal war to the rampageous desecration and exploitation of our public lands, which 85% of Americans are in favor of preserving.
That is the thesis of the opposition to everything documented in these pages. Not the managed, consultancy-smoothed, message-tested version. The real thing. The choice. The active, costly, unrewarded act of choosing dignity over convenience, courage over safety, solidarity over isolation. The vote cast in the face of a system designed to make it meaningless. The voice transmitted from 240,000 miles away, speaking about love, speaking about neighbor, speaking about what we owe each other across every distance.
The authoritarian project depends on the exhaustion of exactly that impulse. It depends on people deciding that the choice doesn’t matter, that the structures are too captured, that the distances are too great, that the crew is not real.
Tonight in Hungary, the crew showed up.
And as you write: It is time for celebration and after that to rejoin the crew and return to work.
I do believe that your faith Mike, and your research and your determination to keep your message coming will be revisited in the future as an unwavering voice for holding fast in these times. Thanks for the steady hand.
Orban's mistake was that he didn't change the rules in his favor *enough;* he actually allowed mostly fair and free elections. Don't count on other authoritarian fecal smears not drawing a lesson from that.
Not “official” until next weekend, right? But this is very encouraging. He will no doubt try to say it’s not real, whatever, but it’s hard to dismiss that much of a win.
Worth noting, also, that JD Vance’s endorsement & presence in the Orbán campaign correlated to a roughly 2.5% drop in Orbán’s poll numbers —according to poll data from just before his arrival & just after his media blitz in Hungary — meaning JD Vance didn’t simply fail to help the “illIberal” authoritarian cause writ large and Orbán’s campaign within it: it actively *hurt and unpopularized them*
The authoritarian answer is a confession: we authoritarians are frightened, selfish, tribal, easily manipulated, and ultimately willing to trade our freedom for the security of a strong hand. We are not fully human, because we were disenfranchised by crappy parenting.
It is not the view of free people. We are free because we are emotionally whole, a vibrant intelligence from perineum to midbrain. Not free from doubt, fear, and the other threats to ego, but balanced, envisioned by Nature itself, evolved to be sapiens. Free to make balanced decisions, to live balanced lives, free to walk the fine lines of discovery and beyond-earthly joy.
BTW, according to my quick Google search, less than 9% of the American people like or trust Putin. And yet the putative leader of the free world unreservedly backs his puppet. It’s yet more proof that America is not a democracy at the moment. Everything Trump is doing is wildly unpopular, from this grotesque criminal war to the rampageous desecration and exploitation of our public lands, which 85% of Americans are in favor of preserving.
That is the thesis of the opposition to everything documented in these pages. Not the managed, consultancy-smoothed, message-tested version. The real thing. The choice. The active, costly, unrewarded act of choosing dignity over convenience, courage over safety, solidarity over isolation. The vote cast in the face of a system designed to make it meaningless. The voice transmitted from 240,000 miles away, speaking about love, speaking about neighbor, speaking about what we owe each other across every distance.
The authoritarian project depends on the exhaustion of exactly that impulse. It depends on people deciding that the choice doesn’t matter, that the structures are too captured, that the distances are too great, that the crew is not real.
Tonight in Hungary, the crew showed up.
And as you write: It is time for celebration and after that to rejoin the crew and return to work.
I do believe that your faith Mike, and your research and your determination to keep your message coming will be revisited in the future as an unwavering voice for holding fast in these times. Thanks for the steady hand.
Orban's mistake was that he didn't change the rules in his favor *enough;* he actually allowed mostly fair and free elections. Don't count on other authoritarian fecal smears not drawing a lesson from that.
Thank you for this beautifully, written essay that moved me to tears of Hope and joy
Not “official” until next weekend, right? But this is very encouraging. He will no doubt try to say it’s not real, whatever, but it’s hard to dismiss that much of a win.
A key lesson from Orban’s defeat is that filling the streets with protests drives solidarity, which drives voter turnout.
Great article.
Amen
Orban has publicly conceded. This alone will afford him a place in history just slightly on top of Trump.
Orban is scared. I wouldn't be surprised if he fled to Moscow. And unlike Trump, he doesn't have a malignant narcissistic personality disorder.
Step one complete. ✊
What has happened in Hungary is merely a political game between the elites and the counter-elites. In Europe there is no genuine opposition to either.
Nonsense.
Respectfully, Mike, could you be a little less delphic?