Orban’s Hungary

A Glimpse of the Future of the USA?

Back in the Fall Quarter 2023, I presented a six week course entitled: “Let’s Talk About Dictators in the 21st Century. Over eight years, this was my 30th class as an Instructor for the University of California’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. This subject area was one of three related topics including: (1) Let’s Talk Fascism (Along with a Little Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism for Good Measure; and (2) Let’s Talk About Democracy in Retreat. Although these courses were presented in the Academic Year 2023, they are already in need of updating.

The impetus for the updates is the very real recent acceleration of the dismantling of the United States system of governance. It is unprecedented. It’s not like the citizenry was not warned. From Steve Banon’s Breitbart News, the annual agenda of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), or the Project 2025 Plan sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, the monologue of conservative media has been quite clear in its intentions. Meld these efforts with the proponents of Christian Nationalism and the nation is propelled back in time to a mythical past concocted by a power seeking minority. The ghosts of Joe McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, and Father Coughlin are alive and well.

Regardless, there is no lack of push back commentary. Way beyond Facebook, Instagram, or the conventional forms of broadcast news, just step back and review the avalanche of the written and spoken word via podcasts, YouTube vids, Substack, and Medium. Each of us will need to sort out what’s applicable and what’s not, separate the chaff from the wheat, and determine our place in all of this. I would only suggest that this is no time to be an Ostrich. Running, hiding, and putting one’s head in the sand won’t solve anything. Still we have to start somewhere. For the past eight years I’ve relied upon my education in political science and my continuing interest in comparative politics, civic culture, and political history to present courses of interest to more than 300, mostly repeating, adult learners. As such, for those of you that are interested, I’ve included a copy of my presentation on Viktor Orban. Although no two countries nor leaders are exactly the same, there are similarities that students of governance need to assess.

For my own updating, it commenced yesterday when I read two e-books cover to cover. Some five hundred pages later, I’m now sifting through my notes and highlights. There is one notion that I would like to leave you the reader with. It comes from Matthew MacWilliams text: Fascism: 12 Lessons from American History.

“Our failure to admit and take responsibility for past transgressions, to reconcile the past with the present, stands squarely between America and America’s future. It is America’s Achilles’ heel, a vulnerability that demagogues have exploited for their own gain and our continued loss; and an open wound that cost George Floyd, and so many who went before him, their life and liberty. The promise of e pluribus unum is a pipe dream in a society riven by racism.”

Click on the icon below to download the Orban presentation.