Hungary and America: A Fractured Relationship

 

Tucker's Interview with Viktor Orban: A Refreshing Take on How To Be a Sovereign Nation

I just watched the interview that Tucker did with Viktor Orban of Hungary. Hungary is not a country I know that much about. The first time I heard about President Orban was from vicious Economist articles painting him as a tyrant. Why? He regulated his border from being overrun by Muslims from Syria. They give every country with a sensible immigration policy the Stalin treatment. They've done it to Poland as well.

Tucker Carlson had been in Budapest to give a speech condemning the US ambassador’s remarks on Hungary’s supposed anti-gay laws. In trying to protect children from seeing smut in stores they’ve outlawed certain books; in Ambassador Pressman’s view this is unacceptable. Probably because he’s openly gay himself and more an ambassador for the homosexual community than for the U.S. Even if he was slightly more than an empty suit, you don’t rip the internal politics of the country you’re assigned to. There used to be a certain diplomatic respect with our representatives.

Wouldn’t he be more effective in Uganda or Zimbabwe? How about Saudi Arabia? I hear homosexuals have it slightly tougher there.

Global Ideologies

I had a few takeaways from Tucker’s interview. The most obvious being this, the world has changed so much in the last 20 years. Probably just my understanding of it has changed, that’s more accurate. I’m not a fan of going to another country to air grievances the way Tucker has but we’re in a different era. Obama did this during his first term. Some called it an apology tour. His presence sent a signal (supposedly) that the US had taken advantage of other countries and he would set it right. Most of this related to the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. It looked shameless to me. But what I didn’t realize was how connected international Leftism was and is. We live in an era of global interconnectedness. It’s not just economics but, ideology as well.

It's not a positive development. Alliances are great but spending money to influence the local politics of another country is ugly. But it’s the realm we fight in and there is no sense pretending it doesn’t exist. The rich world is governed by elites who want to keep their populations subservient. If they don’t see borders as an impediment to their ideas why should we? An educated and wealthy middle class is a threat to their power. It’s true in America and it’s true in Europe. It’s why we see such pressure to adopt silly emissions standards for the climate and unite behind countless treaties. 

We all chase our tails trying to keep up with the changing environment, losing a little freedom each time. Then the standards change and it’s on to something else that wasn’t a problem before, light bulbs or gas stoves. They’re just keeping us occupied and angry with our fellow citizens.

West Vs East

You have to admire leaders that do for their citizens and tell the rest to go away. It’s why Orban is persona non-grata among the Western leaders. He doesn’t want to lose the cultural significance of being Hungarian, nor do his people want to have Sharia law competing with its own native (and Christian) interpretations of legality. Nor do they want the same sexual confusion our children experience here. Sovereign territory must be respected. Just look at France and Germany, overrun with Muslim immigrants. Did the citizens of Germany get to vote? No. The EU decides a thing and everyone just lives with the consequences. The United States has no border in the south anymore either. Patrols pick up everyone from countries all over the world. In this way the elites can dilute the uniqueness of American culture.

I liked President Orban’s take on why the West is in such a mess. The liberal world is selfish. We look first to our personal advancement at the expense of the nation. In Hungary and much of the East, it’s a country first mentality. This also explains the mindset of people in Russia and certainly Vladimir Putin. In a saner world this would be a losing argument. I can’t imagine making this making sense even 10 years ago in America.

Our individualism was supposed to be the envy of the world. Was that ever true, or did we just push too far? Did we become greedy in our pursuits and ignore the real dangers of wealth? We’ve cast off restraint both spiritually and financially. We’ve lost control through the ballot box. Orban was telling Tucker that we don’t understand Russia because we assume Russians act like we do. They don’t. None of this is to give Putin a break or adopt their understanding of the world. But there are setbacks to investing too heavily in liberalism of the West.

Conclusion

Russia’s primary objective is to keep the country together. It’s a massive country too. Yes, he’s a dictator with tentacles in every part of the country. But somehow I’m not in the mood to talk about American greatness for a while. We pushed Ukraine into this war after opening weapons biolabs and conducting research within their borders. We fomented a color revolution and tossed out the Kremlin stooge, in 2014, so we could put in our own stooge. If that’s the way of international politics so be it, but when our media criticizes Putin for his reckless behavior it rings hollow. Hungary’s president didn’t say this but I think he meant it. He’s no friend of Russia either. It’s dangerous to be on the outs with the American State Department. He admitted this.

His solution is to bring Trump back. It’s probably the best part of the interview when he says that. That’s a major middle finger to the Biden White House. It’s also a sign of how broken the relationship is between Budapest and Washington.