Orban's defeat is a win for US pro Democracy movements

There are lessons to be learned, but Orban's defeat is a boost to pro-democracy movements and inspires efforts underway in the US to restore the kind of democracy we once had.

After  16 years, the people of Hungary had had enough of autocracy.  It took 16 years for the grassroots to get around Viktor Orban's total control of the media and a pro-Russian foreign policy.   What does this mean for America's resistance to a political party and MAGA's attempt to establish a unitary form of government to replace the Constitutional constraints against an all-powerful executive branch chief? 

There are some lessons to learn from Hungary's experience.  So enamored has MAGA been of the "strong leader"  unitary model for political domination that the powerful Conservative Political Action PAC (CPAC) has held meetings in Hungary, and Orban has been a featured speaker at their conventions. Much of the thrust of an Orban-type autocracy was also part of the plan to de facto turn the US into their one-party rule by a concerted effort to replace the federal government's rank and file with loyalists to Trump,  white Christian ideologues, and wealthy cronies..They succeeded without rewriting the Constitution by putting the authors and advocates of Project  2025 in charge of personnel and appointments and in the White House staff itself with the election of Trump in 2024 to a second term..  

The Achilles heel of autocracies is corruption. Rule by one person or a small group enables corruption because it removes checks on the avarice, greed, and pocket-stuffing of the rich and fawning supporters and cronies.  Such political and governmental power in one hand enables a leader to neglect the financial well-being of even those they purport to support. It is felt by the masses when the autocrat has priorities other than those he governs, from concerns about the cost of living to the negative impact on their own lives of foreign military adventurism, or being aligned with another similar autocracy, like Putin's. Hungary's standard of living, once comfortable, had declined under Orban, making it one of the poorest countries in Europe.   Overt and unchecked corruption had become the signature of the Orban regime. https://www.princetonpoliticalreview.org/international-news/viktor-orbns-hungary-corruption-repression-amp-democratic-backsliding.  This may also sound familiar to observers of Trump 1 and II.

 It is emerging as an awareness in the US of it happening here, to some extent. But there is also a growing realization that autocrats think they can get away with ignoring promises to make life more affordable, as their leaders feather their own nests with wealth and power. This awareness is reflected in plunging approval ratings for Trump and his unpopular public policies.  

The link of who controls the power, the people or an autocrat who is self-promoting and self-indulging, is this: Autocracy enables the needs of the rank and file citizens to be ignored. Trump is acting like one who assumes he has already seized the reins of the federal government and he can get away with anything, including enriching himself and his family members while using his power to punish and suppress any opposition.  

The good news coming from Hungary for those who want to restore the power. of Congress and bolster the judiciary to check the corrupt and vengeful can inspire the grassroots and populace to rise up without violence and restore the democratic antidote. Hungary just did it. It just takes a long time for it to happen; 16 years in Hungary.(In America, the time frame has been more like a year or two for CPAC and Project 2025 to establish an Orban-type rule.) For Hungarians,  it took a grassroots, door-to-door effort by a nation that once was  prosperous and had seen its standard of living decline as the corruption of the rulers became more evident despite media control. 

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/russell-vought-and-trump-pulling.htmlcontrol.  It was a merging of an Individual NO KINGS-type movement and the organization of citizens through word of mouth and door-to-door. 

We have a template for similar revolts in the US. It was Minneapolis and a citizens' revolt against ICE. The citizens were inspired to act as they did because it was not just an argument over legal theory but a revolt against the methods ICE used that trampled on the human and civil rights of all immigrants. and thenselves.  It was a matter of moral outrage and the unfairness of the treatment of all residents, regardless of race, religion, or immigration status. Its citizens had had enough of the fascist type paramilitary actions of ICE and organized in many ways, using many techniques to be successful.

 What is also evident with Orban's defeat is that it is easier to nip a wannabe autocracy in the bud before it seizes more control of the reins of government, because once in control, it is much harder to effect regime change. It takes time and mass realizations by citizens that they have been played.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/12/list-or-particulars-how-trump-has.html.  How Trump has accumulated dictatorial powers in 11 months

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/russell-vought-and-trump-   How Project 2025 now runs the executive branch

Exploring CPAC's love affair with Viktor Orban https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-orban-playbook-and-if-it-would-work.html

   

Going bonkers: MAGA claims our republic is not a democracy anyway

 Going bonkers: MAGA claims our republic is not a democracy anyway so his power grabs are OK?Poli sci 101: we are both a republic and a democracy, called a representative democracy. It is still based upon the vote of the people. It is not either/ or. Trump supports neither. He thinks and acts like an autocrat, thinking he can do whatever he wants, including ignoring or controlling the other two branches of government and attempting to overturn or control ballot results he does not like. 

Benjamin Franklin defined the new Constitutional form of government as a Republic..with a warning, "If we can keep it." I just ran across a fb posting by a MAGA loyalist that claimed a republic is not a democracy. Sorry, Ben, we are both a republic and a democracy: We are a representative democracy. My guess this"we are a republic; we are not a democracy" was a bonkers attempt to rationalize a power grab by a president as being ok, approved by the Constitution. It is not okay.  The subversion of our form of a republic/representative democracy is underway in the Trump regime, as administration officials attempt to turn a republic de facto into an autocracy in front of our half-open eyes. That is open defiance of the definition of "democracy" itself as rule by the people, which means, either through their elected representatives or directly by popular vote. . In fact, the standard definition of a republic is it is a form of representative democracy. In theory,  a republic is still responsive to the people who elect their representatives. We have a representative democracy. That is poli sci 101.  What Trump is trying to do is have America be neither a republic nor a democracy. He is trying to be an autocrat...rule by one, himself, treating his executive orders as laws to be obeyed,  ignoring or controlling Congress and the lower judiciary, while subverting the election processes.     He played a major role in the attempted coup on January 6 to overturn the 2020 election. And now he ordered state GOPs to gerrymander states to get more Congressional seats for his party in 2026 and to diminish minority racial representation.

Getting in the poli sci weeds:

In America, it is both: a republic and a democracy per this learned discussion.“Democracy” vs. “Republic”: Is There A Difference? | Dictionary.com " For all practical purposes, it’s both. In everyday speech and writing, you can safely refer to the US as a democracy or a republic. If you want or need to be more precise in referring to the system of the US, you can accurately call it a representative democracy. And should you need to be exacting? The US can be called a federal presidential constitutional republic or a constitutional federal representative democracy." James Madison tried to define a republic as being different than a democracy (which he defined as mob rule), but in Federalist 39 he said that the republic still had to get its authority from broad masses, not a knot of elites  . Another of many other sources: We are a blend of both a republic and a democracy: Was the United States Founded as a Republic or a Democracy? - Colonial Williamsburg

 If there was anything our founders feared, and the reason for the revolution, was to keep America free of a tyrannical king...or any other tyrannical ruler. Madison feared a resurgence of a king-like ruler and was instrumental in shaping  a constitution to guard against that: dividing power among three branches with checks on each other. There was an anti-emoluments clause to head off bribery.. To add more balance, the Bill of Rights was added as a compromise to protect citizen rights.  A case can be made that  Trump can be seen as a wannabe tyrant, uprooting even those fundamental barriers to give himself the power of a tyrant/King. That case follows:

 The Trump regime pretends it is still a democracy when it is doing what it can to subvert it. and to remove the democratic elements or even ignore the support of the broad masses because it has such power. Nevermind the representatives elected by voters are forced to represent the interests of the wannabe dictator and not the interests of their constituents who elected them. Nevermind the Trump regime uses its DOJ as an instrument for him to rule by fear and favor. Never mind the independent judiciary rulings Trump does not like are placed on ice as Trump awaits appeals from "his" 6-3 Supreme Court. 

Trump's own chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was quoted as saying that Trump believes" he can do whatever he wants" in an interview published by Vanity Fair.  Of all the quotations in that interview, that one was the one that was the most frightening. We voters should not be shocked that a person occupying the Oval Office with that kind of megalomaniacal attitude fancies himself a dictator and acts like an autocrat by abusing his power. He is getting away with it so far. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: List of particulars: How Trump has consolidated his dictatorial powers in eleven months

. A unitary government, the purpose and the blueprint for enactment by Project 2025,  is for a president to act like the legislature and judiciary, as well as the administrator,all rolled into one big hammer..  Unitary executive, the term used by proponents of Projet 2025, is just a fancy word for autocracy/dictatorship. It is  just like what CPAC  admores about Hungary and this conservative action pac promoted it by even holding their meetings there.. The form of the three branches might still exist in name and form, but the control of them actually lies in the hands of a president who ignores the rule of law, abuses power, instills fear with threats against anyone who fails to comply, and appoints sycophants in place of nonpartisan technocrats to keep the administration disciplined. The author of Project 2025, Russell Vought, is now in charge of federal employees, forcing resignation or firing those not loyal to Trump. Trump has already become the de facto dictator who issues clearly unconstitutional executive orders that he expects to be treated like a law passed by a democratic process, which they are not. 

The rule of law is being replaced by the rule of Trump. He appeals lower court rulings he does not like to "his" 6-3 Supreme Court ad nauseam and ad infinitum. He has virtually neutered the power of lower courts, as "his" Supreme Court overturns lower court rulings on a regular basis, often using a shadow docket that issues rulings without any hearings or public airing of the issues. What Trump has threatened to do to the First Amendment is a whole other subject, but his attempt to sue and force broadcast media to bow to his demands under the threat of losing their licenses at the hands of a compliant head of the FCC is the most recent example of attacks on press freedom this fall. Due process and minority rights are attacked daily in immigration and anti DEI measures and gerrymandering he himself orders.

Supreme Court Shadow Docket Tracker — Challenges to Trump Administration Actions | Brennan Center for Justice

The Supreme Court uses its "

shadow docket" for emergency rulings, often with little explanation, impacting major issues. 

Key Examples & Issues per an AI search::

• Immigration: Allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans in Noem v. National TPS Alliance.
• Religious Freedom: Blocking New York's COVID-19 capacity limits for religious services in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo.
• Environmental Policy: Reinstating a Trump-era rule limiting state authority over river contamination in Louisiana v. American Rivers.
• Death Penalty: Halting lower court injunctions to allow executions, such as in Purkey v. Ohio.
• Executive Actions: Enabling the Trump administration to enforce its policies, like passport rules in Trump v. Orr and workforce reduction plans.
• State Laws: Allowing Alabama's racially gerrymandered congressional map to stand temporarily. 

What the Shadow Docket Is:

• It refers to emergency applications and summary orders decided quickly, often without full briefing or oral arguments.
• Decisions are usually unsigned and lack detailed reasoning, but have immediate real-world effects. 

Why It Matters:

• The Court has used it at an increasing rate, bypassing its normal, transparent process.
• It allows the Court to make significant policy shifts (e.g., on abortion, environmental rules, immigration) without granting full review. 

• Supreme Court Shadow Docket Tracker — Challenges to Trump Administration Actions | Brennan Center for Justice

  Oct 20, 2025 — The Supreme Court's shadow docket is a procedure for hearing emergency applications. Shadow docket cases typically inv...

  

  Brennan Center for Justice

  

The Orban playbook and if it would work here

 Recently, some on the media have compared what Viktor Orban did to become Hungary's dictator with what Trump's actions and words appear to mirror.. There is a difference between Hungary and the US, but the techniques are similar. Remember, too, that the conservative political action pac..CPAC has held meetings in Hungary, clearly hoping Trump will be enabled to do likewise. The groundwork for this was laid by CPAC in 2022. https://www.adl.org/.../cpac-conference-hungary-views... From my post, March 2024: Orban gradually consolidated his power peacefully, and he had one advantage: citizens who were 97% percent of his same ethnic identification. That is not America. To say there would be chaos is an understatement if he tried the same techniques as Orban did. Trump has added one element to amassing power that Orban did not need to use: violence and the threat of violence. It worked in Colorado to cause many county clerk election officials to resign, and some were replaced by Trump loyalists. It worked in Georgia to intimidate election officials and witnesses. He attempted to use active military to put down civil protests and to give him legal cover in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He invited and exhorted violent militia members on January 6. Only Gen. Milley, the threat of resignation of nearly all of the top brass of the DOJ, and the bravery of the Capitol and DC police stood in his way. He would make sure those who were more loyal to the rule of law than to him would not be his appointees in a second.

How Viktor Orban Pulled Off Hungary’s Descent Into Dictatorship "Fidesz (Orban's political party)staged a spectacular comeback with a supermajority in parliament. Orban wasted no time in employing this mandate to hollow out the judiciary, rewrite Hungary’s legal code, and promulgate a new constitution. New laws made it harder for upstart parties to win seats and even easier for a large party, like Fidesz, to capture a legislative supermajority with less of the vote. And the refashioned legal code saw to it that Fidesz’s cronyism and subsequent amassing of power fell close enough within the law that it would not be sanctioned domestically.Today, Hungary is a flourishing dictatorship. The regime has curtailed press freedom, marginalized the opposition, dismantled democratic checks and balances, controlled civil society, fixed election laws, and neutered criticism—ensuring that only extraordinary events, not elections, could oust it from power." ..Those who toed the line were rewarded with jobs, directorships, and contracts. And, of course, he leaned on his own special cocktail of nationalist rhetoric: “He has provided identity props for a disintegrated society using tropes in line with historical tradition: a Christian bulwark against the colonialism of the West,.."

(Note: he used the migration of Syrian immigrants to strike fear into Hungarians (Magyars; 97% of the country) that their culture was under attack..Article: Using Fear of the “Other,” Orbán Res.. | migrationpolicy.org

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Viktor Orban: a dangerous role model for America

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Violence is the difference between an Orban dictatorship and a Trump one

WHAT IS DRIVING ANTI-DEMOCRACY MAGA GOP EXTREMISM?

  WHAT IS DRIVING THIS ANTI-DEMOCRACY MAGA GOP EXTREMISM?

Survey: A large number of Americans want an anti-democratic leader | Preserving Democracy | PBS

More adapted from my Facebook posting 9/19/23 The MAGA extremists are supporting autocracy, the opposite of democracy, instead because they are frustrated they are unable to get their agenda implemented under the democratic process. Their answer: destroy the democratic process and replace it with an autocracy so their strong man becomes the ruler over all three branches of government. That is one conclusion drawn from a highly touted book: ‘Tyranny of the Minority’ writers say Constitution not strong enough to protect democracy | PBS NewsHour Their role model, as CPAC fawns over the dictator Viktor Orban in Hungary as the method. He is particularly popular with right-wing extremists who are also white nationalists since Hungary is also 99% Christian. The Orbab model is frankly dangerous to US peace and prosperity since Hungary is not a multiracial society. The major problem: Hungary is nearly 99% ethnically pure and only uses the language widely spoken by its citizens.. The Orban message and media are under his control. The USA is less than 60% racially white, and in a few years, that demographic trend will see the current racial minority become the majority. The only way to make the US a white e Christian nation is to suppress and cow the increasingly larger minority. In a multi-racial society, implementing the Orban model would make chaos look like mild reaction.

The facebook posting continues updated:: Biden also puts democracy on the world agenda today at the UN. President Joe Biden speaks at United Nations General Assembly (usatoday.com)A major part of the GOP is also committing a serious blunder by failing to support Ukraine's attempt to become democratic instead of an appendix of Russia and dictator Putin's style of governance. By failing to continue our commitment to Ukraine, the MAGA folks who say we should focus on China only gives the signal to the Chinese autocratic regime that America has chosen to be weak militarily and isolationist.. This not only threatens Europe's ability to stop Putin's stated goal of reassembly of former USSR satellites under his control, it would create a military crisis in Europe, even if the extreme MAGAs succeed in defanging NATO's mutual defense treaty as Trump tried to do when he was president. Welcome to 1939 as the result of 1930's isolationists who were fooled and fools that failed to stop the fascist power grabs.. In 2023, the US is even more closely linked in economy and defense than in 1939... It greenlights China's takeover of Tawan and the trade routes used by US commerce in Southeast Asia. Not only are these extremist anti-democracy fools just like their isolationist predecessors in 1939, but they are a threat to US security and business interests, as well. furthermore, at the UN on 9/19/23, Biden also made a powerful statement in support of Ukraine to wide applause: if we permit Ukraine to be carved up, then no nation's sovereignty and borders and human rights are safe.

NY1.COM

Biden: Trump 'determined to destroy American democracy'

Finally Biden takes off the kid gloves and attacks Trump as wanting to destroy democracy

Based on a Facebook posting 9/19/23. 

 Finally, Biden is beginning to sharpen his attack on Donald Trump. Monday night, he charged Trump is out to destroy democracy. It is time he took off his kid gloves because what is at stake is fundamental to our way of life. .. .. and polls are beginning to show anti-democracy movement is gaining in popularity among MAGA GOP loyalists and many more. Survey: A large number of Americans want an anti-democratic leader | Preserving Democracy | PBS It is not just Trump that needs attacking. It is the MAGA GOP from which Trump gives and gets his anti-democracy strength. Anti-democracy Trump and the MAGA GOP will now be front and center in the upcoming year. In 2024, democracy will be on the ballot.: Added to Biden's case is Romney's damning comment that a very large portion of the GOP does not even believe in the Constitution. https://ny1.com/.../romney---a-very-large-portion-of--the... .

This is also republished as a separate blog posting WHAT IS DRIVING THIS ANTI-DEMOCRACY MAGA GOP EXTREMISM?

The MAGA extremists are supporting autocracy, the opposite of democracy, instead because they are frustrated they are unable to get their agenda implemented under the democratic process. Their answer: destroy the democratic process and replace it with an autocracy so their strong man becomes the ruler over all three branches of government. That is one conclusion drawn from a highly touted book: ‘Tyranny of the Minority’ writers say Constitution not strong enough to protect democracy | PBS NewsHour Their role model, as CPAC fawns over the dictator Viktor Orban in Hungary as the method. He is particularly popular with right-wing extremists who are also white nationalists since Hungary is also 99% Christian. The Orban model is frankly dangerous to US peace and prosperity since Hungary is not a multiracial society. The major problem: Hungary is nearly 99% ethnically pure and only uses the language widely spoken by its citizens.. The Orban message and media are under his control. The USA is less than 60% racially white, and in a few years, that demographic trend will see the current racial minority become the majority. The only way to make the US a white e Christian nation is to suppress and cow the increasingly larger minority. In a multi-racial society, implementing the Orban model would make chaos look like mild reaction.

The facebook posting continues updated:: Biden also puts democracy on the world agenda today at the UN. President Joe Biden speaks at the United Nations General Assembly (usatoday.com)A major part of the GOP is also committing a serious blunder by failing to support Ukraine's attempt to become democratic instead of an appendix of Russia and dictator Putin's style of governance. By failing to continue our commitment to Ukraine, the MAGA folks who say we should focus on China only gives the signal to the Chinese autocratic regime that America has chosen to be weak militarily and isolationist.. This not only threatens Europe's ability to stop Putin's stated goal of reassembly of former USSR satellites under his control, but it would also create a military crisis in Europe, even if the extreme MAGAs succeed in defanging NATO's mutual defense treaty as Trump tried to do when he was president. Welcome to 1939 as the result of 1930's isolationists who were fooled and fools that failed to stop the fascist power grabs.. In 2023, the US is even more closely linked in economy and defense than in 1939... It greenlights China's takeover of Tawan and the trade routes used by US commerce in Southeast Asia. Not only are these extremist anti-democracy fools just like their isolationist predecessors in 1939, but they are a threat to US security and business interests, as well. furthermore, at the UN on 9/19/23, Biden also made a powerful statement in support of Ukraine to wide applause: if we permit Ukraine to be carved up, then no nation's sovereignty and borders and human rights are safe.

NY1.COM

Biden: Trump 'determined to destroy American democracy'

Democracy is at stake, Biden told the fundraiser audience.

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NY1.COM

Biden: Trump 'determined to destroy American democracy'

Democracy is at stake, Biden told the fundraiser audience.

Write a comment…