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JOSHUA TAIT argues: Long Before Hungary, the Right Was Fixated on Another Country.
Prominent conservatives have discovered Hungary and its โtwenty-first century dictator,โ Viktor Orbรกn. This week, Tucker Carlson will be relocating his top-rated show to Hungary, as he did for a week last August, bringing Orbรกn into the homes of hundreds of thousands of Fox viewers.
Carlson may be the most high-profile conservative to alight on Hungary, but heโs far from the first. Christopher Caldwell profiled Orbรกn in the Claremont Review of Books in 2019; former National Review editor John OโSullivan moved to Budapest, where he has run the Danube Institute, a think tank funded by Orbรกnโs government, since 2017; the American Conservativeโs Rod Dreher spent four months last year in Budapest under the auspices of the Danube Institute, largely singing its praises; while a number of others, including Patrick Deneen, Chris DeMuth, Sohrab Ahmari, Yoram Hazony, and Jordan Peterson have made pilgrimages, in several cases meeting with Orbรกn himself. Early this year, Donald Trump endorsed Orbรกn for re-election.
Hungaryโs appeal to the American right is straightforward. Among the worldโs leaders, Tucker Carlson pronounced, only Orbรกn identifies as a Western conservative. He takes pride in standing athwart European Union integration, internationalism, immigration, and โwokeism.โ He champions the Hungarian nation and the Christian West.
Newt Gingrich's recklessness with partisanship was a precursor of where we are today, and now Trump's followers, like Steve Bannon and Ron DeSantis, are trying to one-up Trump. Bill Kristol joins Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
๐จOVERTIME ๐จ
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Even if it wasnโt great, it could be worse, you could have been Odell Beckham, Jr. and took your salary in bitcoin.
Who would have predicted? MacGruber is a COVID trutherโฆ
Matt Gaetz predicts the age of Aquariusโฆ And a lot of people are going to jail, apparently!
Redistricting mini golfโฆ Can you beat my score of 36? If you did, send me your score and Iโll feature it tomorrow.
Whoโs watching you? An interesting experiment about how honest people are.
โBut being loud does not make you plentiful.โ Will Leitch on the anti-vaxx minority as extreme fringe.
Why Trump Is Headed for the Ditch Once Againโฆ Jack Shafer at Politico writes:
The DeSantis takeover move is made possible by Trumpโs flagging support among Republicans. As Trump has moved out of the public eye (and the social media orbit) he has become less vital to party members. Today, reporter Byron York of the conservative Washington Examiner noted that a new poll shows that fewer Republicans are describing themselves more as Trump supporters (36 percent) than as party supporters (56 percent). This is Trumpโs worst showing ever in that poll, indicating generous room for a different Republican, perhaps even a Trumpish one to displace the original. (Not everybody sees an opportunity for DeSantis. The Bulwarkโs Jonathan V. Last, a Never-Trumper, writes this week that the ex-president would crush DeSantis, whom he calls a โphonyโ who will join in the morgue all the other Republicans who have run against Trump.)
Donโt sue usโฆ Weโll sue you? A wild story out of Arizona.
โTake it backโฆโ There are still good Republicans. Few as they may beโฆ
I bought a boatโฆ Never a good idea, unless youโre a millionaireโฆ
Thatโs it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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