Writing for the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind, Daniel J. Mahoney speaks about today’s Hungary with sympathy and understanding. I’m not clear that he agrees with their every policy position, but certainly with many of them.
It is currently fashionable on the left to view Hungary as semi-fascist, and pro Russian. Probably neither is true. What is true is that the Hungarians don’t buy into what we here call “woke” and they don’t want Islamic refugees. Their lack of buy-in is enough to trigger accusations of fascism from progressives.
I just spent a day in Budapest and I report the following from a quick overview. There is no heavy handed police presence, no one checking “papers,” no propaganda posters plastered everywhere, airport security wasn’t oppressive, and it looks prosperous. I’m inclined to believe what Mahoney and Steven Hayward have written about the country and its Trump-like President Viktor Orbán.
Note: The Hungarian (Magyar) language is one of the Uralic languages, which also include Finnish, Estonian and Sami. These are not part of the Indo-European language family.
