Viktor Orbán’s Hungary Is No Conservative Model - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Viktor Orbán’s Hungary Is No Conservative Model
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While former President Donald Trump still leads conservatives domestically, the Right has found a world leader abroad in Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Orbán has gained this following among American conservatives not only because he is electorally successful but also because he strongly opposes immigration, mass media, and global elites. While the draw to Orbán is understandable, conservatives must resist his style of governance at all costs.

For the moment, the Hungarian leader has all but encompassed the Right — America’s most prominent conservative gathering, the Conservative Political Action Coalition, or CPAC, met internationally in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in May for the second year in a row, with Orbán as the keynote speaker. Many Republican leaders traveled to speak, such as former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Rep. Paul Gosar, and former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

Orbán has received high praise from former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who commented via video at CPAC on his desire to relocate to Hungary due to its low crime rate and crackdowns on illegal immigration and refugee intake. American Conservative editor Rod Dreher, who moved to Budapest last year, claims that Orbán “knows that we are in a struggle for the future of Western civilization — and acts like it.” He compares “his social conservativism” to the “all-hat-no-cattle version we tend to get from American conservatives.”

Much of Orbán’s policy portfolio for Hungary sounds like Trump’s first-term America First agenda, but Orbán’s Fidesz party has been politically victorious in enacting it. The prime minister’s nationalist approach, however, is not one to emulate in America.

Orbán’s Hungary Is Not Our America

According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of Economic Freedom, Hungary’s overall score is 64.1, the 54th-most-free economy in the world. That score represents a decrease of 2.8 points from last year. Moreover, Hungary’s overall ranking among its regional European rivals is 31 out of 44. The United States, in contrast, scored 70.6 in economic freedom and ranked as the 25th-most-free economy — this despite President Joe Biden’s liberal spending measures. Ironically, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts is a big fan of Orbánism, even though his organization makes clear that the Unites States remains economically superior to Hungary.

The differences between Hungary and the U.S. extend beyond economics. Hungary is an ethnocentric state where some 80–90 percent of the population is considered ethnically Hungarian, and few families are immigrants. By contrast, the United States is a large, multi-ethnic country in which different groups have settled since the 17th century. In addition, according to Henry Olsen at the Washington Post, “Hungarians are a distinct, non-Slavic people surrounded by Slavic nations.” Orbán’s ideology of nationalism considers only the Hungarian ethnicity — “not ‘all people who live in Hungary’” — as his goal is to retain the country’s distinct ethnically Hungarian character. His approach won’t work in the U.S., a country with many different ethnic groups and families of immigrants.

Moreover, America’s foreign-policy realism differs from Orbán’s quasi-isolationism. While Hungary is a member of NATO, it has aligned itself with American aggressors China and Russia. Hungary has secured $7.6 billion investment in road initiatives from China, more than any other European country. According to the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan, it has “enabl[ed] Chinese security forces while the rest of the world seeks to scale back China.

Orbán has also played a role in rolling back sanctions on Russia in exchange for lower energy prices. He blames the European Union for prolonging Russia’s invasion, preferring peace talks over supplying weapons. Hungary’s leverage on EU aid has made it difficult for Ukrainians to flee to Hungary. 

Hungary spends little of its GDP on defense, so it can afford to cater to America’s adversaries knowing as it does that NATO and the U.S. offer protection. It is not in U.S. interest, however, to do so as the only unipolar power in the world. While Orbán can pursue whatever foreign policy he likes, it is important to understand that he cannot be a trusted ally to America’s interests.

Embrace the Constitution, Not Orbán

Conservatives should embrace the U.S.’s “melting pot” — not only because it helped make America the strong nation that it is today, but because conservatives have begun to win over diverse groups in recent elections. They will need to continue to do so moving forward.

So, while conservatives may desire to replicate Orbán’s stances against LGTBQ indoctrination or open-borders immigration, they need to do so within the framework of American constitutionalism. Instead of promoting religion by state power, conservatives must protect religious freedom so that churches can encourage family values. Instead of creating an ethno-state, conservatives need to end illegal immigration and build a wall.

American conservatives embrace the term “American exceptionalism” and have criticized liberals like President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders and movements like Black Lives Matter for admiring progressive and communist countries’ politics. Now conservatives are the ones looking elsewhere for a political renaissance.

Hungary may be a nice place to visit for a vacation, but conservatives are better off building a conservative coalition that appeals to America’s best interests and identity.

Alex Adkins is a graduate of Benedictine University who has written for the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller, the American Thinker, the Federalist, and the Western Journal.

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