Orbán Development

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the one European leader not named Vladimir by his mother that Donald Trump has a good rapport with, and he proved it by hosting Orbán at Mar-a-Lago last weekend.  

At a celebration of  for his guest of honor, Trump praised Orbán as a leader who gets things done for the Hungarian people because he gives the orders and he makes sure they're carried out.  "He's the boss," Trump said.

Viktor Orbán is the boss of Hungary.  What he says goes.  And that's the problem.   he gets things done because he's run roughshod over Hungarian institutions that had previously upheld democracy in the Central European nation for over twenty years.  Orbán has emasculated the Hungarian courts, cracked down on the media, discriminated against gays, promoted white nationalism, and encouraged Hungarian newlyweds to have as many children as possible in an effort to preserve the Hungarian nation.  And oh yes, he's warned about migrants "replacing" Europeans just like white nationalists in America have blamed the Jews for "replacing" white people with people of color.  Orbán likes to say that he has founded an "illiberal" democracy in Hungary.  As contradictory as that sounds, Hungary technically is a democracy, with elections with multiple candidates, but Orbán's Fidesz Party is so dominant that it always wins.

Like, what sort of a system is that?  This is as bad as Florida!

Orbán, of course, must have found Trump's adopted home state very familiar in terms of its politics and its policies.

Oh yeah, Trump made his laudatory comments about Orbán in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, where the entertainment for the night was a couple of performances from Beatles and Rolling Stones tribute bands - the bass player for the Beatles tribute band even playing a Hofner violin bass and sporting mop-top hair.  This is Trump's biggest contribution to our pop culture - associating classic rock with the villainy and inflexibility of white men while hip-hop becomes the voice of "the good guys."  Thanks a lot, Trump - thanks a whole lot!