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After Viktor Orbán's Defeat in Hungary, the 'New Right' Needs a New Foreign Despot To Admire

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After Viktor Orbán's Defeat in Hungary, the 'New Right' Needs a New Foreign Despot To Admire Hungary is Europe's basket case, a nation that saw little economic progress under Orbán—as well as diminishing freedoms. After Marxist-inspired Sandinista revolutionaries overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979, the American political left fell in love with the movement's guerrilla leader, D...
The strongest version of this narrative is that Orbán's Hungary became a cautionary tale for American conservatives flirtating with illiberalism. The article effectively highlights the contradictions in admiring a leader whose policies led to economic stagnation, corruption, and democratic erosion—all while claiming to uphold traditional values. The parallel to the left's romanticization of Ortega is a compelling framing device, suggesting a recurring pattern where ideological factions project t...