Thread by @sarahposner

Tucker Carlson is actually a late-comer to the American right's love affair with Viktor Orban. A thread (1/n):

As I reported in @newrepublic @typeinvestigate in 2019, Orban hired a Republican strategize to plot his return to power--and his later consolidation of power--in 2010. (2/n)

newrepublic.com/article/153276…

Then Orban hired a Republican lobbyist, in 2014, to burnish his image on Capitol Hill and in the US press. (3/n)

newrepublic.com/article/153276…

At the time, supporting Orban was considered a fringe position in the DC foreign policy establishment, and even in the Republican party. Dana Rohrabacher was the standard-bearer of this position. (4/n)

But thanks to the work of DC strategists and lobbyists--and the growing affection for Orban's "illiberal democracy" within the right *and* the religious right (more on that later in the thread), embracing Orban was increasingly becoming the mainstream position in GOP. (5/n)

And: (6/n)

newrepublic.com/article/153276…

Meanwhile, as I reported in @VICE @typeinvestigate in 2019, the religious right was also developing an admiration for Orban and other European autocrats. (7/n)

vice.com/en/article/a3b…

On the surface, it looked simply like shared ideology against LGBTQ and reproductive rights, broadly disparaged as "gender ideology." And yes, this shared oppo is anti-democratic, as in opposed to democratic values like equal rights. But... 8/n)

It was more than that. They actually also admired Orban's very successful efforts to dismantle democratic institutions--which helps us understand why they support same in U.S. (9/n)

I wrote about this in much greater detail in Unholy (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605774/u…) (10/n)

Is it terrifying that Carlson is embracing Orban as TV spectacle? Absolutely. But to understand the effect this is going to have on his audience, it's also important to understand the groundwork has been laid for quite some time--making it ever more terrifying. (11/11-fin)