“Hungary” is beginning to function for American conservatives like “Sweden” does for leftists: it’s their “we just wanna be like” country. Both are fantasies of decline and shirking responsibilities; both are based on willful misunderstanding of the nature of the United States.
For decades, Bernie-style leftists made recourse to “we just want to be like Sweden” when accused of being “socialists.” They don’t want, they say, the iron misery of the Soviet Union, not to mention North Korea. They only want welfare, high taxes, and social cohesion.
Hungary, in turn, appears “fascist” only to the most shrill neoconservative journalists. It’s a quite, conservative country, where racial tension is absent, the gay agenda is stalled and decades behind the West, and the public buildings are grand.
Let’s be honest, Americans view Hungary as a tourist destination: not as nice as Prague but a “must see.” Nice cities and churches, without the, you know, “urban” issues…
Both Sweden and Hungary reached their current situations and lifestyles by being pawns in the big imperial game of the 20th century: the U.S. vs. U.S.S.R.
Sweden was allowed to enter the End of History—of collapsing birth rates and Last Man-ness, but, yes, wealth and social cohesion—by living in the shadow of Washington, and thus having all the big questions answered for it (war and peace, friend/enemy, etc.).
Hungary took a different path. The greatest irony of the 20th century is that the Soviet Union—the godless, Marxist “evil empire”—protected the East from the ravages of liberalism, feminism, and Americanism, thus making the Soviet Bloc a place of longing for Americans.
America can simply not become these countries, Sweden or Hungary, as both exist only in its shadow. It would be like the New York Yankees deciding to ditch the Majors for the quaint certainty of a single-A team in the Hudson Valley.
Orban has engaged in a brilliant PR campaign, but he has also been quite explicit in saying that “Orbanism” is not for export, that he does not question the power of the EU, but simply wants to be left alone as a nice little country.
Orban himself remains a curious figure: a Protestant in a former Catholic stronghold and mostly non-religious country; a protégée of the Soros Free Society who expelled his tutors; a man promoting a nation-state, whose days of glory came when it was the seat of empire.
America being like Sweden or Hungary would mean, not merely higher taxes or less “woke” advocacy, but an abandonment of military commitments as well as the foundation of the America’s universal middle-class lifestyle: a global currency and massive financial sector.
None of this is going to happen. And the “we just wanna be like Hungary” fantasy isn’t very productive.
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