Just read this article. The parallels are shocking. This needs to be elevated and we need to do something. It’s like we’re sleep walking right into this
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Big Takeaways
Act to Stop Trump Now
American is precisely what a dying democracy looks like
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Hungary shows us that the courts are the critical battleground
Yet laws aren’t self-enforcing. They need someone with authority to order that the lawbreaking is going to stop. Which means that many of the biggest battles are likely to come down to the courts.
In Hungary, the courts were hamstrung by design: Many of Orbán’s biggest early moves were designed to bring the courts to heel. Without their oversight, he and Simicska could get away with whatever they wanted. Which is why the Hungarians I spoke with warned Americans that protecting their authority, and those of other watchdog institutions, would be central in the weeks and months to come.
“Whenever there is a power to constitutional practices, the judiciary needs to step in,” Vegh says. “Civil society and the general public [need] to call out unconstitutional and undemocratic practices … to not shy away from speaking truth to power and drawing attention to what’s going on.”
Trump certainly did fill the federal judiciary with appointees in his first term. But he’s simply unable to do an Orbán-like takeover of the courts without legislative buy-in. And so far, there’s zero indication that he’s even contemplating introducing bills that would (for example) strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over his actions.
That means the courts remain a powerful check on his authority — at least, on paper. There are some early optimistic signs, like rulings against the unconstitutional order against birthright citizenship or the illegal spending freeze.
But many of these issues will assuredly go all the way to the Supreme Court, where so much depends on the personal feelings of the six Republican justices.
That so much can depend on six people is a troubling state of affairs for any democracy: a sign that things really are going in a dangerous direction. But the comparison for Hungary also shows that things could be far worse — and that Americans still have a chance to stop Trump from using the Orbán playbook to tear down the world’s oldest democracy.
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Just read this article. The parallels are shocking. This needs to be elevated and we need to do something. It’s like we’re sleep walking right into this
Big Takeaways
Act to Stop Trump Now
American is precisely what a dying democracy looks like
Hungary shows us that the courts are the critical battleground
Yet laws aren’t self-enforcing. They need someone with authority to order that the lawbreaking is going to stop. Which means that many of the biggest battles are likely to come down to the courts.
In Hungary, the courts were hamstrung by design: Many of Orbán’s biggest early moves were designed to bring the courts to heel. Without their oversight, he and Simicska could get away with whatever they wanted. Which is why the Hungarians I spoke with warned Americans that protecting their authority, and those of other watchdog institutions, would be central in the weeks and months to come.
“Whenever there is a power to constitutional practices, the judiciary needs to step in,” Vegh says. “Civil society and the general public [need] to call out unconstitutional and undemocratic practices … to not shy away from speaking truth to power and drawing attention to what’s going on.”
Trump certainly did fill the federal judiciary with appointees in his first term. But he’s simply unable to do an Orbán-like takeover of the courts without legislative buy-in. And so far, there’s zero indication that he’s even contemplating introducing bills that would (for example) strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over his actions.
That means the courts remain a powerful check on his authority — at least, on paper. There are some early optimistic signs, like rulings against the unconstitutional order against birthright citizenship or the illegal spending freeze.
But many of these issues will assuredly go all the way to the Supreme Court, where so much depends on the personal feelings of the six Republican justices.
That so much can depend on six people is a troubling state of affairs for any democracy: a sign that things really are going in a dangerous direction. But the comparison for Hungary also shows that things could be far worse — and that Americans still have a chance to stop Trump from using the Orbán playbook to tear down the world’s oldest democracy.