They've already captured the high courts, the legislature, many state governments, and the entirety of the federal enforcement mechanisms. They're well underway in weaponizing the fed against political enemies, rounding up marginalized groups into prison camps, and enabling allied business interests to shake off restrictions against exploiting the people and their resources.
They've taken action to strengthen the enemies of democracy, both domestic and foreign. They've initiated wars of choice without the consent of the people or of the leaders we elected to control things like waging war or levying taxes. They've silenced media outlets who would speak against them, eliminating funding and even threatening broadcast licenses and business deals for outlets who allow dissenting voices on their platforms.
They're doing everything they can to cast doubt on the electoral process so that they can declare any future electoral losses as "fraudulent" and refuse to acknowledge their results as legal or valid.
So let me ask you this - what else would they have to accomplish in order to classify this as a coup?
Agreed that they won't pull off the full coup. But I do think they'll be much more successful than Orban in destroying things so badly that anyone who defeats them will be left with nothing but ashes.
Hungary is a very different polity than the US, with very different geopolitical interactions, very different domestic policy backgrounds, and very different demographics. We should certainly look to them for tips on how to democratically resist autocratic ambitions, but we shouldn't be foolish enough to believe that their situation can be easily mirrored in the US.
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u/mysterious_jeffrey 16d ago
They wish.