Our old friend Rod is so distraught that he is planning to move from the New Right Jerusalem to Vienna. He attributes Orban’s defeat, probably correctly, to widespread corruption and economic underperformance. Were those features or bugs of the strongman regime?
Dreher clearly thinks they are bugs, but he is wrong. Corruption is always an important attribute of a right-wing strongman regime because it is the way in which the leader maintains the unquestioning loyalty of his biggest supporters. Underperformance is the likely result of ignoring expert advice and relying solely on your golden gut.
If you’re an American, a Russian, or a Turk, is this ringing any bells?