I started to suspect it when Ross Douthat wrote a wobbly column in last Sunday’s NYT. An article in Vox confirmed it; Viktor Orban has a big cheering section among mainstream right wing pundits in this country, including the author of “The Benedict Option.”
Call it “The Orban Option.” Why retire from secular life when you can hitch your wagon to a man who crushes every liberal democratic norm in sight in the name of Christianity? What’s freedom of speech, fair elections, a depoliticized judiciary, and clean government when you can get rid of abortion, pornography, and gay rights?
This is really scary, folks. The reactionary base in this country is already locked and loaded for illiberal democracy at best, and fascism at worst. Trump is too lazy and narcissistic to pursue this agenda single-mindedly by himself, but now he has Barr at his side. If the mainstream right is cheering him on, who’s going to stop him?
Only we can. This is looking like the real Flight 93 election, but for the center and the left, not the far right. If we can’t beat someone with Trump’s personality and record under the current conditions, what future does liberal democracy have in this country?