Orban Keeps Winning: His Secret is a Friendly Media. By Fred Watson.
Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won another election in Hungary this weekend. …
Right wing pundits gush over Orban and miss key points to his governance. Orban made significant changes once taking power and has delivered to constituents.
It is that simple. Win, entrench your party in power, punish enemies and deliver the goods. The GOP does none of this so pundits cheer and miss the key procedures.
Orban won a supermajority in 2010 and with that power exercised it. Constitutional reform reduced the number of seats in parliament, reconfigured districts and lowered retirement ages for judges. A protective measure was making it so future changes required a supermajority of votes whereas previously changes needed simple majorities. With Fidesz’s changes, they made changes and locked in those changes unless a massive opposition took power. …
A more offense oriented change concerned media. Media legislation required media entities to register with the government, required balanced media content that was relevant to citizens and imposed fines and potential license revocations for violators. Fidesz did not stop there and instituted a media council as an overseer for these new regulations. Fidesz staffed the council. This council had a member who also directed the state media outlets. The state media staff then experienced mass re-staffing.
Left wing hypocrites in the west say it is so unfair of Orban:
This is why the clenched jaw, left wing anger is comical. Orban enjoys glowing media coverage. Mail in ballots did not require identification verification. The people had to hunt online for other information sources. Orban created dependent family voters. Fidesz creatively redrew voting districts. …
The left cannot stand anyone using their tactics. …
Politics is downstream of culture:
Who and what sets the cultural tone? What is allowed? What gets funded? …
With the proper exercise of political power, politics can mold the culture. Orban did this in 2011 and then made moves for his constituents. The framing of his policies were massaged by his hand selected crowd. Hungarian media is limited with what it can grumble about even though it still grumbles.
Viktor Orban does not have to worry about George Floyd becoming a saint and sparking a mass cult movement. Because of this, he is not subject to holiness spirals. Because of the hard work reconfiguring the political system, Orban will continue to win. For the right to win elsewhere, they should stop applauding Orban and start learning how he built the cadre of operatives that became the party and bureaucrats who made his reforms possible.
Western non-leftists, take note.
