CPAC's Growing Autocrat Problem - Rob Horowitz
Rób Horowitz, MINDSETTER™
CPAC's Growing Autocrat Problem - Rob Horowitz
Initially founded to be a champion of limited government and freedom in the Reagan mold, beginning with the Trump years, CPAC has increasingly veered towards a crabbed blood and soil vision of conservatism, becoming tolerant --if not downright supportive of strongmen-- centralizing government power here at home and abroad as long as that power is used to severely curtail immigration and demonize immigrants, battle liberals, and champion “traditional values.”
Even if you join Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and others on the American populist right in embracing this vision and the leaders abroad that you believe best embody it, holding a conference that features the European politician who is most allied with Vladimir Putin, while his brutal--but stalled--invasion of Ukraine is the top story in the world, may set some kind of record for political tone-deafness. President Zelensky of Ukraine recently described Viktor Orban as “virtually the only one in Europe to openly support Mr. Putin.” And Orban, in his victory speech after being re-elected last week, listed Zelensky as one of his political opponents.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFurther, with the domestic and international focus now on the battle between democracy and authoritarianism, it is an inopportune time to showcase an authoritarian leader like Orban, who has taken full control of the state media, used the power of the state to ensure that private media is now mainly owned by his allies and stripped the judiciary of its independence, among other undemocratic actions. Fulsome endorsements, such as the following one from Rod Dreher, a leading American populist thinker and writer, ring especially hollow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine: “Orban, unlike so many of our own conservative politicians, understands that we are in a battle to defend our civilization – and he fights like it,” Dreher told Reuters. “CPAC Hungary will show American conservatives "what nationalist, populist conservative governance can be.”
For most Americans, and even I suspect most conservatives, the civilizational battle that counts at this moment is between brave Ukraine and its democratic allies and Russia and its authoritarian sympathizers. Putin’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine and his blatant disregard for human life ---which is playing out on television screens and smart phone daily --makes it a particularly difficult time to airbrush other authoritarians whose tactics are not as brutal, but still are driven by a similar unchecked will to power.
This is the deserved harsh light in which CPAC’s featuring of Viktor Orban will be viewed. As a result, the organization may have unintentionally done the rest of us a public service, creating even more political room for traditional conservatives and Republicans to put distance between themselves and this authoritarian-friendly, still fully Trump-embracing, slice of the American right. Some are already speaking out. Al Cardenas, former chair of the American Conservative Union, CPAC’s parent organization, for example, told Reuters, “Orban is no friend of democratic nations, and any gestures or cooperation with USA nonprofits sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world, especially in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war."
As anti-Trump conservative Charlie Sykes more pungently put it in The Bulwark, “Even as the bodies are still being gathered in the suburbs of Kyiv, as the death toll of children mounts, and Putin continues to target civilians in his campaign of genocide, CPAC has decided to go ahead with its festival of Orbanism.” CPAC and its brand of authoritarian-friendly politics may finally be about to get the comeuppance it so richly deserves.