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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn during a meeting in the Oval Office on May 13, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Gbor Scheiring, Harvard University

Hungarian leader and strongman Viktor Orbn, who presided over the radical decline of democracy in his country, is scheduled to meet with former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort on March 8, 2024.

Orbn has been Hungarys prime minister since 2010. Under his leadership, the country became the first nondemocracy in the European Union an illiberal state, as Orbn proudly declared. Trump expressed his admiration for Orbn and his authoritarian moves during their meeting at the White House in 2019.

Youre respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but thats OK, Trump said. Youve done a good job and youve kept your country safe.

Ive followed their mutual romance with illiberalism for a long time. Although I am now in the U.S. as an academic, I was elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 2010 when Orbns rule started.

As the U.S. braces for a potential second Trump presidency, Americans may rightly wonder: Would Trumps America mirror Orbns Hungary in its slide toward authoritarianism?

I can still feel the pleasant spring breeze on my skin as I walked up the National Assemblys stairs in my freshly bought suit. As newly elected members of Parliament, my Green Party colleagues and I stepped into our roles with high hopes and detailed plans to fix Hungarys ailing economy and move toward sustainability.

I also remember the cold winter day a year and half later when we chained ourselves to the parliament building. It was a demonstration against the hollowing of parliamentary work and democratic backsliding under Orbns rule.

If the parliament is the political home of democracy, Hungarys was vacant by 2012.

Orbn and his party in power hijacked democratic institutions. The nationwide right-wing media network is a crucial component of this authoritarian power. As the Voice of America reported in 2022, Orbns allies have created a pervasive conservative media ecosystem that dominates the airwaves and generally echoes the positions of the Orbn government.

His government gerrymandered local districts and allowed voters to register outside their home districts, both aimed at favoring Orbn and his party. The government also staffed the public prosecutors office with loyalists, ensuring that any misconduct by those in power stays hidden.

Republicans in the U.S. have followed a similar trajectory with their support of Trump as his rhetoric grows more authoritarian. Trump says if he wins the election, he wants to be a dictator for one day. A recent poll shows that 74% of Republicans surveyed said it would be a good idea for Trump to be a dictator only on the first day of his second term.

Orbn has spent years undermining the independence of Hungarys judiciary, ensuring its rulings are friendly to his government and allies. While still an independent institution, the U.S. Supreme Court with three Trump-nominated justices has become a pillar of Trumpism, handing down rulings overturning the constitutional right to abortion and limiting civil rights.

Fox, OANN, and other right-wing media ensure that large parts of America see the world through a Trumpian lens.

Authoritarian populists tilt the democratic playing field to favor themselves and their personal and political interests. Subverting democracy from the inside without violent repression allows leaders like Orbn and Trump to pretend they are democratic. This authoritarianism from within creates chokepoints, where the opposition isnt crushed, but it has a hard time breathing.

How can strongmen get away with these antidemocratic politics? If there is one lesson from Hungary, it is this: Democracy is not sustainable in a divided society where many are left behind economically.

The real power of authoritarian populists like Trump and Orban lies not in the institutions they hijack but in the novel electoral support coalition they create.

They bring together two types of supporters. Some hardcore, authoritarian-right voters are motivated by bigotry and hatred rooted in their fear of globalizations cultural threats. However, the most successful right-wing populist forces integrate an outer layer of primarily working-class voters hurt by globalizations economic threats.

Throughout the 20th century, Democrats in the U.S. and left-of-center parties in Europe provided a political home for those fearing economic insecurity. This fostered a political system that engendered equality and a healthy social fabric, giving people reason to care for liberal democratic institutions.

However, when the economy fails to deliver, disillusionment with capitalism morphs into an apathy toward liberal democracy.

If the liberal center appears uncaring, authoritarian populists can mobilize voters against both the cultural and economic threats posed by globalization.

In Hungary, the first signs of authoritarianism appeared in economically left-behind rural areas and provincial small and medium towns well before Orbns 2010 victory. While these provincial towns suffered from increasing mortality, deindustrialization and income loss, the parties of the liberal center continued to sing hymns about the benefits of globalization, detached from the everyday experience of economic insecurity.

As I showed in my book, neglecting this suffering was the democratic centers politically lethal failure.

By today, Hungarys liberal and left-of-center parties have retreated to the biggest cities, leaving their former provincial political strongholds up for grabs for the radical right. The same is taking place in the U.S., with the Republicans becoming a party of the working class and nonmetropolitan America.

The success of authoritarian populism in Hungary might seem disheartening. However, there is a silver lining: Those committed to democracy in the U.S. still have time to learn from Hungarys mistakes.

Gbor Scheiring, Fellow, Harvard University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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I watched Hungary's democracy dissolve into authoritarianism as a member of parliament and I see troubling ... - PennLive

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A troubling trend is emerging in the nations most conservative federal appeals court. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is rehearing pro-democracy decisions at an alarming rate and is doing so at the request of Republicans who are strident in their anti-voting philosophies.

The 5th Circuit is no stranger to criticism as the foremost conservative and oftentimes most outlandish court. These critiques are often warranted as the Trump-appointee stacked court is consistently taking actions that even the ultra-conservative U.S. Supreme Court has to correct. From endorsing draconian abortion policies to the perturbing writings of one of the courts most prominent Trump appointees, the 5th Circuit gives court watchers a plethora of reasons to be concerned, but one rapidly emerging trend is the rate at which this southern-based court is rehearing democracy-related cases with its full 17-judge panel.

When a case is appealed up to the 5th Circuit, it is heard by a three-judge panel chosen from the circuits 17 judges which issues an opinion on the appeal. However, per the circuits rules, cases may be reheard by the entire court, or en banc, if a majority of the circuits judges agree to rehear the case. This can happen in two ways: a party in the case can ask the entire court to rehear the case and the entire court will take a poll on if the case will be reheard or the court can decide to do so sua sponte (of its own volition) and poll of all the judges to determine if the case will be reheard. Once a case is reheard, the entire court will decide whether or not to uphold the three-judge panels previous ruling.

Republican officials have now made a habit of asking the court to rehear decisions they do not like. They have done so in every state covered by the circuit: Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Last year, the court agreed to rehear a decision that would have restored voting rights to tens of thousands of Mississippi voters, including a disproportionate amount of Black voters. In May, the entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to rehear two critical redistricting cases one out of Louisiana and one out of Texas en banc.

To make bleak matters worse, when the 5th Circuit decides to rehear these cases, the rules of the 5th Circuit are such that the underlying decision is voided. This has meant that decisions that brought voters fair maps and re-enfranchised thousands were quickly retracted and as a result, voters pay the price.

During its 2021-2022 term, the 5th Circuit granted only four out of 203 or 2% of petitions for rehearing en banc. Only one petition from the 2021-2022 term pertained to voting rights and it was in a case where the entire 5th Circuit upheld Mississippis felony disenfranchisement scheme in Harness v. Watson. Rehearing increased the following term when the court granted nine out of 238 or almost 4% of requests. However, none of these cases that were reheard were democracy or voting rights related.

This judicial term, the court has already reheard one voting rights case and is scheduled to rehear two additional redistricting cases three times more voting rights cases than the prior two terms.

The drastic increase in the number of democracy related cases the court will rehear this term alone is staggering when contrasted to previous years. Given that each of these cases stand to drastically impact how and if minority voters are represented at both the state and local level, the stakes are extremely high.

In a sweeping 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit struck down Mississippis lifetime ban on voting rights for those convicted of certain felonies, holding that is a form of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. This decision was a bastion of hope for what courts can be: a mechanism to correct for a multigenerational wrong.

Then, Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch asked the entire 5th Circuit to rehear the case, arguing that the panels decision will inflict profound damage and sow widespread confusion if allowed to stand. A mere 55 days after a decision that could have reshaped the law to be more just and humane the state and possibly the Circuit for good, the 5th Circuit granted rehearing en banc, voiding the panels decision and reinstating Mississippis Jim Crow-Era felony disenfranchisement scheme. This also meant that the tens of thousands of Mississippians that could have been re-enfranchised leading up to the 2023 gubernatorial election were no longer able to have their rights restored.

Earlier this year, the 5th Circuit reheard the case. Now, tens of thousands of citizens voting rights hang in the balance of the nations most conservative court.

Last October, a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down the districts for Galveston County, Texas commissioners court the countys primary governing body for diluting Black and Latino voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). However, Republican defendants appealed to the 5th Circuit and advanced the regressive legal argument that minority-coalition districts are not protected by the Voting Rights Act.

Then, in an exceedingly rare move, the 5th Circuit affirmed that the map should be struck down while inviting the entire court to reconsider the decision. While the panel agreed that the commissioners court map violates the VRA, it asked for rehearing of the courts own precedent, writing that the members of this panel agree that this courts precedent permitting aggregation should be overturned.

In its own order, the court laid out the groundwork for the nations most conservative judges to overturn precedent that could have been used to right what a previous court called a stark and jarring violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The entire 5th Circuit will rehear the case the week of May 13. If the court overturns its own minority-coalition district precedent, the VRA will be stripped of yet another key protection and Black and Latino voters in Galveston will be without recourse for a map the court itself admitted was properly decided at the district court level.

At the end of January, the nations most conservative circuit court voided a decision that protected fair state Supreme Court representation for Black voters in Louisiana when it decided to rehear a case challenging the states Supreme Court districts.

A consent decree is currently in place to ensure Black voters are represented on the states Supreme Court and ultimately led to Louisianas first Black Supreme Court justice.

Today, the Supreme Courts seven justices are elected through partisan elections for ten-year terms to represent specific districts. Black voters have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice in District 7, which covers Orleans Parish.

In 2021, Republican attorney general, Jeff Landry, asked the district court that facilitated the 1992 consent decree to dissolve it, but the district court declined to take such a drastic measure after finding that the agreement was still necessary to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

In October 2023, three judges on the 5th Circuit also affirmed this decision, agreeing with the lower court that the consent decree is still very much necessary for Voting Rights Act compliance as the State provided no evidence, plans, or assurances of compliance with Section 2 of the VRA in the event that the Consent Judgment is terminated.

Landry asked the entire 5th Circuit to rehear the case and dissolve the agreement. Again, in a rare move, the 5th Circuit agreed to rehear the case en banc and voided a key pro-democracy decision.

If the 5th Circuit decides to dissolve the consent decree in its rehearing, Black voters in Louisiana will be harmed as representation on the Supreme Court will be threatened. If the 5th Circuit were to rule in favor of Republican officials, it could be yet another critical blow to the Voting Rights Act. Oral argument before the entire 5th Circuit will also take place the week of May 13.

While there is nothing inherently malicious about a court using its procedures, the alarming rate of rehearings of pro-democracy decisions (three this year alone), show that this court is using its procedure to harm voters. Democracy Docket previously sounded the alarm on Republicans exploiting the circuits procedure in these cases, the 5th Circuit appears to be taking Republican officials up on their offers and seems willing to rehear decisions that are not favorable for Republicans.

At the heart of each of these cases, citizens are fighting to have their voices heard. Unfortunately, this new trend reveals that when the court issues decisions that are good for voters, the courts most conservative forces are doing everything they can to erase any progress.

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The 5th Circuit Is Rehearing Voting Decisions at an Alarming Rate - Democracy Docket

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Britain will sanction individuals whom it alleges are involved in Chinese backed-disruption of the democratic process on Monday.

Ministers will step up pressure on China tomorrow when they set out further details of the attack on the Electoral Commission and 43 individuals, including MPs and peers.

The Politics at Jack and Sam's podcast reveals this will include sanctioning individuals connected with the alleged efforts.

Listen above then tap here to follow Politics at Jack at Sam's wherever you get your podcasts

The UK will tighten its espionage rules at the same time, with the Investigatory Powers Bill in the Commons on Monday as well.

This is one of a number of increased threats to UK and global security discussed in the podcast.

Read more: China 'trying to undermine democracy', senior MP warns

Meanwhile, Whitehall is also coming to terms with the implications of Friday night's Moscow attack.

President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the murder of dozens of Moscovites, in a move that could mark the beginning of a fresh escalation in the conflict.

The podcast also reveals how a former senior civil servant has written a novel detailing how Whitehall deals with security threats and funding the security services.

Sky News has approached the Chinese embassy for comment.

Email with your thoughts and rate how their predictions play out: jackandsam@sky.uk or jackandsam@politico.co.uk

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More UK sanctions expected over China democracy and security fears - Yahoo News UK

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Colombia's Democracy is Under Threat. Here's Why the World Should Care  Newsweek

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Colombia's Democracy is Under Threat. Here's Why the World Should Care - Newsweek

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From: Larry Shade

Columbus

I have written many articles these past few years to educate and inform the public on the disruption of Americas unity. Our founding fathers in writing the Constitution insisted that Congress be their top priority. So Article One laid out the rules and duties that Congress must follow. Article Two was written to address the executive branch. It stated the job requirements and the specifics of the job. They put the executive branch beneath the Congress because they feared the threat that one time in the future a president may try to seize too much power. The founders had seen the effect of too much power where a king in Europe had control of all facets of the government.

But in recent years, our country has fallen into the trap and has been reducing the power of the Congress as the presidents have been allowed to seize more power. This change has allowed partisan politics to enter the fray and have a big influence on the president. Thus, the direction of the government may move in a way that does not benefit the majority. It is vital for our democracy that our two independent political parties be maintained. That is the only way the country can hear all sides of the issue being debated.

I am retired and I go to Florida for a few months in the winter. While there, I have had many conversations with some Canadians and Europeans. They are very knowledgeable on the happenings going on in America. But they cannot understand why the people in America continue to go down this path of self-destruction. I have no answer. All I can say is that America has lost its moral compass, and I dont know if we can get it back.

I am a veteran who served in Vietnam. Watching the extreme political divide in the country with no ending in sight is very disheartening. But I have said for years that when Americans go to the polls to vote, they are the least educated in relation to all the other democracies around the world. A country filled with people who dont know what their government is doing, and have little desire to learn, is in danger of losing their country. My views have company. Several American historians who have studied the entire history of America are saying that America is closer to losing its democracy than at any time since the Civil War!

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Letter: America is at a crossroads, at risk of losing democracy - The Republic

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