Autocracy

Sleepwalking into Autocracy? Trump Embraces Authoritarian Playbook of Hungary’s Orbán

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Is Trump embracing the authoritarian playbook of far-right Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán?

Princeton professor Kim Lane Scheppele walks us through Orbán’s sudden rise to power and how the Trump administration’s recent actions appear to follow his anti-democratic “blueprint,” with Trump “echoing a lot of Orbán’s rhetoric,” consolidating power in the executive branch and bypassing federal checks and balances.

“Trump is trying to break things quickly,” says Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University.

She also notes Orbán’s involvement in the right-wing Project 2025 initiative and his adoption of the motto “Make Europe Great Again” during Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union last year as further evidence of the close ties between the two leaders. As Orbán works to “consolidate this movement of anti-democratic far-right forces” in Europe, warns Scheppele, Trump is tightening his grasp on the other side of the Atlantic.

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GasLit Nation: The Save Democracy Challenge

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December 29, 2021

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

Meet the patriots of the Gaslit Nation 2020 Save Democracy Challenge! We speak to superheroes who organized, stayed engaged, and did what they could wherever they were, often facing threats and other pressures, to help save our democracy in 2020. Their efforts matter, made a difference, and planted powerful seeds for protecting their communities, and therefore our country.  

GasLit Nation: The Infrastructure of Autocracy

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November 17, 2021

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

Welcome to month ten of post-Capitol attack America in which no elite operatives have been punished for the worst attack on the Capitol since 1812! This includes fascist felon Steve Bannon, who turned his surrender for subpoena dodging into a reality TV show starring himself. We discuss Bannon’s brazen criminality and why the lack of urgency from agencies tasked with accountability is so dangerous. In times of extreme threat, complacency is complicity. 18. This is part of a long and destructive pattern.

GasLit Nation: Hold Onto Your Humanity

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Aug 18, 2021

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

We break down myths about “the unvaccinated” vs the anti-vaxxer propagandists and discuss the institutional distrust that have made a diverse crowd of Americans hesitant about the vaccine. We go through twenty years of horrific policy decisions that enabled a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, wasted trillions of tax dollars, and led to war crimes and tens of thousands of Afghan civilian casualties. And we end with hopeful words from our December 2019 interview with Congresswoman Barbara Lee.