342 - Trump, Erdogan, and Orban: Three Tyrants Who Subvert Democracy

When our American democratic arena -- hitherto sacrosanct and revered worldwide -- shrinks dramatically, authoritarian despots across the globe feel empowered to exercise their own anti-democratic impulses, as last week and this weekend in Turkey.

Trump

Trump has, successfully it seems, drastically curtailed free expression in American universities, bringing a major institution like Columbia University to heel over (falsely) Jewish versus Palestinian rights. He has also threatened the University of Pennsylvania with a funding decapitation because of Penn's support for a sole transgender athlete. Trump's patently illegal detention of a green card holding Palestinian and his illegal transportation of more than 200 Venezuelans who may or may not be members of a notorious criminal gang are other transgressions of liberty being much too slowly litigated in the courts.

But Trump is also trampling on liberty and curtailing his Democratic Party opposition by (successfully so far in one prominent case) threatening to remove security clearances from partners and associates of law firms that defend free speech, free assembly, and other cases that in many cases are allied to Democratic Party suits. Friday night Trump said he would “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States.” This outrageous attempt to muzzle opposition and the litigation that is necessary to curb Trump’s despicable anti-democratic impulses obviously needs to be combatted, as lawyers with real spines are now doing. "Who will dare to fund any democratic campaign in the future if Trump can simply cancel your company or law firm at will?" asks one critic.

Trump and his operatives have recently engaged in "a series of highly partisan" actions that will "hobble" the ability of the Democratic Party and its candidates to compete in future elections. By employing "the levers of government," as the New York Times says, to restrict what Democrats can do electorally is an abuse of power similar to what totalitarians like Putin and China's Xi Jinping do to throttle their adversaries.

Trump made his grievances against democracy crystal clear in a speech last week at the Justice Department. There he railed in a manner never before employed by a U. S. president against his predecessor and against all of those other "horrible" people, "thugs," and "scum" who stood in the way of his chaotic wrecking agenda. He criticized particular lawyers and law firms by name, embraced the dangerous actions of Elon Musk, and attempted to impose new restrictions on freedom of expression. He promised to seek serious retribution against his supposed enemies.

Trump is going after Act Blue, the Democratic Party's funding arm. Musk says that "something stinks about Act Blue." Republican Senator Ted Cruz is investigating Bonterra, which runs a crucial Democratic Party voter data base system. Trump and others are trying to link these activities to "terrorism," a blanket way of falsely justifying attacks. Musk calls "them all" -- whatever that includes -- parts of a "left-wing NGO cabal" that were (in addition) attacking Tesla. Charitable tax-exempt standing is at risk for these organizations and many other large and small watchdog groups that are currently going to court to prevent Trump and Musk from undermining our national notions of fairness and our belief in rights and liberty.

All of these anti-democratic and anti-Democratic actions give cover to dictators everywhere to extend the reach of their security services. Trump emboldens a very successful depriver of civil liberties like President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to double-down on repression and to crow about his harboring of American deportees. Turkey is another despotism that takes advantage of Trump's decidedly anti-democratic initiatives.

Turkey

With the Trump shadow visible over his shoulder and providing cover for renewed assaults on democracy in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week ordered the arrest of his strongest political rival -- Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. He was jailed Sunday. In dawn raids, three district mayors in greater Istanbul were also detained. Wild protests erupted throughout the city, as well as in Ankara, the capital, Izmir, and other cities. They continued throughout Sunday. As of yesterday, police had arrested 343 protesters.

Although the next Turkish presidential election is not scheduled before 2028, Erdogan is far less popular than he once was and popular support for Imamoglu could well stand in his way if he wishes to up-end constitutional provisions against seeking a third presidential term. Wily authoritarians often breach legal and normative prohibitions.

Erdogan has been president since 2014, ruling increasingly despotically. Earlier he was prime minister from 2003. Thanks to him, there is no longer free expression or free assembly in Turkey. The owners of 261 pro-democratic social media accounts were also detained over the weekend. Criticism of Erdogan is severely limited. Twenty percent or more of Turkey's 87 million people (especially Kurdish speakers) are systematically deprived of human rights and prevented from voicing dissent.

The official justifications for the arrest of Imamoglu were that he was involved in corruption and that he had aided outlawed Kurdish political parties. But the real reason is that he is about to be designated the presidential candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party. Imamoglu has in recent years won three electoral contests in Istanbul against candidates put forward by Erdogan. (The latter began his political rise as mayor of Istanbul.) Given his popularity, Erdogan wants Imamoglu out of the way. And he acted harshly knowing that there would be no criticism from an equal antagonist of democracy in Washington. Silence indeed prevails.

Hungary

Erdogan is not alone in imprisoning and otherwise harassing his rivals. But Turkey is part of NATO and a candidate for admission to the European Union. Like many of his Middle Eastern neighbors, the ruler permits no critique and persecutes those who think otherwise.

Erdogan needs cover from Trump, but long ago knew how to outflank and harm his political enemies. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban is another old-fashioned and very successful authoritarian who needs no instruction from Erdogan but may very likely have taught Trump how to discombobulate his opponents. One reason that Trump's second presidency is so different from his first is how Trump puts into practice everything that Orban that already has done. The two leaders have talked often, and Trump is full of praise for Orban.

According to Hungarian opposition leader Zsuzsanna Szelényi: “This psychological element of taking power and doing everything at this overwhelming pace, this is part of the Orban game – he showed that you can go very far in changing the environment if you do it very quickly so that your critics or adversaries are basically paralyzed. That is something the Americans seem to have learned from him.”

Orban came to power in 2010 and ignored court rulings that would have reduced his leadership heft. He shut down media and educational institutions that disputed his rule. He used financial pressure to remove major media moguls who were unfriendly. He pressured Central European University, financed by George Soros, a Hungarian exile, to re-locate from Budapest to Vienna.

Orban denounced immigrants. He banned same sex marriages and anything that approximated ambiguous gender pairings. Last week, the Hungarian parliament banned all Pride events.

Note, too, that Orban has perpetuated himself in office since 2010, and intends to remain there -- whatever the Hungarian Constitution says, and however hard his opponents' campaign.

Trump believes in the methods both Erdogan and Orban employ to intimidate their followers and potential opponents. Our judicial system may help to contain Trump but the examples of Erdogan and Orban suggest that there is much more defensive work to be done, especially when our Supreme Court is so compromised. The defense of freedom and fundamental human rights is essential now, as Americans fight to save the Republic, almost 250 years since the first shots were fired against British soldiers on Lexington's Green.

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