In the United States, decrying interracial relationships is an artifact from the bygone era of Jim Crow. Hungary, on the other hand, is behind the curve.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban railed against “race-mixing” while in Romania on Saturday. “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race, and we do not want to become a mixed race either,” Orban said. In his eyes, the West is split in two. Half of these countries “are no longer nations” because of the intermingling between European and non-European populations.
Hungary is in no position to lecture the West on national sovereignty. Orban’s government has consistently chosen to outsource its energy needs and foreign policy priorities to eastern autocracies under the facade of an anti-globalism crusade.
Orban also made a reference to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory being pushed by a subset of American conservatives. “[The great replacement]’s not a conspiracy theory,” Fox News’s Tucker Carlson said before referring to it as the “electoral strategy” of Democrats.
Carlson is one of the most glaring examples of American conservatives praising Orban’s form of conservatism. From discussing “what America should learn from Hungary” to visiting the nation for an interview with Orban, Carlson has made it clear he thinks Hungary should serve as a model for American conservatism.
https://twitter.com/tuckercarlson/status/1424560256395341832
Racial discrimination should not be a component of a movement’s ideology. Conservatives can, and should, support strong borders without dehumanizing the individuals involved. There are a variety of valid reasons for increasing border security, but the “great replacement” and “race-mixing” are not among them.
Why hand Democrats the talking points they need by aligning American conservatism with men like Orban? The American Conservative Union is responsible for hosting one of the largest annual conventions for American conservatives, the Conservative Political Action Conference. It also threw a convention in Hungary in an attempt to fuse American conservatism with Hungarian authoritarianism.
The future of conservatism relies on appealing to communities across the nation, regardless of the race and ethnicity of its citizens. While Orban’s statements apply to African and Middle Eastern immigrants in Europe, the implications of his rhetoric when applied to the U.S. are clear.
Making room for the future coalition of the GOP doesn’t require an abdication of immigration concerns and border security. It does require that Republicans drop the “great replacement” fearmongering that is rooted in racial discrimination. Stop taking inspiration from Hungary’s race-baiter in chief, and let’s focus on the rich intellectual history of American conservatism.
James Sweet is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
