Shattuck John

beyond Hungary and

37:18

beyond the US let's look at what's happening in the rest of Europe quickly where democracy is

37:26

struggling there's certainly bad news in Austria where a political party founded by former Nazis will be part of a new

37:32

coalition government this year headed by a leader who has ties to Russia and

37:38

opposes European support for Ukraine the similar nationalist farright

37:44

government has taken over next door in Slovakia europe's three biggest

37:51

countries Italy France and Germany have all swung toward the far right but so

37:58

far they do in fact remain democracies let me describe how Italy has a

38:04

nationalist government that's headed by Prime Minister George Maloney who's followed parts of the Orban playbook but

38:12

has been pushed toward the center and has softened her position on immigration

38:17

in Ukraine and some other central populist rightwing issues in France the

38:24

farright party of Marine Le Pen won last year's parliamentary elections but a

38:29

coalition of opposition parties prodded by French President

38:35

Manuel Mron united to deny her a parliamentary

38:40

majority their resistance will be tested again by new elections that are coming

38:46

up five months from now in June in Germany the center left government

38:53

headed by Olaf Schultz fell at the end of last year last weekend parliamentary

38:58

elections were held that will determine whether the far right alternative for

39:04

Germany party will become part of the new government victor Orban Elon Musk and JD Vance all

39:12

endorsed the farright party with direct ties to the uh to the fascist

39:21

past before the elections but it became but it came in second with just under

39:26

20% of the vote even though it did better than it had before and the polls

39:32

show that 71% 71% is a high number of Germans continue to believe that the AFB

39:39

is a threat to democracy because of its covert and overt connections to the Nazi

39:45

past and they didn't support it the one bright spot recently is Poland uh the biggest

39:53

new democracy in Eastern Europe which had first adopted but is now resisting the Orban model

40:00

a farright government was elected there in 2015 and it tried to destroy the

40:06

independence of the Polish courts judiciary but the opposition united to

40:13

defend the courts and defeated the government in a new election replacing it with a centrist regime headed by

40:20

Donald Tusk a former president of the European Council with a strong

40:26

commitment to restore Polish democracy so is teetering but it's not it's pulled

40:34

back from the brink if you will related to what's going on here so let me conclude by drawing some lessons one of

40:41

the lessons we can draw from all of this i'm sure you have some in mind based on some of what I've said let me give you

40:47

mine first lesson and we shouldn't forget it is that populist movements are

40:54

having a big impact on democracy they will continue to

41:00

And in some ways that impact could be positive if the movements are

41:06

inclusive and are not based on hate and fear and exclusion the way so many party

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particularly with the party that Donald Trump is heading and Victor Orb are

41:19

heading are they start as I told you reactions to destabilizing events there

41:26

were many destabilizing events right after the the Berlin Wall uh and they demand change and

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democratic reform and it's important to listen to these movements to understand

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their demands and to show how democracy gives people the ability to shape and adapt to change not simply to run away

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from it while authoritarians like Victor Orban suppress people's votes and

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freedom and promote corruption and economic inequality which we can certainly

41:59

see in Hungary and elsewhere now responding to populism which is really

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important to do can be done by building coalitions I believe for economic fairness and economic

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justice across the political spectrum on issues like education taxes and spending where a

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vast majority of Americans and people in Europe are looking for economic reform

42:27

to uh to reduce the tremendous gap and disparity between the very top levels of

42:35

society and everyone else there are historical examples of this like the American farmer labor coalition

42:43

that brought together urban workers white farmers and black sharecroppers in the US led to the progressive movement

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and then eventually to the New Deal in the 20th century and I think today

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there's an urgent need for a new inclusive populist movement to attack

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economic inequality now a second lesson is that ing democracy should

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itself be a populist issue in the Orban playbook the national

43:15

flag and the symbols of patriotism and and nationhood are expropriated by the

43:23

authoritarian leader and his followers the flag of a democracy must be

43:28

reclaimed as as the symbol of the rule of law of a society built on human

43:34

rights and freedoms and international alliances and humanitarian values and

when these soft power democratic assets are destroyed a huge void opens up

that's filled inevitably by authoritarians not

43:52

only like Orban like xi and Putin who are the ultimate

43:58

polit political models for Orban and Trump so a third lesson is that the goal:

of an authoritarian leader as we now see it is to weaponize the state against all

possible opponents and therefore to prevent any effective

challenge orban's playbook demonizes anyone who doesn't support the leader as

44:22

an enemy of the people that stigma is then enforced by targeting a penalties like tax audits

44:31

penalties like the denials of accreditation penalties like harassment investigations or penalties like

44:38

withdrawing police protection or penalties like criminal

prosecution they don't have to be penalties like throwing people in jail in fact there is a kind of soft quality

44:52

to this new authoritarian because it involves and harassing rather than

45:00

directly attacking um the result of all of this

is a hollowed out shell of democracy like Victor Orb now

45:11

finally the final lesson I believe is that the US is better situated in

45:17

Hungary to resist authoritarianism it's 30 times bigger and infinitely more

diverse and its diversity is the very source of its cultural and economic

strength the US has an enormous and active civil society a judiciary that

remains mostly independent a free and open but sometimes manipulated media and

a constitution that guarantees the rights of people to challenge and change their

government donald Trump les less than 50% of the vote in last fall's election

and he's now claiming this vast mandate which simply doesn't exist based on

46:00

where people cast their votes and for what reason um this is certainly not a

46:08

mandate for hollowing out American democracy national polls show that 70% of Americans today even in this very

46:17

charged polarized environment in which we live still see democracy as a core

46:24

value and resistance to the assault on democracy is not only possible it's

46:31

essential and it can work as we can see from what's happening in many areas

46:38

particularly the flood the growing number of successful lawsuits that have

46:43

been brought against Trump's flood of executive decrees and the rising tide of

grassroots mobilization by civil society groups across the country who were organizing demonstrations lobbying

46:56

legislators to stand up for democracy defending democracy is a long

game it's not something that you can do and then rest it always has to go on for

47:11

two and a half centuries in this country Americans have fought to expand the right to vote to achieve equal

47:17

protection to oppose intolerance and political violence to

47:22

gain freedom of speech and religion to guarantee due process of law now these

47:28

goals may seem to be blocked today

47:33

by but I would say that the US is not Germany in the 1930s nor Hungary in

2025 because citizens across the country are beginning to resist

authoritarianism resistance is hard work i think anyone who's engaged in it certainly knows and it sometimes may

seem fuel but every small act and many small

and larger continuous acts that make a profound difference in resisting an

authoritarian regime six decades ago in South Africa

48:14

during a part time the height of the original Robert

Kennedy not the one who's now Trump's cabin described how this can happen and

48:26

let me end with his eloquent call to action some of you

He said "Each time a person stands up he or she sends forth a tiny ripple

of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and

daring these ripples can build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls

:{:{of oppression}:

so let that come true let there be act}:

act of small resistance and let we let let us pull democracy back from the

49:06

brink and revitalize it through the kind of inclusive populism that can make a

49:13

big difference so thank you very much and good luck