In Pursuit of Racial and Ethnic Purity

Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán

WWII Nazi Poster

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

14 words that are the log line of American White Supremacists: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.” First spoken by convicted White nationalist terrorist David Lane. “14” - now a rallying cry for White supremacists.

A brown-haired Austrian house painter became enamored of Nordic, blonde-haired bodies. He blamed Jews (it started with “Jewish bankers” and then generalized) for the harsh reparations imposed by victorious allies on his adopted nation (Germany) after WWI, reparations that literally crushed daily lives for ordinary Germans. He used ethnic pride and a clear target to blame to claw and then purge his way to power. He was the archetypal White Christian supremacist. His “Thousand Year Reich” lasted an ugly 12 years (1933-45), ending in Hitler’s suicide and the Nuremburg trials with somewhere between 40 and 50 million people killed. Humanity has never learned the lessons of Adolph Hitler’s brutal and genocidal rise to power.

Genocide (euphemistically “ethnic cleansing”) has infected swaths of modern humanity, from Myanmar, Bosnia and Armenia to Rwanda, Russia, Nanking and even Indonesia, to name a few. It always starts with a deep belief in the superiority of one ethnic or racial group over another… or all other ethnic or racial groups. It develops, builds on like-minded individuals eager to find scape goats or vulnerable peoples, until the hated “other” no longer is viewed as relevant, sometimes as even human. It always starts with fear or feeling increasingly marginalized by those unfortunate targets selected for blame.

But since these are ethnic and/or racial targets that actually do not move I lockstep and are often themselves marginalized, the vulnerabilities of the chosen blame-targets give rise to sanctimonious discrimination that always generates violence. And it escalates from there. The class of blame-targets is often expanded to include anyone who opposes that racial and ethnic superiority… or simply people who are different. “Deviants” and those who challenge gender and sexual “norms” of that “pure” segment of society almost always find their way to that excluded and marginalized class of “inferior people” who must be purged.

But the brutality of one racial and ethnic group claiming superiority over others does not start with genocide. Government sanctioned oppression of the sanctioned class is hardly the first step. It usually starts with an unscrupulous politician, preying on the fears of a significant constituency with sufficient clout to implement repressive targeting, to voice a rallying cry: they’re taking our jobs, raping our women, committing crimes against us and corrupting our moral values. Sound familiar?

If that message resonates, if those words awaken deep prejudices that were often kept private, if enough “adherents” rally to the “cause” and if mass media normalizes that hatred and discrimination, we begin to see official government programs aimed at the blame-targets. Discrimination and marginalization of the blame-targets becomes governmental policy. Acts of violence against blame-targets becomes more frequent, and even if “punished,” such selective violence is often glorified by those claiming ethnic and/or racial superiority.

If we want to see a fully-implemented government sanctioned policy of racial and ethnic purity, one that has not needed to escalate to genocide because of the success of installing that desired “purity,” we only need look at Hungary, a NATO/European Union member, and its strongman, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Fidez Party, Viktor Mihály Orbán. Hungary’s language is barrier enough – it is difficult to learn and does not mirror any other major language (there is a slight resemblance to Finnish) – but Orbán has become the leader of Hungarian ethnic purity, excluding other ethnic and racial groups with particular disdain for LGBTQ individuals:

“In 2020, he banned adoption by same-sex couples — which has been legal in all U.S. states since 2017 — and made it impossible for transgender people to legally change their gender. Last year, his government passed a law that prohibited sharing content with minors seen as promoting homosexuality or sex reassignment. It also contained provisions restricting education on homosexuality and establishing a searchable registry of convicted pedophiles. The legislation triggered a firestorm of criticism elsewhere in the European Union and plunged Hungary into a slow-rolling clash with its E.U. partners to the West.” From the first (May 18th) of a Washington Post series of articles on Orbán led by WP columnist Ishaan Tharoor.

Orbán is a favorite of Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson, has enjoyed political input from people like Steve Banon and other staunch American conservatives. He has encouraged White Christian women in Hungary to have more White babies, even offering bounties for those women who comply. An open admirer of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, he is one of the few NATO leaders who refuses to comply with most of the NATO sanctions on Russia. Orbán also is totally opposed to immigration, particularly against persons of color and fleeing Muslims.

If you listen to Donald Trump’s campaign speeches from 2016 to present, if you follow his policy decisions while in office and understand his sway with populist right-wing voters, particularly his running themes that support White supremacy in the United States, his words mirror those of Orbán in Hungary. Trump has Fox News and a few other comparable media supporters. Orbán simply shut down opposing media.

But there is new right-wing sheriff in America now, one with clear presidential aspirations as aging and besieged Donald Trump’s star has begun to fade. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reflects Orbán’s policies in Hungary more than any other American voice. DeSantis is a leader in limiting recognition that racism still exists in America. His recent “don’t say” gay legislation and his punishment of Disney for opposing that view are right out of Orbán’s playbook. DeSantis’ popularity among conservatives is soaring. And with gerrymandering and voter suppression, that demographic segment has a solid hold on the GOP… and a large part of the United States.

According to Rod Dreher, senior editor at the American Conservative and an outspoken Orbán admirer (Dreher just moved to Budapest), “Florida — under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — is attracting influential American conservatives who are eager to take up residence in a state being steadily reshaped by one of the country’s most ambitious elected politicians. In his telling, that’s like the Hungarian capital, which has turned into a popular convening ground for right-wing pundits and intellectuals, and is set to host an overseas edition of the U.S.-based Conservative Political Action Conference [in mid-May].

“The convergence goes far deeper. Orban, who has remained in power since 2010 and recently won reelection, is adored by American conservatives as a leader who has achieved both political and cultural victories in his country. Orban presides over what he declares is a ‘Christian democracy,’ an illiberal state where ‘traditional’ values hold sway and liberal adversaries have been sidelined or frozen out of key institutions.” The Post. Sound familiar? Red alert! Funny (not in a humorous way) that Ron DeSantis’ undergraduate degree at Yale was history.

I’m Peter Dekom, the biggest political question facing America today is whether its political system and purported underpinnings of democracy can survive this terrifying pursuit of racial, gender and ethnic “purity.”