Even though it was about a week ago, Tropical Soulvangelical reflects on the Hungarian elections that swept Victor Orban from power. The biggest comparison, obviously, is with -trump-, and TSV's observations that the Clooneydonkeys use Victor Orban's long rein in Hungary as an example of what could happen if people in general don't protest -trump- the Clooneydonkeys' way in particular (rather than their own). They cite the fact that Victor Orban was in power for 16 years, and suggest that the long time in power was itself a reason why Hungary was pretty much a dictatorship. TSV's understanding of Hungary's form of government is that of a parliamentary democracy, so right there there are differences from the US with a Jeffersonian democracy. TSV's not aware of term limits in Hungary, so there likely wasn't anything to stop Victor Orban from running for another term for as long as, apparently, the people wanted him, or rather, wanted his -party- to stay in power. The main reason why he was swept from power, apparently, had to do with economics. TSV watched a Simon Whistler video where Whistler apparently said he thought it was "surprising" that it was economics that made the people vote against Orban. TSV wasn't so surprised, though, because it does run in line with the Ben Franklin concept of self-interest as a motivating factor for people to favor or disfavor certain figures at any given moment in time. So TSV's wondering: how can Hungary be a dictatorship if the dictator was swept from power in peaceful elections, where Orban actually conceded defeat and apparently offered his congratulations to the victorious Peter Magyar party? Russia and North Korea, apparently, this was not. Whistler made another video since then which TSV may or may not end up watching regarding Victor Orban's political machine, implying that just because Orban may be out of power doesn't mean he doesn't have influence through said political machine. Fair enough, but in the US in various places, TSV's observed that there were various political machines that have persisted for over a century, going all the way back to Tammany Hall, with a political cartoon of his thumb pushing down on a major city with the caption saying, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" TSV's wondering why now in 2026 no-one's looking back at that and saying, wow that was very undemocratic! But he can venture a guess, and it's about the Clooneydonkeyist concept of presentism, which is also the reason why they imply that the July24 attacks on Biden should be seen as totally irrelevant now solely because they took place in the past. Do they also think that the dictatorship of Tammany Hall is also irrelevant because that was at least a hundred years ago? Or will they wake up one day, and wise up, and understand that history is immutable to the point where you have to deal with the fact that these events happened, and you can't just "irrelevantize" those events you find politically inconvenient? Also, who do they think -they- are to decide what historical events are and are not relevant in the present age if they themselves -also- don't have dictatorial ambitions like -trump- and Orban? So while the rest of the world viewed Hungary as a newly remounted Iron Curtain solely because of Orban's long rule, TSV wonders why they didn't now admit that they were wrong about Hungary being a dictatorship if Orban's long rule by itself made it so? Instead, TSV sees them changing the subject to the celebration of -trump- losing an ally in Europe, likely to avoid having to explain why they were wrong about Hungary's dictatorship. TSV isn't surprised, and he runs through various texts coming through on his phone -also- avoiding the politically awkward, like when he texted back Robert Reich's group regarding the proposed Paramount merger for his group to sign the petition #SpiritOf46 to condemn the War On Biden. He doesn't blindly follow every petition and fundraiser that comes his way like the Clooneydonkeys apparently want him to, including a text from March of 2025 claiming that -trump- was going to revoke Biden's pardons for Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, when a year later Glenn Kirshner himself outlined how such a revocation is constitutionally impossible. TSV looked at that original text back in March 2025 and thought, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right, but he doesn't think that the 18-25 Pod Save Youthtatorship Of America would be so skeptical, and neither would a significant portion of attendees at various No Kings rallies wanting to hear Bernie make a speech there. Oh, and TSV's been actively keeping track of the legal challenge against -trump- trying to kill mail-in voting with an Executive Order while almost no one he's aware of is talking about that specific court case. It all goes to show that the best way to defend democracy is to help promote everyone maintaining perspective. Not to mention helping them uphold the morally required concept of principle that TSV sees Biden as being all about.