0:00

This message comes from NPR sponsor

0:02

Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning

0:04

for 30 years. Right

0:06

now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta

0:08

Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different

0:11

languages for 50% off. Learn

0:14

more at rosettastone.com. Hey,

0:19

it's Kelli McEvers, and

0:21

we are back with episode

0:23

two of Supermajority. And just

0:25

to note, before we start,

0:28

there's some coarse language in this episode. Okay,

0:31

here's Maribyrnite. It

0:34

was April 3rd of last year, exactly a

0:36

week after the shooting at the Covenant School.

0:41

You may remember this from the beginning of the

0:43

last episode. Protests demanding more

0:45

gun control had been raging, and

0:48

the House was in chaos after three

0:50

Democrats took to the floor with a

0:52

bullhorn in solidarity. Now,

0:55

Republican lawmakers had introduced

0:58

resolutions to expel them. All

1:01

those in favor, vote aye. All those opposed,

1:03

vote no. Angry

1:08

spectators looked down on lawmakers from

1:10

the House gallery, screaming fascists as

1:13

the resolutions passed. Now I

1:15

see the whole country watching us, and they

1:17

would have never paid any attention before. Mr.

1:20

Trooper, unfortunately, the

1:22

members cannot hear. I ask you to clear

1:24

out the balcony, please. But

1:29

next door in the Senate, things

1:31

were quite different. All was

1:33

quiet, not a peep from the gallery. It

1:36

was business as usual. Clerk,

1:38

take the roll. 32

1:41

members are present. The Senate

1:43

has a quorum and is now in session.

1:46

Mr. Speaker, if I could approach the well, please, sir.

1:48

You may. Right after the Pledge

1:51

of Allegiance, longtime Senator Rusty Crowe

1:54

had the floor for a moment of

1:56

recognition. Senator Crowe, you're recognized in

1:58

the well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He

2:00

wanted to welcome a visitor from abroad.

2:03

And so we're very proud to have Istvan with us.

2:07

Istvan Kiss, the executive director

2:09

of a place called the

2:11

Danube Institute, as in the

2:13

Danube River. It's a

2:15

conservative think tank based in Budapest.

2:18

With that, Mr. Speaker, if

2:20

we could allow Istvan Kiss

2:22

to say a few words to us and

2:25

I would appreciate that, sir. Mr. Kiss, you're

2:28

recognized, sir. Thank

2:30

you very much, Senator Crow, for this kind

2:33

introduction. Senator Crow already mentioned

2:35

that the Danube Institute was established with the

2:37

aim to be a kind of a beltway.

2:39

The Danube Institute is funded by

2:42

the Hungarian government, and it has

2:44

close ties to the country's far-right

2:46

leader, Viktor Orban. It's

2:48

a way to take his politics on the road. And

2:51

those politics are worth explaining for

2:53

a moment. Since 2010, Orban

2:55

has rewritten electoral rules. He's

2:59

taken over public institutions, weakened

3:01

independent courts, and gutted

3:04

independent media. In

3:06

a 2022 report, the European Parliament

3:08

declared that Hungary is no longer

3:10

a functioning democracy. Instead,

3:13

calling it an electoral

3:15

autocracy. Senator

3:19

Crow had started thinking about Hungary's

3:21

politics and its leader about a

3:23

year earlier, after a constituent, who's

3:26

also a friend, had called him.

3:28

He said, Rusty, did you hear the

3:30

speech that Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor

3:32

Orban, just gave at

3:34

CPAC? I said, no. CPAC

3:38

is the Conservative Political Action

3:40

Conference, this annual meeting where

3:42

a lot of major Republicans

3:44

gather. It had hosted Orban as

3:46

a speaker. It was

3:48

an amazing speech that

3:50

dealt with our traditional

3:52

Judeo-Christian values.

3:57

Crow said the Senate wrote this

3:59

proclamation, praising... Orban's speech, and

4:01

the constituent took it over to Hungary to deliver

4:04

it directly. Hungary was now

4:06

returning the gesture via Istevan

4:08

Kiss. Dear honorable senators,

4:10

it's a rare privilege and honor to

4:12

be here with you in

4:15

the great volunteer state. I've

4:17

never would have imagined years

4:19

ago that I would ever visit Tennessee, to be honest.

4:22

But here Kiss was, offering his

4:24

condolences for the shooting and explaining

4:27

that he was in town for the week. So I

4:29

would be very honored and happy to meet

4:31

as many of you as possible during my

4:33

time here. Thank you very much again for

4:35

the opportunity and God bless you

4:37

and your work. Thank you. A

4:44

resolution introduced by Crow to honor

4:47

the Danube Institute passed unanimously in

4:49

the Senate. Even Democrats

4:51

voted yes. Then it went

4:53

to the House, where it also passed. And

4:55

then off to be signed by the governor. Kiss's

4:59

visit didn't seem to raise any alarms inside

5:01

the Capitol. But outside,

5:04

to journalists and academics, it

5:06

was striking. They'd been watching

5:09

Tennessee, and some of them told me

5:11

that small-d democracy here, the norms

5:13

within our political system that most

5:16

of us take for granted, have

5:18

been shifting for years. The

5:22

political scientist Jake Grumbach at

5:24

UC Berkeley has created

5:26

what he calls a state democracy

5:28

index, which he says measures

5:30

how democratic a state government is. It

5:33

includes 61 different indicators that he

5:36

measured for every state. And

5:38

in Tennessee, things didn't look

5:40

good, especially in critical

5:42

matters like gerrymandering. Setting

5:44

near records and partisan gerrymandering.

5:47

Access to voting, election integrity.

5:50

They blocked any sort of modernization

5:52

reform of the voting system

5:54

that most other states started doing.

5:57

And lastly, how responsive

5:59

lawmakers This

32:00

message comes from NPR sponsor, Shopify, the

32:02

global commerce platform that helps you sell

32:05

and show up exactly the way you

32:07

want to. Customize your online store to

32:09

your style. Sign up for a $1 per

32:12

month trial period at shopify.com.