I know that my resolution is to be more positive so I'll start off by saying, at least this article makes it seem like our brand of crazy isn't quite as bad it could be. Hungary's extreme right makes our T.E.A. Party seem like, well, a tea party.

On January 1—the same day Hungary assumes the six-month, rotating presidency of the European Union—a media law, passed by the Parliament on December 21, goes into effect, essentially reinstating state censorship in Hungary. - The Nation

Fidesz then seized control of private pensions, hacked back the powers of a supreme court that might have checked its supremacy and established a media council, which can impose large fines on broadcasters and print and online publishers for such fuzzily worded crimes as "offending human dignity." - The Guardian

On top of that, Hungary's far right group Jobbik ran "an explicitly anti-Roma and anti-Semitic campaign", and the alleged neo-facists won 47 seats in the 388 seat parliament.

The bigger lesson out of all of this (again, trying to make this productive per my resolution) is that we have to be careful of simplicity, especially in our own ideals and desires. The United States' goal of spreading democracy around the globe has clearly not been the rousing success that we hoped it would have been. Besides Kim Jong Il, most of our biggest rivals are democratically elected leaders (Chavez, Morales, Ahmadinejad) and most of them, like democratically elected Vladimir Putin, have strong-armed their way into taking much of the power in their countries.

While it might be hard for many Americans to support a lack of freedom, a rich upperclass ruling the struggling people, and a Kingdom, how many people really want to side against our ever shady allies in the ruling class of Saudi Arabia and give the power to the people? Does anyone really think that would be better for America? If ever there was an example of "Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.", the spread of Democracy might be it.

Sadly, it seems like our news media has become little more than simplistic takes on important topics. While the left wing always points at the right for its myopia, it's not like liberals are any better. The focus is always on winning the argument rather than discussing the issue so we rarely see the whole picture and compromise seems to be on the decline. Usually that ends with people arguing over side topics and not making any progress towards helping anyone out.

So while, most importantly, we all need to keep an eye on Hungary and make sure the political movement doesn't turn into human rights violations, on a more personal level, I think an addition to my New Year's resolutions and just the way I (and I believe most everyone) should approach the world is to avoid the easy answer, the simple solutions, the hasty generalizations. As the saying goes, "The plain and simple truth is rarely plain and never simple." We all must try to gauge every argument from our opponents' point of view. The road to hell is paved with good intentions because not enough people will play Devil's Advocate.

Which reminds me, another one of my resolutions needs to be to not ramble on so much. So I'll end this here.