Has the Military Lost Middle America

VDH's Blade of Perseus // Private Papers

Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. military’s greatest defender.

Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets. Statistics of those killed in action, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, reveal that white males, especially those of the rural and middle classes, were demographically “overrepresented” in offering the ultimate sacrifice to their country.

When generals, active and retired, have become controversial, usually conservative America could be counted on to stick with them.

Iranian Endgames?

Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness The Trump administration has bent over backward to negotiate an end to Iran’s grand plans to develop nuclear weapons—before the June 2025 bombing, afterward, and again during the follow-up diplomacy

Share This
‘Class Snob’ Democrats Clash With ICE Agents in New Jersey

Victor Davis Hanson comments on the rising hostility toward ICE agents after the arrest of Nicholas Matthew Scelfo for threatening an agent’s family, arguing authorities should make examples of such offenders while blue-state politics instead

Share This
California Politics, Greek Mythology, and The Future of the West

California’s political dysfunction, growing concerns over immigration and election integrity, and declining trust in public institutions reflect a broader struggle over accountability, governance, and national identity. Questions surrounding border security, demographic change, public safety, and

Share This
Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and Why Trump Holds All the Cards

Iran, China, immigration, elite institutions, and the future direction of the Democratic Party all point back to a broader debate over power, nationalism, and the stability of the Western world. Growing tensions in the Middle

Share This
The Modern Left Wants Control More Than Accountability

America’s political and cultural institutions are becoming increasingly centralized, ideological, and disconnected from ordinary citizens. Media organizations, universities, government agencies, and political elites continue accusing opponents of authoritarianism while expanding their own influence over public

Share This
‘Scoundrel’ Adam Schiff Has No Grounds Against Tulsi Gabbard

Former Democrat turned Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced her resignation last week, citing her husband’s ongoing battle with bone cancer. While her time in office was marked by some big America First

Share This
VDH UltraWhen and Whom to Fear About Dictatorship, Part Two

Victor Davis Hanson 1) Does the government use its powers to interfere in elections and often unite with toadish private enterprises to ensure electoral victories? Barack Obama assembled the heads of the CIA and the

Share This
Spare Us the Selective Outrage

Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness Since October 7, we have been lectured nonstop about the supposedly singular sins of Israel. The campuses, the left-wing media, and the new Democratic Socialist officials, both federal and state,

Share This
Memorial Day, Civic Duty, and the Cost of Leadership

Political dysfunction in California, the collapse of communist regimes, the meaning of Memorial Day, and the importance of the citizen soldier all point back to the same question: what happens when leaders become detached from

Share This
Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture.

Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007, and the Bradley Prize in 2008, as well as the Edmund Burke Award (2018), William F. Buckley Prize (2015), the Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award (2006), and the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002).