Absurd—and Not-so-Absurd—Immigration
Trump’s plan of mass deportations en masse is unworkable, but that’s not an argument against weeding out criminals and those without work histories in the U.S. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media In the discussion of Donald Trump’s agenda for dealing with illegal immigration, lots of his proposals are said to be absurd. But […]
As the EPA and IRS Have Shown, with Big Government Comes Little Accountability
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Social observers from Aristotle and Juvenal to James Madison and George Orwell have all warned of the dangers of out-of-control government. Lately, we have seen plenty of proof that they were frighteningly correct.
Obama: Earning Contempt, at Home and Abroad
From Thucydides’s Athens to 21st-century America, appeasement is not a winner. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The common bond among the various elements of the failed Obama foreign policy — from reset with Putin to concessions to the Iranians — is a misreading of human nature. The so-called Enlightened mind claims that the […]
The Tragic and Complete Collapse of Racial Relations
Polls show that racial relations have gotten much worse under Barack Obama. Why has that happened? by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Why do polls show that racial relations have gotten much worse under Barack Obama, who won the White House with over 95% of the black — and 45% of the white — […]
How Long Will Trump’s Cathartic Candidacy for Fed-Up Conservatives Last?
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The coarser and cruder Donald Trump becomes, and the more ill-informed on the issues he sounds, the more he coasts in the polls. Apparently, a few of his targets must be regarded as unsympathetically as their defamer. Trump is rightly mocked for cynically spreading quid pro quo money […]
Obama: Tougher on Congress than on Khamenei
Obama’s Unpresidential Iran Speech: The speech was mean-spirited and dishonest ─ and may have been counterproductive. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online President Obama’s speech last week advocating congressional approval of the Iran deal was mostly made-up history mixed with invective. Indeed, he talked far more roughly about his congressional partners than he did […]
History’s Complexity Should Discourage Liberals’ Cheap Retroactive Morality
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Some Democratic-party groups are renouncing their once-egalitarian idols, the renaissance genius Thomas Jefferson and the populist Andrew Jackson. Both presidents, some two centuries ago, owned slaves. Consequently, the two men have been suddenly deemed unworthy of further liberal reverence.
Hillary Clinton, Reactionary
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Amid the Trump psychodramas, the public has forgotten not just Hillary Clinton’s latest contortions over her emails, but Mrs. Clinton herself. Hillary has assumed the position of a tired vice president in waiting, without any of the perks that might accrue from a lame-duck president to his dutiful […]
Israeli Preemptive Action, Western Reaction
Israel Can’t Count on the West to Protect it. Will Israel do the unthinkable to stop the unimaginable? by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The Obama administration seems peeved that almost everyone in Israel, left and right, has no use for the present Iranian–American deal to thwart Iran’s efforts to get the bomb. Indeed, […]
Iran, the Munich Comparison, and the Abuse of History
The Iran Deal is not Munich, but the same foolishness of Western leaders is close enough to warn us what happens next. And it will not be good. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media The Iranian deal has called to mind the Munich Agreement of 1938. Then Britain and France signed away the sovereignty […]
Still Blind to the Costs of Illegal Immigration
What really explains Trump’s rapid climb to the top of the polls. by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Donald Trump’s blunt and clumsy comments about illegal immigration sparked the usual firestorm of criticism from the well heeled of both parties. Particularly vocal were those Republicans who think that an amorphous, make-believe category comprising “Hispanics” […]
What True Immigration ‘Reform’ Would Look Like
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Can we be honest about illegal immigration? It is a common challenge to almost every advanced Western country that is adjacent to poorer nations. American employers and ethnic activists have long colluded to weaken border enforcement and render immigration law meaningless. The former wanted greater profits from cheaper […]
The Truth About Western “Colonialism”
How the misuse of a term legitimizes the jihadist myth of Western guilt. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas Language is the first casualty of wars over foreign policy. To paraphrase Thucydides, during ideological conflict, words have to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which is now given them. One word that […]
The Obama Administration’s Chicago Politics
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Barack Obama is the first American president from Chicago. That fact will be the trailblazing Obama’s most lasting legacy. Chicago has long been stereotyped as a city where any-means-necessary politics have ruled, and where excess is […]
Donald Trump and the Fed-Up Crowd
Watching Trump’s rise, America’s middle class “fed-up crowd” is enjoying the comeuppance of an elite that never pays for the ramifications of its own ideology. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Donald Trump — a former liberal and benefactor of Democrats — is still surging. But his loud New York lingo, popular put-downs of […]
Appeasing Iran Ignores the Lessons of History
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The now-concluded Iran nuclear negotiations predictably reflect ancient truths of appeasement. While members of the Obama administration are high-fiving each other over a deal with the Iranian theocracy, they should remember unchanging laws that will surely haunt the United States later on.
More Sanctions Wouldn’t Have Stopped Iran
But one measure would have. by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Critics of President Obama’s recent deal with Iran have rejected the president’s assertion that the only alternative to his deal is war. They think that more aggressive sanctions could have changed Iran’s behavior, given the economic costs the current sanction regime has inflicted. […]
Obama and Trump: Two of a Kind
Outwardly they couldn’t be more different. But take a closer look. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online President Obama is said to feel liberated, in the sense that he can finally say what, and do as, he pleases — without much worry any more over political ramifications, including presidential and congressional elections. Obama’s […]
San Francisco: One Sick Sanctuary City
As is true daily in other sanctuary cities, San Francisco rolled the dice with someone else’s safety, resulting in the murder of Kate Steinle. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media The horrific — but likely preventable — death of Kate Steinle at the hands of five-time deported illegal alien and seven-time released felon Juan Francisco […]
The Iran Failure Has Many Fathers
The dangerous belief that words alone can transcend an eternal truth of human nature. by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Everybody knows the deal with Iran is a disaster. Why is equally obvious: Iran will get $150 billion to spend on weapons and its terrorist proxies, will keep its enrichment facilities, will continue to […]