The Great Regression
Today, it seems that Orwell’s 1984 would better have been titled 2016. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Technical progress is often associated with moral and political regress, a theme as ancient as Hesiod’s seventh-century b.c. poem Works and Days. In 200 b.c., not a male could vote freely in Hellenistic Greece, but […]
The Betrayal of the Intellectuals?
After nearly eight years of aiding and abetting Obama, leftists now fear the possible constitutional overreach of our next president. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Peter Beinart writes angrily in The Atlantic of the supposed Trump intellectuals, apparently on the premise of not whether one has endorsed formally the Trump candidacy, but whether […]
The Immigrant’s Dilemma
by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Image credit: Barbara Kelley Nearly a half-century ago, Bob Dylan wrote a mixed ode to the immigrant, in a way that no doubt might earn him charges of racism, nativism, and xenophobia in today’s politically-correct age. Yet Dylan was trying to express the paradoxes of leaving one’s homeland for […]
Hillary’s Neoliberals
Some Republicans have cultural and political affinities that are pulling them away from Trump and toward Clinton. By Victor Davis Hanson //National Review Online Many elections redefine political parties. The rise of George McGovern’s hard-left agenda in 1972, followed later in the decade by Jimmy Carter’s evangelical liberalism, drove centrist Democrats into the arms of […]
Trump vs. Trump
Can Trump get out of the trap of running against himself? By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Donald Trump is not so much running against Hillary Clinton as against the inner demons of Donald Trump. The 2016 election still should easily be his to win. Americans do not historically like the twelve-year regnum […]
Donald Trump, Postmodern Candidate
Trump defies all political orthodoxy and confounds any attempts at explanation or prediction. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Early 20th-century modernism ignored classical rules of expression. But late 20th-century postmodernism blew up those rules altogether. Barack Obama was a modernist candidate. He turned out vast numbers of young and minority voters, mastered […]
A Convention of the Absurd
The Democratic Convention was an exercise in absurdist theater. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Donald Trump, to the degree he is coherent, wants Americans to think the following of the Obama administration, the Clinton candidacy, and the entire progressive enterprise. His three-part writ could be summed up as follows: 1) Obama has […]
Why borders matter — and a borderless world is a fantasy
By Victor Davis Hanson // Los Angeles Times Borders are in the news as never before. With Muslim refugees flooding into the European Union from the Middle East, and with terrorism on the rise, a popular revolt is taking shape against the so-called Schengen Area agreements, which give free rights of movement within Europe. The European […]
Douglas MacArthur’s Brilliant, Controversial Legacy
A new biography examines the many sides of the versatile American general. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Of all the great American captains of World War II, none remains more controversial than General Douglas MacArthur, whose genius and folly have taken on mythic proportions. MacArthur alone among them fought in all of […]
When a War Went Worldwide 75 Years Ago
The irrational aggressiveness of the Axis powers teaches us not to expect our enemies to be reasonable. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Seventy-five years ago, the world blew up in just six months. World War II ostensibly started two years earlier, when Germany invaded Poland. In truth, after the rapid German […]
Trump and the Politics of Moral Outrage
We are very far from a politics of ideological purity and high character. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Many have weighed in on whether Donald Trump’s agendas — to the extent that they are different from what are now ratified Republican policies — are crackpot, unworkable, or radical: e.g., building a […]
The Dream of Muslim Outreach Has Become a Nightmare
Affirming Muslim grievances has only increased the Arab world’s sense that Obama is weak. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world. The soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize laureate would […]
Alphabet Soup Corruption
by Victor Davis Hanson//Defining Ideas Name a government agency or cabinet, and chances are its reputation has nosedived since 2008. A Pew poll, which has charted public trust in the federal government over some 57 years, hit a historic low last year, with only 19% expressing confidence in Washington. Despite President Obama’s campaign promises […]
Ten Reasons Why Trump Could Win
With four more months until Election Day, be prepared for chills and spills. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Hillary Clinton has outspent Donald Trump in unprecedented fashion. Her endorsements bury Trump’s. The Obama administration is doing its best to restore her viability. The media are outdoing their 2008 liberal prejudices. And yet […]
Three Modest Propositions
By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In future presidential editorialization about the shooting deaths of police officers, perhaps the president himself might first offer a few “words matter” gestures that would reassure law enforcement, to use another Obama phrase, that he “has their back.” Here are just three low-bar proposals for how […]
Enemies See America As Vulnerable Prey
Our domestic tensions embolden our enemies. By Victor Davis Hanson//National Review Online Here is a sampling of some recent news abroad: A Russian guard attacked a U.S. diplomatic official at the door to the American Embassy in Moscow, even as NATO leaders met to galvanize against the next act of Russian aggression. The Islamic […]
Fundamentally Transformed
Have we reached a point of no return? By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Multicultural societies — from 19th-century Austria–Hungary to contemporary Iraq, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda — have a poor record of keeping the peace between competing tribes. They usually end up mired in nihilistic and endemic violence. The only […]
Will California Ever Thrive Again?
The state is sinking, and its wealthy class is full of hypocrites. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online There was more of the same-old, same-old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed […]
Washington’s Hollow Men
The government/media power elite are spectacularly ignorant of the American people. by Victor Davis Hanson//National Review Online We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet over broken […]
Anti-Brexit Elites Aren’t the Ones Who Suffer from Their Policies
by Victor Davis Hanson//National Review Online Following the Brexit, Europe may witness even more plebiscites against the undemocratic European Union throughout the continent. The furor of ignored Europeans against their union is not just directed against rich and powerful government elites per se, or against the flood of mostly young male migrants from the war-torn […]