The Age of Tokenism
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It is a depressing characteristic of government today to loudly enact legislation and impose regulations of little utility, while neglecting to address the root causes of truly serious problems. We do not know to what degree a Sandy Hook or a Columbine is caused by improperly treated mental […]
Wards of the State
by Bruce Thornton Defining Ideas The biggest political problem the United States faces — runaway entitlement costs on track to bankrupt the treasury — is like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but no one does anything about it. Even talking about it can be politically dangerous, as the Republicans learned in November and during […]
Europe’s Wishes Came True
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Almost a decade ago, Europeans and many progressive Americans were lamenting how the United States was going to miss out on the 21st-century paradigm symbolized by the robust European Union. Neanderthal Americans were importing ever more oil while waging a costly “war on terror” and fighting two conflicts […]
Women at the Front
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner Ostensibly, there are really only two issues about the inclusion of women in combat units: one, apparently the nation believes that it will react to the future combat deaths or capture of women in ground units the same way it does to the loss of male soldiers, even […]
What Is the Future of Conservatism?
by Victor Davis Hanson Commentary Magazine First, some perspective is key. Romney’s “47 percent” remarks and Hurricane Sandy probably turned an Obama one-percent win into the three-percent margin that he attained — especially considering Republicans kept the House and are doing well with governorships.
Our Old Grand Fantasies About Radical Islam
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Most things that we read in the popular media about radical Islam are fantasies. They are promulgated in the mistaken belief that such dogmas will appease terrorists, or at least direct their ire elsewhere. But given the recent news — murdering in Algeria, war in Mali, the Syrian mess, […]
The War Between the Amendments
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The horrific Newtown, Conn., mass shooting has unleashed a frenzy to pass new gun-control legislation. But the war over restricting firearms is not just between liberals and conservatives; it also pits the first two amendments to the US Constitution against each other.
Second Term Reckonings
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media A rule of the modern age: all confident, reelected presidents trip up in the second term. LBJ was sunk by Vietnam. Reagan faced Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton had his comeuppance with Monica. George W. Bush was overwhelmed with the Iraqi insurgency and Katrina. And Obama will have his as well, obsequious […]
Dr. Barack and Mr. Obama on the Debt Ceiling
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner Barack Obama once had a lot of insightful things to say about the debt ceiling that transcended the usual political game of voting for debt-ceiling increases when your guy was president and against when he was not — and even some things that were quite blunt if not harsh […]
The Powell Tragedy
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner Like many, I was confused not by General Colin Powell’s endorsements of Barack Obama, but rather his recent remarks alleging Republican extremism and racism. His barrage was internally inconsistent and ultimately made little sense at all. Such unfounded charges are out of character with his distinguished record and career.
When Big Deficits Became Good
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he detested budget deficits. In 2006, when the aggregate national debt was almost $8 trillion less than today, he blasted George W. Bush’s chronic borrowing and refused to vote for upping the debt ceiling: “Increasing America’s debt weakens […]
Hagel, Brennan, and the Obama View of the Middle East
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner The Meaning of Hagel and Brennan Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, given their long public service, will probably be confirmed. Their appointments will have a force-multiplying effect on our new foreign policy as it pertains to the Middle East. If one were to collate their speeches and more unfortunate […]
The Hipster Façade
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media What Is Hip? America has always been a country of self-invention. Yet there used to be some correlation between the life that one lived and the life that one professed. It was hard to be a phony in the grimy reality of the coal mine, the steel mill, the […]
2013: Welcome to Very, Very Scary Times
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media On the One Hand… These should not be foreboding years. The US is in the midst of a veritable energy revolution. There is a godsend of new gas and oil discoveries that will help to curtail our fiscal and foreign policy vulnerabilities — an energy bonanza despite, not because of[1], […]
A New Year in America: Will We Continue Down the Road to Decline?
by Bruce Thronton Frontpage Magazine Looking back over 2012, one could be forgiven for thinking that if America goes on at this rate, the nation must be ruined. But as Adam Smith replied to a young man who said those same words about British losses during the American Revolution, “there is a great deal […]
The Great New Year Stampede
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services There is a new-year stampede developing that we have not seen for a long time. Gun stores are swamped with panicking customers. They are looking for handguns, semi-automatic rifles and as much ammunition as they can afford.
Bush Reconsidered
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online George W. Bush left office in January 2009 with one of the lowest job-approval ratings for a president (34 percent) since Gallup started compiling them — as compared to Harry Truman’s low of 32 percent, Richard Nixon’s of 24 percent, and Jimmy Carter’s of 34 percent — and […]
2012: When Dreams Died
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The year 2012 saw the triumph of cold reality over pie-in-the-sky dreams. Barack Obama in 2008 won an election on an upbeat message of change in the hope that the first black president would mark a redemptive moment in American history.
The Orientalism of Barack Obama
by Terry Scambray New Oxford Review Of course the documentary movie, 2016: Obama’s America, was timed by the conservative, Dinesh D’Souza, to discredit the president. Nonetheless, there can’t be much doubt that the president’s vision of America is driven by his attitude toward the perceived sins of European colonialism and his fear that America has now […]
An Anatomy of a Most Peculiar Institution
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media A Campus Full of Contradictions Almost everything about the modern university is a paradox. It has become a sort of industry gone rogue that embraces practices that a Wal-Mart or Halliburton would never get away with. It is exempt from scrutiny in the fashion that the Left ceased talking […]