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 […]
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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