Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton.
What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump.
The nonstop efforts were all justified as “saving democracy”—albeit by nearly destroying it.
In 2015-2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign fueled the lie that discredited ex-British spy Christopher Steele had discovered Donald Trump to be a veritable Russian agent.
Hillary did not disclose that she had paid Steele—with checks hidden through three paywalls. The FBI, under Director James Comey, also hired the fraudster.
Yet almost nothing in his “Steele dossier” was true.
The FBI doctored evidence submitted to a FISA court. Comey leaked to the press confidential documents about his private conversations with President Trump.
Comey’s successor, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, lied on numerous occasions to federal investigators.
Both former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper repeatedly lied to the nation, saying that Trump was de facto working with the Russians.
The result? Trump lost the 2016 popular vote but still won the Electoral College.
Next, celebrities and well-funded liberals waged a media campaign to convince the electors to become “faithless.” Left-wing elites begged them to renounce their constitutional duties and instead throw the election to Hillary Clinton.
Once Trump was elected, “Russian collusion” was fired up again in hysterical fashion.
A special counsel, Robert Mueller, consumed 22 months of the Trump presidency. His investigation team constantly leaked falsehoods about the “walls closing in on” Trump.
After nearly two years, Mueller announced there was no evidence of a Trump effort to collude with Russia.
Next was the first impeachment of Trump—nearly the moment he lost the House in 2018.
Supposedly, Trump had leveraged Ukraine to investigate a corrupt Hunter Biden by delaying foreign aid.
Trump was impeached on a strictly partisan vote.
But later, no one denied that the drug-addled Hunter Biden had indeed gotten rich from Ukraine, or that Joe Biden had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his son’s misadventures while still vice president, or that Trump released all the military assistance designated by Congress, or that he included offensive weapons formerly denied Ukraine by the Obama-Biden administration.
Next, in 2020, when Hunter’s laptop turned up abandoned at a repair shop and full of incriminating evidence of more Biden family skullduggery, the left struck again.
It rounded up “51 former intelligence authorities” to mislead the American people on the eve of the vote that the laptop was likely a fake—once again cooked up by Russian disinformation experts to aid Trump.
And once more, that was another complete falsehood. But the lie proved useful to Joe Biden in the debates and campaign. And he won the election.
Next, the learn-nothing, forget-nothing left turned to the 2023-2024 campaign.
This time, their next extra-legal efforts were twofold.
One, they unsuccessfully sought to remove Trump from some 15 state ballots.
Two, local, state, and federal courts began to wage lawfare to convict and jail candidate Trump, or at least bankrupt him and keep him off the campaign trail.
Three county and state prosecutors campaigned on getting Trump on charges never filed before against a presidential candidate—and rarely against anyone else as well.
The Fani Willis Georgia lead prosecutor met secretly with the Biden White House counsel.
Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan team hired the third-ranking federal prosecutor in the Biden Justice Department.
Special counsel Jack Smith was found by a court to have been illegally appointed and much of his case was dismissed.
On July 14, a shooter nearly killed candidate Trump, nicking his ear after somehow firing a rifle from a rooftop a mere 140 yards away—while undetected by law enforcement inside the very same building below.
Prior to the shooting, Joe Biden had boasted to donors that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
Biden had railed nearly nonstop that a Trump victory would spell the end of democracy—a theme the left had fueled by comparing ad nauseam Trump to Adolf Hitler.
Yet here we are in mid-July 2024 and Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is alive and leads incumbent Biden—either because of, or despite, the crude efforts to destroy him.
After nearly a decade of utter madness, can we finally order the FBI, DOJ, and CIA to butt out of our elections?
Can a bankrupt media cease whipping up hysterias about a supposed Nazi-like takeover?
Can the left stop relying on washed-up British spies, corrupt ex-spooks, and teams of clownish partisan prosecutors?
Instead, why not, at last, just let the people choose their own president?
Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest”? …………………..
A quote attributed to Henry II of England preceding the death of Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. While the quote was not expressed as an order, it prompted four knights to travel from Normandy to Canterbury, where they killed Becket. The phrase is commonly used in modern-day contexts to express that a ruler’s wish may be interpreted as a command by his or her subordinates. It is also commonly understood as shorthand for any rhetorical device allowing leaders to covertly order or exhort violence among their followers, while still being able to claim plausible deniability for political, legal, or other reasons.
Apropos.
If I had a wish, a hope, a wand. I would ban all dark money. Only maximum donations of $2500 for any candidate in any race across the board. Money has bastardized our elections.
John McCain’s brilliance with the left introduced the dark money; he was a fool and insider on a few fronts.
Gotta pebble in my shoe, ouch
Gotta pebble in my shoe, ouch
Gotta pebble in my shoe, ouch
And you gotta keep dancin’ all the time
How,d it ever get in my little toesy?
Never thought a pebble could be so nosy
Gotta pebble in my shoe, ouch
And you gotta keep dancin’ all the time
Ella Fitzgerald
“[W]hy not, at last, just let the people choose their own president?”
Valid question. But, we all know us rubes are not nearly smart enough to cast a vote every four years. Only unelected, elite bureaucrats possess the intelligence necessary for such an important decision.
It’s a fascinating time we are living through.
By multiple metrics the Dems and leftists they model have come closer than ever before to taking down this Republic.
It seems reasonable to believe that if Trump/Vance ticket fall victim to the Dems’ tactics of 2020 and 2022 the Republic will be unrecoverable.
The Dems’ on-going attacks on Trump remind me of the movie, “Unbreakable” by M Night Shyamalan with Bruce Willis & Samuel Jackson. Try as he might, Jackson’s evil character was unable to take down the good spirit of Willis’ character.
Hopefully, the Trump/Vance team will be able to survive attempts by the leftists and their media.
The media is the enemy of our Republic. Unfortunately half or more of the Electorate are easily dumbed down by the media. Many have no historical knowledge on any level of the shaping of our country or do they care. They could be told by the MSM that a president is a Russian spy and believe it. This is how far the cancer of idiocy has spread. Am I cynical…I know I am.
Thank you for putting these last 4 years in order. It was an excellent read
Scary 4 that are NOT over – even Grisham could not write this and be believed .
As always, Mr. Hanson, you summarize the situation succinctly and accurately. The election of a candidate who does not do the regimes bidding can never be allowed by the left. The country must be turned against itself. Only the ‘approved’ messages must be broadcast.
Sadly, we no longer live in a republic. To my horror, we are now facing the death throes of a once mighty bastion of freedom as the United States descends into communism. The un-elected, power crazy state has fortified itself with layer upon layer of process and insulation that twists and crushes the truth. This is probably our last ‘free’ election unless the collective spirits of those in power can hold the systems in play accountable and minimize the fraud of the 2020 election. My prayers are constant.
AMEN!
My prayers also!
If Trump doesn’t clean out all the agencies, this time, America is doomed. *To get rid of the dandelion in your lawn, you have to dig out the root, or you will never get rid of dandelions.*
Yep, well said, VDH. The executive branch departments should butt out of politics and do the jobs they are hired and paid to do.
The Constitution of the USA was based upon an ‘informed citizenry’ voting in a constitutional republic. When the citizenry is intentionally misinformed by an unelected bureaucracy supported by biased journalists and educators, the whole system breaks down. That is one of the main reasons that Joseph Biden ‘appears’ to have been ‘elected’ President of the USA during the 2020 election. The Democratic Party is relying upon the same ‘bad actors’ to defeat candidates of the Republican Party during 2024. The Washington Post is correct. Democracy dies in Darkness. But it is dying in their darkness.
AMEN!
I believe Truth, Honesty and Love for America will prevail, to win the next election again making President Trump the ultimate Saviour of our Nation. The DemonicRat Criminal Subversives will be eviscerated over next several years. Many will be exposed as Foreign Agents, largely bought and paid for by Criminal Communist Regimes around the world.
AMEN!
THIS IS NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST.
GOD USES THE UNLIKLIEST PERSON TO DO HIS WILL.
PROCEED DONALD
Such a simple solution…”let the people choose”! How much easier would life be if we all could just vote in a free and fair election. But it’s not that simple anymore; there needs to be citizen watchdogs now to make sure the election is not a fraud in a million different ways. Cheating has become the norm and the stakes for the Democrat party are way too high for them not to cheat. If they cannot cheat, and they are cornered, they will try again to destroy Donald Trump. They cannot let a populist movement succeed.
Media manipulates. “America the schizophrenic”, a line from a poem I wrote. There is a difference between being a business and being a community. Respectfully.
As reasonable as these requests are, it’s hard to imagine any of the strident left or their deep state grestapo will oblige. What they call “reprisal” is merely enforcing laws that are already on the books. They know that if they lose power, the new majority will strongly desire justice. Justice means that some of they will be hanged or imprisoned. They will fight to the death to avoid that.
Thanks Victor. Since the marxists in D.C. are convinced that America is dominated by deplorables and irredeemables that must be ignored or, better yet, eliminated, wouldn’t it make more sense for the elites to simply find and buy another country for their self glorification?
Thanks Victor. Since the marxists in D.C. are convinced that America is dominated by deplorables and irredeemables that must be ignored or, better yet, eliminated, wouldn’t it make more sense for the elites to simply find and buy another country for their self glorification
I am sorry Prof Hanson we cannot rely on the deep state agencies to buttress our, the media to be honest, or the leftists to quit lying, cheating. Etc. to drag either Biden or another left wing puppet into the White House. Hopefully there will be enough normal people with common sense to offset this.
“Give me the man and I will give you the case against him.”
The saying is commonly attributed to the Stalinist-era Soviet jurist Andrey Vyshinsky, the Soviet secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria, or to Stalin himself.
The Left generally promotes unpopular policies.
In order to win, they must cheat.
In order to win, they must employ a captive media machine that is ultimately controlled by our own federal agencies.
To win, they must give free stuff away to their constituents.
They need to demonize their opposition in the most inflammatory way possible.
None of this has to do with appealing to reason, logic, rationality, life experience, and “common sense”.
They are the party of safe spaces, cancel culture, no honest discussions, constant fear mongering, hysterical bat-sh*t crazy women, emasculated soy boys, and recipients of our tax dollars through numerous NGOs and other governmental give-aways.
I don’t have a good button for this one. Just collecting my thoughts.
Unfortunately, they also own all of our institutions. They are not going anywhere soon.
It is reassuring to know that the one institution in our nation that is utterly unassailable, according to the Left, is our federal election system. There is no reason to doubt the veracity of this robust and unauditable system.
The Left is incapable of winning elections without cheating.
A perfect, and nicely condensed blow-by-blow history of Federal interference in our elections. My only question is when will Comey, Clapper & Brennan by held to account for their disgusting and never ending attempt to ruin our republic for which they took an oath to defend against enemies both foreign and domestic. The enemies they themselves became!!
As always, Victor Davis Hanson is spot-on in his views and analysis of the nefarious and evil secret combinations now deeply embedded in our government institutions and “higher” education. It is said that the best way for evil to win is for good men (and women) to do nothing. I stand in firm support of President Trump, and (actually, not figuratively) pray for his safety an success in leading the fight against this cabal.
You summed it up fairly well however you should have elaborated on the corrupt media that is a direct cause of what happened to President Trump due to their rhetoric that can set off a loon. I hope if reelected President Trump can surround himself with honest patriots unlike some of the snakes he had in his last administration. Just imagine what he can accomplish not being hobbled from day one by garbage charges by these criminals.
Small typo correction, plus some new info perhaps not available at time of publication.
“On July 14, a shooter nearly killed candidate Trump, nicking his ear after somehow firing a rifle from a rooftop a mere 140 yards away—while undetected by law enforcement inside the very same building below.”
Trump was shot on Sat. July 13 (not 14). It was recently reported that security forces were aware of Thomas Crooks (shooter) at least 50 min before Trump took the stage. A lot of questions are being asked of SS Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is not answering many of them, and she is refusing to resign.
I have my doubts.
There’s a lot to learn & read. Wow. Many Americans have heard this before ( definitely not all of it). It’s simple to fact check what we don’t know here, since we’re at a place where most everything needs checking. I don’t expect to find too much different- Hanson has been studying politics and history for many years . We shall see.
Victor – Thanks for the helpful summary of political abuse. The left may know that they cannot achieve their goals without lying, cheating, deception, and manipulation in their desired time frame.
How do the actions of the American left compare with leftists in other parts of the world? Is the left operating this way in other countries? What are the commonalities in the left’s agenda worldwide? Is there a leftist movement globally?
Also, what is the relationship between leftist agendas and the goals of militant Islam? What do these movements have in common? How do they complement one another? Where do they show common interests? When do they work together to achieve their purposes?
See excellent book: “Iran: An Imperialist Republic and U.S. Policy” by Walid Phares.
The consequences of Democrat Party, Federal Government and Media lying to the American people will echo for years. They have wiped out their credibility and deserve no further benefit of the doubt. It is now assumed they are guilty of lying until proven otherwise. They really suck.
Amen
VDH, your points are succinct, well stated and true. There is elegance in simplicity. Unlike the tangled, complicated webs of deceit that the left weaves.
They will need to weave even more complicated lies to try and free themselves, but into which they will forever be entangled.
I just listened to Trump’s convention speech. Send that his near death experienced has tempered his rhetoric. It was long, but it was a hopeful speech.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the media and the alphabet agencies could let the viewers decide.
The obvious answer to each of Professor Hanson’s rhetorical questions is NO. With Trump leading in the polls and MAGA is ascending, a non compus mentis democrat candidate will not defeat Trump.
After watching the RNC Convention and all the personal stories told about Trump, showing him to be a man of compassion having a love for people and the nation, it would be shocking if any candidate could defeat Trump in an honest and free election this November.
On CNN and MSNBC Trump was compared to Fidel Castro, and Nikita Khrushchev for his long speech by a Dictator, adding that if he by chance wins the Election he will Destroy America as a Dictator. Such hate speech should be “Not Ok” for anyone especially the “News” media. Thank you Mr. Hanson for your hard work, and your Clarifying Truth.
Just one correction: Jack Smith’s FL documents case was dismissed in its entirety.
It’s so absurd
If Klaus Schwab and the globalists get their way, there’ll be no need for elections anyway…at least for the general population. The elite will select themselves to govern the masses. Once again, Orwell.
Instead, why not, at last, just let the people choose their own president?
One answer may be the fact there is no money to be made in the traditional election process. Billable legal minutes is big business.
There are really four branches of government. Administrative Agencies are the fourth branch of government, However, before anyone can begin to drain the swamp, we need a coherent organization chart for every Department, Bureau, Agency, Administration, etc, with their mission statements and their budgets. We can then see which are useful for the existing three branches and which need put in Constitutional Structured Fourth Branch. I expect temper tantrums every inch of the way.
I read this Victor Davis Hanson document several days ago. I occasionally submit comments in response to Professor Hanson’s wise, comprehensive, and truthful pronouncements but simply could not get my thoughts organized worthy of commenting. So, thanks Robert D. for posting this.
How can anyone read these words from Professor Hanson and not be convinced of the evil intentions of the Democratic party? Well, some people have swallowed the media propaganda for so long that they have been persuaded that it must be true. Trump must be a monster, intent on destroying America. JD Vance apparently bought into the propaganda before getting to know President Trump more deeply and now knows the scandalous lies that have been brought against the man who genuinely loves America and is willing to give up a great life enjoying his own golf courses and hotels all over the country, a 747 worthy of Air Force 1, enough money to do about anything he pleases, a great supportive family, and a beautiful wife to stroll together with wherever in the world he chooses. Who else with all this would run for President and suffer the slings and arrows directed toward him by a powerful, evil, and corrupt entrenched political party, not to mention an assassin’s bullet in order to Make America Great Again? A very Good Man, that’s who!!!
Hopefully, my two beautiful, successful, adult daughters, both good wives, and great mothers will also cast aside the ruinous propaganda and support Trump. Goodbye Joe.