Victor Davis Hanson Broken things are a sign of decay and decline. The proverbial Third-World hotel room, and I know it too well, is a mishmash of broken water fixtures and light switches, non-working alarm clocks, and blinds that don’t close—aside from inoperable air conditioners, refrigerators, and heaters. I once tried to turn on the […]
Re: A Classicist Farmer: The Life and Times of Victor Davis Hanson There is an active discussion in circles I travel regarding the difference between abject ignorance, and willful exploitation of that which a speaker may know to be true, but choices to frame in a way that serves a political purpose. When one reads
Victor Davis Hanson So what is the ultimate fate of Donald Trump? I wrote in The Case for Trump that he was a Sophoclean/John Ford tragic hero. If you have not read the Ajax, Antigone, or Philoctetes, you still know the stereotype from Shane, The Searchers, High Noon, The Magnificent Seven, and even in some
Victor Davis Hanson Mike Pence had initially condemned Trump without context for his flawed archives protocols (he seems to be backtracking now). So has Chris Christie and Nikki Haley (she too had second thoughts). They are right that everyone must obey the law. But there are two other issues in play here: one, equality under
Victor Davis Hanson Yes, we are told Trump is facing serious charges. Experts tell us he will be going to prison. Some of his legal team have quit. Yes, he was sloppy about communicating with the lawyers of the National Archives. Yet, read the 1978 Presidential Records Act (put into place after the typical sloppy
Victor Davis Hanson Another sign of decline is the weaponization and politicization of institutions. Decadent societies indict their former leaders upon leaving offices. Those in power sic federal agencies on their opponents. In turn, bureaucrats become agents of those in power, as if in private service—like laptop suppression, diary retrieval, performance-art raiding and arresting, or
Victor Davis Hanson When I drive in rural California and see the shacks, trailers, and compounds of 30-40 persons living in ad hoc shelters with Romex wire and water hoses attached to a small farmhouse, I conclude that this poverty is much more a third-world scene than I remember of Tunisia, Algeria, or Turkey. Or
Victor Davis Hanson We can calibrate the decline in the quality of American life by comparisons to both societies of the past and contemporary civilization elsewhere. And the result is not encouraging for Americans. I believe I may have visited 80 percent of the so-called first world countries in Europe and the Middle East, and
Victor Davis Hanson The FBI (Continued) How, then, do we alter the FBI to save it from itself? 1. Choice One: Move the entire headquarters to Kansas City or Laramie or Oklahoma City. There would be far less incestuous media/political/bureaucratic marriages, lobbying, and consulting, and far less opportunity for cocktail-hour networking, plotting, profiting, and cajoling.
Victor Davis Hanson The FBI Is the FBI hopelessly ossified? We do need a national investigatory agency that can address racketeering, conspiracies, terrorism, and cross-state criminality, as well rooting out crimes against the federal government. There is no argument about that. But do we need an agency such as the currently composed FBI, located in