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
Victor Davis Hanson Affirmative Action Can we count the ways that this stagnant relic from the 1960s is neither coherent nor needed? 1) Class and race are no longer synonymous. Why give special preferences to the children of Prince Harry or Eric Holder or LeBron James? Were the Obama children in need of special help
Victor Davis Hanson Here are a few institutions that have quite outlived their age. Tribal Graduations Consider 40 percent of California’s population now identifies as Latino, predominately Mexican American. Fifty percent of current BAs in the California State University system this year were awarded to self-described Latinos. That paradox brings up the question, why are
Victor Davis Hanson Myth #3: The Noble Illegal Immigrant Somehow from all the photos of the thousands swarming into across the border, we have constructed the would-be illegal alien into a nobility of sorts. But well aside from the hypocrisy—we fired military personnel who chose not to be vaccinated, but welcomed in illegal aliens who
Victor Davis Hanson Myth #2: Our two-party establishments oppose illegal immigration. 1) Corporate America/the Chamber of Commerce/the Wall Street Journal business intelligentsia all welcome open borders. They oppose E-Verify, The Wall, deportations, etc. Under their euphemism “comprehensive immigration reform” they want to return to the Reaganite Simpson–Mazzoli Act nothingness that destroyed border enforcement and the
Victor Davis Hanson Myth #1: Mexico is our “partner.” Joe Biden has recently praised President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as working hand-in-glove with him to alleviate the influx of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. from his country. In fact, Obrador is one of the main reasons there have been over seven million illegal entries