by Victor Davis Hanson//National Review Far too many government officials never pay the price for their crimes and misdeeds: Clinton, Rice, Napolitano, Lerner … Comey is the exception. President Trump’s firing of James Comey revealed strange timing, herky-jerky methods, and bad political optics. Certainly, in the existential political war that Trump finds himself in, it […]
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Behind the facades, universities have broken faith with a once-noble legacy of free inquiry. College campuses still appear superficially to be quiet, well-landscaped refuges from the bustle of real life. But increasingly, their spires, quads, and ivy-covered walls are facades. They are now no more about free inquiry and
Potemkin Universities Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Oh! What a tangled progressive web we weave . . . Red/blue, conservative/liberal, and Republican/Democrat mark traditional American divides. But one fault line is not so 50/50 — that of the contemporary hard progressive movement versus traditional politics, values, and customs. The entire menu of race, class, and gender
When everything is politicized, people retreat into mental mountaintops — dreams of the past and fantasies of the future. by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review So long, it’s been good to know ya, So long, it’s been good to know ya, So long, it’s been good to know ya. This dusty old dust is a-gettin’
Monasteries of the Mind Read More »
By Victor Davis Hanson// National Review The dream of a therapeutic utopia without punishment for wrongdoing fails in practice. Deterrence is the strategy of persuading someone in advance not to do something, often by raising the likelihood of punishment. But in the 21st century, we apparently think deterrence is Neanderthal and appeals to the worst
Deterrence and Human Nature Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review The economy, academia, immigration, and the environment could benefit from Trump’s unorthodox approach. Populism of the center (as opposed to Bernie Sanders’s socialist populism) has received a bad media rap — given that it was stained in the past by xenophobic and chauvinistic currents. Who wishes to emulate all
The Uses of Populism Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Coastal elites set rules for others, exempt themselves, and tolerate rampant lawlessness from illegal aliens. One reason for the emergence of outsider Donald Trump is the old outrage that elites seldom experience the consequences of their own ideologically driven agendas. Hypocrisy, when coupled with sanctimoniousness, grates people like few
It’s Still a Mad, Mad California Read More »
By Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Universities and the media: arrogant, ignorant, and ripe for reform In media land, Donald Trump is a reckless tweeter; Barack Obama’s outreach to GloZell and rapper Kendrick Lamar is just kicking back and having fun (Lamar’s latest album portrayed the corpse of a judge to the toasting merriment of
The Twin Pillars of Progressive Prejudice Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review What would happen if conservatives started to change the words we use for political ends? Throughout history, revolutionaries of all stripes have warped the meaning of words to subvert reality. And now here we go again, with another effort — spearheaded by the media and universities — to use
Enemies of Language Read More »
By Victor Davis Hanson // Town Hall Pessimists often compare today’s troubled America to a tottering late Rome or an insolvent and descending British Empire. But medieval Europe (roughly A.D. 500 to 1450) is the more apt comparison. The medieval world was a nearly 1,000-year period of spectacular, if haphazard, human achievement — along