Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
A few Democrat officeholders, activists, and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people.
The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways.
First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office.
Only when caught did the complicit media fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people about Biden’s inability to fulfill the duties of the presidency.
Second, left-wing politicos used Biden as a waxen effigy. His job was to pose as a “moderate” cover to push through the most radical and unpopular agenda in the last half century.
Only that way could “Old Joe Biden from Scranton” and his backroom handlers ram down the throat of the American people unpopular policies that nearly wrecked the country: hyperinflation and $7 trillion in new debt, weaponization of the government, and partisan lawfare, an open border and 12 million illegal aliens, a racialist DEI commissariat, a crackpot Green New Deal, defunding the police, biological men competing in girls’ sports, and two theater-wide wars abroad.
Third, without either a functional president or viable initiatives, the new hard-left Democrats sought to brand Donald Trump as “Hitler” and half the country who supported him as “fascists.”
For nearly nine years, the Democrats launched one failed hoax after another on the American people: “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” and the lying so-called “51 intelligence authorities.” They proved quite willing to undermine the rule of law by manipulating the court system in efforts to destroy their bogeyman, Donald Trump.
Never had the American people seen a political party engineer 93 bogus indictments of a rival candidate and ex-president. Two dozen states tried to take Trump off their presidential ballots. And the Biden Department of Justice sicced an FBI SWAT team to barge into Trump’s home.
The people finally got tired of all the potty-mouthed Democrat videos, the congressional stunts and meltdowns, the pampered rich kids rioting on elite campuses, the knee-jerk obsessions with racial slurs, the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, the romanticization of left-wing political murderers—and always the adolescent tantrums over Donald Trump.
The Democrats had mostly given up on democracy some 13 years ago. That was the last time they transparently and democratically nominated Barack Obama a second time as their presidential candidate.
Ever since, their nominations have been rigged.
In 2020, party insiders—terrified of the left-wing crazy primary field—forced out all the leading contenders.
Then they coronated the debilitated but still supposedly useful moderate Joe Biden as their COVID-era candidate. Biden then bragged that he would pick his vice president on the basis of race and gender.
What followed was the most bizarre campaign in history.
Biden stayed put in his basement and outsourced his candidacy to the partisan media.
Party activists changed long-standing voting laws in the key swing states. For the first time in American history, 70 percent of Americans did not vote in person on Election Day—the majority of them by design Democrats.
Next, in 2024, they forced the now no longer useful Biden off the ticket, nullifying his 14 million primary voters.
Then, without a vote, they rammed in inept Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. As a failed candidate in 2020, she had never won a single delegate.
Some in the party now concede it must roust out its radicals.
But Democrats will not.
AOC and her Squad, the unhinged Jasmine Crockets of the party, and the ossified socialist Bernie Bros would demonize any Democrat who offered a sane reboot.
A few fossils in the party may think they know how to save it. But they are terrified that the medicine would be considered far worse than the illness that prompted it.
Would Democrats consider embracing measured and legal-only immigration?
No—the crazy base would scream “xenophobe!”
A return to meritocracy and the Martin Luther King notion of race as incidental, not essential, to who we are?
Again, that would be called “racist!”
Maybe reforms to fix failed schools with vouchers, school choice, and charter schools?
Again, “racist!”
How about developing gas and oil reserves and nuclear power to lower energy costs for the struggling middle class?
That would be condemned as “destroying the planet!”
Restore police forces, end critical race and legal theory, and deter criminals with tough sentencing?
Again, “racist!”
How about ceasing the whiny fixations with “white privilege” and “white rage?” Or quit seeing a “white supremacist” under every bed?
Again, “racist!”
The left created DEI—the use of race to adjudicate every political issue.
And like any addictive, toxic drug, they now can neither survive with DEI—nor without it.
Remember DEI is only one misspell away form DIE. And that’s what is happening to the Dem party. Young people can see the long-term benefits of MERIT, rather than pulling all down to make others feel good.. If some are not achieving well in school should one eliminate the SAT scores to make us all equal and some under-achievers college ready? Or put them in charge of airport towers? Or in charge of fire hydrants and reservoirs in the Pacific Palisades? That does not make me feel good!
It’s great that Trump & co. are attacking DEI & wokeism on all fronts, a true counter cultural revolution, but they must get government spending under control. Keep in mind that, historically, Trump’s a big spender at a time when we need to return to sound monetary & fiscal policy, as Clifton so aptly points out.
Of course, we all know this.
The real danger begins the moment Democrats retake federal power.
They’ll pack the Supreme Court. Add deep-blue states. Jail political enemies—especially those without the means to fight back. Let’s be honest: without his wealth, Trump would’ve been steamrolled.
That’s why we can’t let up. Not now. Not ever.
We must use every legal tool to keep them from regrouping, rebranding, and returning as a national force. Because if they get back in, they won’t just win once.
They’ll win forever.
And America will go the way of California: a one-party state, unbeatable at the ballot box, incapable of doing anything else right.
The Democrats threw out the rule book during the last election. They have no intention of playing fair in the future.
And make no mistake about it. The American public wants to see true punishment for the many crimes these traitors perpetrated against our country. Without meaningful deterrence, they will come back stronger and less principled than ever.
What “Craig Jenkins” said. Elon’s efforts notwithstanding This is the ‘moment’. Use it or lose it.
The Islamists and the Lefties do not have a plan for freedom.
They imagine themselves in complete control, and may yet win.
It was the arrival of an educated middle-class that heralded the practical reality of large scale world wide western style individual freedoms.
Without an honest monetary system back in place we are doomed. ‘Capitalism’ without ‘Capital’ cannot exist. I’ve not been paid in years.
The best way I’ve heard to test the 2020 election is to just survey to see how many people say they voted. It doesn’t matter who they voted for. Just test to find out if the 15 mil extra votes seems reasonable. If 15 mil more say they voted than in any other year in the poll extrapolation , then I guess he won. If not, then dig deeper. It doesn’t sound like a difficult thing to pool. Tom
Covid chaos was pivotal to Biden’s 2020 election win. What are the odds it’s occurrence and/or propagation simply a black swan event?
‘ “The left created DEI—the use of race to adjudicate every political issue.
And like any addictive, toxic drug, they now can neither survive with DEI—nor without it.” ‘
I guess this last statement and your essay explain why [since Jan 2025] my left wing friends and relatives who would normally discuss these issues, now politely ask that we no longer do so.
We’re still far from breaking the woke headlock on education at all levels. If all the radical personnel suddenly vanished, we’d be unready to fill more than a few of their slots. School boards and shy or woke parents are part of the problem.
I for one would like to see every Democrat lose his/her/they/them election going forward into perpetuity. They don’t care a whit about the welfare of the people, the citizens to be clear, and they should suffer the permanent erasure of their power and influence…..
My two cents…..
Well said Craig Jenkins.
It’s best the Left continue to be outrageous and transparent, it makes it likelier the public will continue to reject them. It will take a decade and more to clean up. Any branding that makes them seem better would only be a pretense.
This entire thing you outlined is all true, but these things have been ALLOWED to happen.
Not to kill the Democratic Party,
Not put criminals in prison,
Not to balance the budget,
While all that probably will happen, this all was allowed to happen to SHOW the people. We are watching a movie, the greatest counter insurgency in the history of the world.
It’s all for us, we the people.
Trump is not just (fixing) a broken system, he is utterly obliterating the apparatus by which it operates.
The MAGA revolution permeates well beyond one individual personality & we remain cautiously optimistic that its preeminence will persist & prevail in order to sustain this experiment in self-governance .. Dr. Hanson your unbridled support (.. and occasional cautionary narratives for those in leadership..) serve to embolden & encourage those of us in flyover country still deeply engaged .. KEEP ON, KEEPIN ON Bill & Anita
Trump remains the tip of the spear with more & more Americans realizing the destructive & divisive effects of open borders, DEI, critical race & legal theories. And yet, he still has to address out-of-control government spending or potentially lose support on a massive scale.