Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Joe Biden polls at or below 40 percent approval. Historically, such unpopularity has made it almost impossible for a president to be reelected.
His age advances by the hour. His voice falters, his memory fades, and his gait is reduced to short steps, with his arms, winglike and in tandem, offering balance.
Biden is not so much an octogenarian as an unhealthy and prematurely aging 80-year-old. It is America’s irony that he is fit for almost no other job in the country other than President, which apparently allows for a 3-day-a-week ceremonial role while others in the shadows run the country.
So how does Biden become renominated and reelected, as polls show he is behind in almost every critical swing state on nearly every issue?
Answer: not by campaigning, not by championing his record, and especially not by doubling down on his neo-socialist and now unpopular agendas.
Instead, his campaign is focused on four other strategies to beat Donald Trump.
First, left-wing local, state, and federal prosecutors are tying Trump up in court on crimes that have never been seen before and will never be again after the election. All the cases are politically motivated, with many coordinated with the White House.
Even if Trump is not convicted by blue-state prosecutors, in blue-state courtrooms, in front of blue-state juries, he will lose critical campaigning time.
Trump may end up paying out $1 billion in legal fees and fines. At 76, the monotonous days in court are designed to destroy him financially, physically, and mentally.
Biden and his operatives know that, in the long term, they may have fatally damaged the American legal system with such judicial sabotage. But short-term, they hope to destroy Trump before the ballots are cast.
Second, in his fourth year, Biden is suddenly selling government favors to special-interest voting blocs, or hoping to bring short-term relief to voters at the expense of long-term damage to the nation.
For elite college students and graduates, there are now billions of dollars in student-loan cancellations, despite a Supreme Court ruling declaring such targeted contractual amnesties illegal.
For consumers, before the election, Biden will likely drain the last drops from the critical Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices—now sky-high due to his previous disastrous green policies.
If that is not enough, Biden has ordered Ukraine not to hit Russian oil facilities to avoid panic in the global petroleum markets before early and mail-in balloting begin.
Biden will quietly jawbone the Federal Reserve Bank to lower interest rates and reinflate the economy, despite his own creation of hyperinflation that caused interest rates to rise in the first place.
He will pander to Arab-American voters in swing-state Michigan by cutting arms deliveries to Israel, even as it seeks to destroy the killers of October 7.
And if that mollification is not sufficient to win Michigan, he will suddenly slap higher tariffs on imported Chinese electrical vehicles to win back apostate union auto workers.
Three, the left learned after 2016 that the only way to beat Trump is to change the way Americans vote.
So under the cover of the COVID-19 lockdown, the left sued in critical states to reduce Election Day to a mere construct, while 70 percent of voters mailed in their ballots or voted by early, rolling balloting over many weeks.
The key was the inability to fully authenticate votes, given the old practice of showing up on Election Day and presenting an ID was declared “racist.”
Four, Biden, as he did in 2020, will outsource his campaign to the media, 95 percent of which is left-wing. Talking televised heads will claim Biden is “sharp as a knife” while focusing on Trump’s tweets, Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, and lurid but irrelevant testimonies that permeate Trump’s court appearances.
Trump will continue to hold weekend-long, massive 100,000-person rallies, even in blue states. Meanwhile, Biden’s fixers in the media, administrative state, and legal community will counter that even with no crowds and no campaigning, Biden can win through 24/7 nonstop “October Surprises”—all summer long.
So expect more false “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” and “January 6 insurrection” hoaxes and their new replacements designed to smother the airwaves with salacious scandals nonstop.
Biden’s fading tenure is similar to the last sad months of Woodrow Wilson’s second term, when in 1919-20, the country was assured that a bedridden president was somehow hard at work, even as his wife, doctors, and handlers kept everyone else away.
Biden’s keepers do not seem to care about the president’s own failing health or his dismal polls. They discount his rare, anemic, and disastrous public appearances. They laugh off the huge Trump rallies. And they certainly could care less about the bad optics of pandering to special interests at the expense of the country or the damage done to the American legal and balloting systems.
Instead, Bidenites believe they can reelect an unhealthy, unpopular, and unsuccessful president by any means necessary.
And they may be right.
Sad commentary but painfully true. The leftist democrats lust for power and Trump has proven they will do anything to keep it.
The strategy…? Play the role of a Clint Eastwood movie. “Make my day, Pal!”
And yet those among us with clear vision can only hope to find a path that leads to a Biden defeat. And defeat of the blue that is smeared across Congress.
An odd conclusion with such a beforehand buildup. Is Hanson paid by the word?
Sometimes, the less said the better.
What precisely do you mean?
“beforehand buildup” ???
Trump deferred his presidential salary
“Biden” has 150+ suspicious activity reports associated with his family which, circumstantially, looks a lot like money laundering
People have been convicted of murder, without bodies, with less circumstantial evidence
Biden is ostensibly the most corrupt politician that I’ve perceived in my lifetime
The individuals/elites running the show and destruction of our country are not worried Trump will be reelected. The other sad part of this destructive mess is so many say wait it out, Biden will not run again and allow him to fade away without thinking; what is allowing Bisen to fade away is that the United States citizens and hard-working taxpayers have not gotten rid of him. When Biden is allowed to leave, he will walk away with a lifetime of perks. We, the taxpayers, will keep paying for him and his family for life, which is well worth over one million yearly. He will continue with the same type of dealings that Congress, etc., are saying is corrupt but will do nothing to stop and most certainly will do nothing after he leaves office.
God help us!
I’d surmise that if somehow Biden seems to win, all hell will break lose in America. America will not endure another term of communist rule as Biden wields. I’m ready! Are you! Pray up and may God have mercy on the USA!!
An upcoming election as important as the one in 1860. Let’s hope the citizens (and NO ILLEGALS!) vote to fire this ill begotten president out of office!
Of Biden (Obama / Jarrett / WEF) are re-elected, America as we know it is over the cliff.
BTW, water- and energy-parched California has just started removing dam #4, and now one extremist and PG&E plan to remove two more dams in Marin County. Meanwhile, another unelected agency wants to make more farmland fallow – the most oroductive ag land in the world – while Sonoma County wants to further restrict dairies. I guess we can buy powdered milk from China?
I am hopeful and I am terrified. Hopeful that even the left can’t continue to support lawlessness and corruption within the Democratic Party.
I am terrified that I am wrong and my country that I love will be lost forever to a selfish, godless group of elites that serve only themselves.
All will come crashing down and take them to their graves. This day is coming.
Dr. Hanson, what about the 10 to 25% of 12 million illegal migrants that are expected to vote? How motivated will these people be when they are reminded that Trump plans on deporting them?
It is sad what the Democrats have done to this country. They are willing to do anything to win elections. This includes taking down a popular, wealthy man, who on his own volition decided to help this country. He didn’t do it for fame. He was already famous. He certainly didn’t do it for the money, he was already wealthy and never took a paycheck as president. He did it because he saw the direction this country was going. God save us all if they succeed in taking another election from him.
Indeed. That is the strategy. Let’s not forget Biden’s illegal EO 14019, Promoting Access to Voting. By contracting with DEMOS, a partisan policy organization that is “changing public policy to address institutional racism” and favors racial justice, global governance, and wealth transfer, they are arming the full panoply of government against the electorate to grab the 2024 election.
Balloting will likely be customized in Biden’s favor because of the next Covid variant, KP.2. The press will run with the story like wildfire. There’s no shame with these urchins, they will travel to all depths necessary to obtain a win. The deep state has become too big to fail.
AI is here: The Obama-Soros handlers will keep the Arrogant and Incompetent puppet out of the spotlight, continuing their Attack-and-Intimidate tactic against any dissenter to their destruction.
‘By any means necessary’. That’s what worries me. The Dems are prepared to do anything. Lie, cheat, steal. If that’s the case what will be done when that becomes apparent? Who will oversee? It would not surprise me that if Trump won, the Dems will just say ‘no he didn’t’ and continue on in power. What will happen then? There are so many way’s a repeat of 2020 can occur and the Dems have had practice now, they know what they need to do. So committed to keep Trump from office, anything is possible. Hang on to your hats people, the ride is going to get bumpy. Real bumpy.
How many Catholic people, while sober and maintaining a semblance of sanity, make the sign of the cross at an abortion rally? Gee, well one would be a valid estimate.
Once again VDH’s “lucid common sense and keen intellect” have proven to be above reproach. Well said!
What makes a blue state blue? A long history of election interference.
Unless God intervenes, and He will, we are screwed! It is a spiritual battle; good against evil.
This will not end well for the Dems. Fool me once same on you fool me twice shame on me.
Mr Hanson … I am surprised you didn’t stress Illegal votes more…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/05/15/peter-schweizer-biden-border-crisis-could-increase-illegal-ballots-cast-in-2024-up-to-2-7-million/
Prof. Hanson is spot on in his conclusion that Democrats operate on the premise of holding on to power “by any means necessary”.
We only need look to the examples of Putin-Navalny, and many other victims, to see where that road ultimately leads.
With the numerous Democrat propaganda hoaxes cited here by Prof. Hanson, and the current political (IMO) prosecutions of Trump, Democrats are well on their way down that road – they wouldn’t have it any other way – so what’s next?
Vote the rascals out in November.
This election has been programmed as was the last one. Biden arranged this election by millions illegally here from around the world, who are even now, being taught how to cast illegal votes at towns all over the United States that will be illegally counted.
Only one of the four strategies you list matters. First, the lawfare is helping Trump. Many who would not vote for him will vote against the politicization of the judicial system. Second, Biden’s pandering may have a zero net effect on the election because those not benefiting from Biden’s largess may vote against him because they feel cheated. THIRD (not “Three”), rigging the election is the key to Biden’s potential victory. Of the four strategies, this is the only one that really matters. Dems will likely pull out all the stops to cheat their way to victory (as they did in the 2020 election in spades). We can only hope the Republicans can hinder the cheating by just enough to win. It’s going to be tough. Fourth (not “Four”) some Democrats and most independents know the media is biased and, therefore, its ability to warp the election has been greatly diminished. For Trump to win the focus must be laser-focused on election integrity.
Biden is going to lose. Trump is going to win by a landslide. I’ve dreamt it twice this year. My first dream was on New Years Day, and the second dream was a few weeks ago. I do not believe Biden will have a second term.
Precogs rule (we hope).
The conclusion is anything but ‘odd’ . . . leftists will use any and ALL means at their disposal to twist truth, skew polls, ignore what’s killing our economy and change voting access keep themselves in power. Biden’s foreign policy, domestic policy, and economic policies ALL suck!! Our military is “woke” and a ghost ofnit’s former self. We need a real leader – NOT Joe Biden!!
Will the left-wing “moderators” be able to save Biden in the debates?
Biden cannot win a fair election period. That should have been the opening sentence in the article. Having said that, given every swing state but GA has a democrat governor and Secretary of State, it is unlikely the election will be fair. God help us.
Definitely, it is depressing at times. Especially, the degree of being organized the leftists are now.
IF Trump is able to get by all the Dems’ cheating and take the office, some serious cleaning must be done in several federal agencies. For that a decent and hyper strong AG will be needed. Patel might be that person.
It’s scary to think that maybe the most corrupt and one of the two worst presidents in history, might get re-elected. Trump, however, may have one thing going for him that wasn’t mentioned by VDH. While it’s true that the donks lawfare is keeping Trump tied up in courtS, I’d imagine that the percentage of undecideds has to be smaller than usual, so his being kept off the campaign trail more than he’d like, may well mean less than usual. Who doesn’t know, at this stage, if they’re voting for Trump or Biden?