Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
After last Thursday’s debate, Biden himself laid to rest the Democratic lie that he was robust and in control of his faculties. In truth, he demonstrated to the nation that he is a sad, failing octogenarian who could not perform any job in America other than apparently the easy task of President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief in charge of our nuclear codes.
In 2019, Democratic primary candidates often hit rival Joe Biden for his apparent senior moments and incoherence. During the 2020 campaign, Biden often became in bizarre fashion animated and nasty (“you ain’t black”/“fat”/“lying dog-faced pony soldier”/“junkie”).
His “corn pop” stories were grotesque and had a senile accentuation of his earlier “super-predator” and “clean” black riffs. As president, his mental decline progressed geometrically, in the sense that every three months, Biden became far, far worse than during the prior 90 days. His handlers long ago had determined that masking his feebleness at the expense of the security and safety of the nation was a small price to pay to retain power.
What followed was the most comprehensive deceit in presidential history, analogous to insisting that frail and dying FDR in 1944 was just fine as the November election approached or that Woodrow Wilson was expertly running the country as he lay bedridden and near comatose.
Any who questioned the vigorous Biden narrative was trashed as “ageist.” Special counsel Robert Hur was dubbed a “hack” for accurately describing Biden as so amnesiac he would win nullification acquittal from a sympathetic jury.
An array of court sycophants periodically gave interviews, insisting that the robust Biden was smarter and wiser than ever. His press secretary, Karin Jean-Pierre, helped coin a new slur, “cheap fake,” for any who collated video and audio clips demonstrating that Biden was obviously non compos mentis. Would she say the same today after the about-face CNN panelists reviewed Biden’s serial debate lapses to support their now-opportune advocacy that he not run for reelection? Would she wish to be a passenger in a car driven by Biden?
In sum, the “dynamic Biden” farce was finally laid to rest by a debate, but not before it had served the original leftist Faustian bargain. Under the guise of COVID, an enfeebled and stationary Biden outsourced his entire 2020 campaign to toady journalists and surrogate politicians.
His task was to pose from his basement as the uniter, ‘good ol’ Joe from Scranton,’ serving as the pseudo-moderate veneer for the most far left agenda in recent history. In the bargain, Joe and Jill enjoyed the privileges of power and status, while they farmed out the presidency to an array of former Obama subordinates and the hard left of what is left of the old Democratic Party.
The useful lie continued throughout his presidency, escalating in direct proportion to Joe’s mounting stumbles, brain freezes, rambling, and incomprehensible speech. When our president said something either outrageous or unfathomable, the public was to assume that it was intemperate to attribute his failures to senility.
So, the nation became acculturated to deciphering about 60 percent of what he said and writing off the rest to his never-to-be-spoken-of disability. It was the cognitive bookend to the ruse that FDR was able to stand and walk—although far worse because being wheel-chair bound is not a limitation for a president, whereas cognitive incapacity of Biden’s magnitude most certainly is.
The Biden lie was the crown jewel of a number of other left-wing/media fabrications. The more they spread, the more they seemed absurd, and the more they were refuted—so all the more others took their place and the more their promulgators never apologized but simply moved on to their next one. The common denominator was that all the lies, during their existence, were useful to the progressive project.
The Russian collusion hoax helped lose Trump the 2016 popular vote. Its resumption during his presidency ate up 22 months of his administration during the Special Counsel Robert Mueller farce.
The October surprise laptop disinformation lie may have cost Trump the 2020 election. But it was concocted so that Joe Biden could stare at the debate camera and swear to the American people that Trump was a liar, citing “51 intelligence authorities” who insisted Hunter Biden’s laptop was a likely hallmark of Russian disinformation.
We were asked to believe that clever Russian disinformationists fabricated all the sick photos and selfies of poor Hunter, knew the Biden family’s intimate tensions and fault lines as evidenced in the computer’s texts and emails, and were able to package and deposit the computer to either a Russian operative masquerading as a computer repairment or have it delivered to the supposedly useful idiot. The truth was, the FBI had the laptop during the debate and had long verified its authenticity—and thus kept mum as its brethren intelligence apparatchiks lied to the nation.
What the untruth did not fully reveal was that Biden’s campaign foreign policy guru, Anthony Blinken (the current Secretary of State), cooked up the entire ruse. He enlisted former CIA grandee Mike Morell, who then rounded up on spec the confessed lying duo of John Brennan and James Clapper, who in turn drafted still more deceivers, among them the once esteemed Leon Panetta.
And the lie worked perfectly as envisioned, far better than even Russian “collusion.” The nation was deceived into believing that the “asset” Trump was reduced once again to colluding with Putin to enlist his former KGB soldiers to smear the upright Biden family and thus warp yet another election.
Note that all these lies were never retracted. No one ever apologizes. No one is ever punished, even when the lie is given under oath. No one ever has any regrets. And no one ever has any hesitation to lie again, given the utility of the prior untruth.
We were told by the deceitful Alejandro Mayorkas that the border was “secure” as he deliberately destroyed it and welcomed in over 10 million illegal aliens. That lie survived even the absurdity of years of nightly news clips (“cheap fakes?”) of thousands swarming an open border. And it died only when the 2024 election approached and the Biden administration read polls showing that a vast majority wanted the border closed and illegal entrants deported. Then suddenly, the lie that the border was secure transmogrified into the back-up lie that “Republicans would not help us close the now-insecure border.” Translated into Orwellian terms, the border that was crossed by 10 million was always secure but could have been made even more secure had Republicans joined Democrats to secure what was already “secure.”
We live in an era of lies. Sometimes they are purely political, like the Charlottesville “both sides” yarn. And sometimes they change history, like the fabrications that bats and pangolins, not the communist Chinese Wuhan virology lab, birthed the COVID-19 virus, or the Anthony Fauci contortion that his offices did not fund and help out, stealthily and in circumvention of U.S. law, deadly gain-of-function virology research in communist China.
Yet another lie was institutionalized: the January 6 riot was a full-fledged, carefully planned armed insurrection to overthrow the government. In contrast, the four months in 2020 of killing, assault, arson, and looting that saw over 35 dead, 1,500 injured law enforcement officers, $2 billion in damage, and a federal courthouse, a police precinct and a historic church torched were “cries of the heart” from the oppressed and victimized.
Those untruths ensured that hundreds of mostly naïve protestors who showed up in the capitol soon became convicted felons serving long sentences, while the 14,000 arrested for the 2020 mayhem were mostly released as overzealous but otherwise sympathetic activists.
These lies changed the course of the nation. They are birthed by the incestuous marriage of a Washington-New York political culture and a corrupt media.
The purveyors are Juvenal’s “who will police the police.” They are the administrative overseers in the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and the various cabinets and agencies. They feel they are exempt from any consequences for the damage they do, given that in their day jobs they operate as judges, jury and executioners.
Finally, while all governments lie, the left is far more adroit at it because, in their any-means-necessary/the-ends-justify-the-means credo, they spread supposedly good “lies” that stop the Hitlerian Trump, neuter the creepy deplorables/irredeemables/chumps/clingers or save the good people from the MAGA anti-vaxers and assorted yahoos.
Will the lies continue?
Indeed, they will thrive until the people slash the administrative state of its unaccountable and unelected “experts”; until they indict those in the future like Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan and their brethren who lie under oath or to federal investigators; until they ostracize and utterly discredit those like Mayorkas, Fauci, and the Bidens whose deceptions took hostage an entire nation; and until they tune out a bankrupt media, the power cord of the entire Pravda enterprise.
The lies will continue
Until morale improves
Pathetic but so true. Something else you said a while ago VDH, was the Dems couldn’t muster one single Dem with the honesty or courage to oppose or even question these lies and destructive policies. Here’s my fear of pointing this out and stating that if Trump wins there could be retribution.
The deep state and their networks will not go down quietly or without trying to ensure it doesn’t happen. It’s scary what they are capable of and have experience in doing.
Victor, thanks again for another accurate summary of our current situation precipitated by the progressive “elite”. Your last paragraph was insightful as well as incite full. Hopefully, American conservatives will tire of being treated like dirt and do something to counter the demise of our country.
Contrast the treatment of FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who lied to the FISA court to advance the agenda of lies, to that of Bannon, Navarro, Douglass Mackey, the lawyers who challenged dubious elections, the alternative electors, etc.
The lies will continue because truth is not a value to the Left, advancing their agenda is.
Also, it occurred to me recently while listening to a recap of the testimony of experts the Democrats trot out to support their lies, that that is perfectly in line with progressive ideology. A trust in experts that is practically worship. Listen to the experts because they know more than you do, they’re so much smarter than you are, so they should run your life. How dare you challenge the experts?! The thing is, they’ve been able to make it cultural, over the span of 120 years or so. Remember, experts have data, but that doesn’t mean that they have wisdom. Often it’s clear that for all their facts, they’re more foolish than the average person.
Some observations on lying and propaganda, from a man of the Left:
“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”
“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”
“Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will.”
(No, these quotes aren’t from George Costanza, though he did paraphrase the first quote as, “Remember, Jerry-it’s not a lie, if YOU believe it.”)
Right on the money again. VDH always opens our eyes to the truth.
Never tire of Victor’s comments, which also serve to reinforce one’s own thoughts during these troubled times.
Tim Stanley in the UK Telegraph, June 30th: “For this tragedy is about a man in total denial, enabled by a system steeped in paranoid fantasy. The Democrats kept us distracted with Russiagate, January 6 and while the world’s last superpower was being run by a zombie.”
A very accurate account of the nefarious activities. I would like to add emphasis to the fact that 90%25 of all of our information comes through just Six corporations in Fascistic links with the government machinery, both aboveboard and layered so deeply as to be invisible.
The Cardinal sin was the nation’s voters electing Obama, not once but twice. White fear of “racist” labeling caused many to vote for him. Now, with power, wealth and an organization devoted to his scheme to bring down the United States, he pulls the strings that manipulate the President of the United States. The penalty, so far, for this carelessness and negligence has been a great deal of unpleasantness to date. It will get worse. The cheat worked in 2020. The only way it will might fail in 2024 is if some blue states change their loyalties. Given the inherent level of corruption existing in every Democrat controlled entity, that is a remote possibility. We reap what we have sown.
Victor, fraud will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election. How do we as citizens get back to ‘free and fair’ elections and how do we counter the vast left wing network of organizations structured to control the outcome of the election?
“The Lies We Have Lived Through” ? WTF Really?
Wow very impressive; not óne word about the more than 35,000 lies Trump told during his disastrous years in the WH (and far more beyond); not one word about the more than 39 lies Trump told during this 1,5 hour presidential debate. That’s nearly one lie every minute… Wow stunning!
You must really be blind with bias like this so-called ‘objective scholar’ to – only – see the speck in the opponent’s eye but not the beam in one’s favourite’s own eye… that’s called HYPOCRISY, a – real – scholar not worthy. Just a Shameless loser.
That would take politicians with a back bone of which we have few.
President Trump is the ony brave man left in politics largely because he isn’t a typical politician.
It’s all very discouraging with no end in sight.
Thank you for your courage to tell it like it is.
It’s very refreshing.
Magna Est Veritas
Here, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world’s course will not fail:
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot;
The truth is great, and shall prevail,
When none cares whether it prevail or not.
Coventry Patmore
Professor Hanson,
Thank you again for your insight and concise analysis. I look forward to the podcasts and writings, my spouse does not know why i am so interested in something we cannot influence.
I do have a question, why do the board of directors, the major shareholders of MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, major print media allow their staff to be propogandists rather than journalists. The lying seems so obvious and one sided, how can a self respecting board member not call for a code of ethics, or follow the ones that likely exist.
What is their motivation to be so corrupt?
thanks
Brilliant analysis and summary. Proof of the value of the orginal view of what learning should enable at UCSC. Page Smith would be proud. If only you writing could get in front of the eyes of the undecided before the election. I believe it would make a difference.
Just the facts. Thank you. VDH!
Thank you for your brilliant narrative. You clearly untangle and shine a bright light the overwhelming webs of deceit.
Just read this articles about the lies of Joe Biden. Our country at risk, Donald Trump and his family put through endless hours of court cases, wars around the world..precious soldiers killed for no purpose, israel on fire, people in government lying and keeping their lucrative jobs, dangerous people in our country….GOD HELP US!
Brilliant and SPOT ON as always Professor. We must keep asking this one question: “WHO IS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY”??? Over and Over… Demand the answer at every level! It’s Obama and his staff… PERIOD
You brilliance never ceases to amaze me, VDH. Your description of FJB is completely accurate. I have never missed one of your podcasts & love reading your books & articles. Your intelligence is up there with Martin O’Hara’s. Thank you for your service.
2_The problem with a scholar who tramples on the truth is that he disqualifies himself. Why publish an article about lies (from the opponent) if you cannot be honest yourself. It reveals your ‘double agenda’ and that is downright disgusting. Then it literally becomes projection when your own favorite spreads 35,000 lies: “Note that all these lies were never retracted. No one ever apologizes. No one is ever punished, even when the lie is given under oath. No one ever has any regrets. And no one ever has any hesitation to lie again, given the utility of the prior untruth.” Then such a completely unfounded insinuation becomes downright ridiculous.
Yes indeed “We live in an era of lies” mind you: with Trump as the unparalleled record holder 35,000+ “Sometimes they are purely political, like the Charlottesville “both sides” yarn” Uhm… sorry, but Trump díd talk about ” very fine people on – BOTH – sides” You bazzle on: “sometimes they change history, like the fabrications…” Sorry whose fabrications? Without a shred of evidence you claim that the Anthony Fauci contortion that his offices did not fund and help out, stealthily and in circumvention of U.S. law, deadly gain-of-function virology research somehow birthed the COVID-19 virus in a China Wuhan virology lab; Without a shred of evidence! In a word, shameless, just an ordinary cheap assumption.
As always, excellent! We need to seriously think about slashing these agencies by at least 50%.
No one should take pleasure with Biden’s performance. We witnessed, what we already knew. Major news outlets could no longer play a pretend game with Americans. One did, however offer the notion that, although no longer competent, Joe Biden is a good man and has been a good president. Neither is true. He is totally corrupt and has caused great harm to the republic. Jill Biden should be ashamed for pushing lies and claiming competence where none exists. All for her own comfort . He is an empty shell of a human being and for that we should feel pity.
3_And the lying continues: “Yet another lie was institutionalized: the January 6 riot was a full-fledged, carefully planned armed insurrection to overthrow the government.” What is that so-called “lie” in this? Oh right… it was that “peaceful tour” of the Capitol, the GOP tried to ‘sell’ us; with hundreds of officers injured and some ppl dead. If you can’t stop lying, why give some ‘facts’ for comparison? I assume they can’t be trusted either, because of your obscure Trump agenda.
Indeed there was killing, assault, arson, and looting, mainly instigated by counterprotesting white supremacists like Kyle Rittenhouse and others.
96% of all BLM protests were overwhelmingly peaceful
Sources:
Udoma, Ebong (October 19, 2020). “UConn Study: At Least 96% of Black Lives Matter Protests Were Peaceful”. WSHU FM.
Erica Chenoweth; Jeremy Pressman (October 16, 2020). “This summer’s Black Lives Matter protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, our research finds”. The Washington Post.
Grace Hauck; Trevor Hughes; Omar Abdel-Baqui; Ricardo Torres; Hayes Gardner (October 24, 2020). “‘A fanciful reality’: Trump claims Black Lives Matter protests are violent, but the majority are peaceful”. USAToday.
Watson, Julie (January 14, 2021). “Comparison between Capitol siege, BLM protests is denied”. Associated Press.
So… if you want to make a point about lies, you have to take matters into your own hands and don’t lie and distort things, because a good listener will see through that.
Beautifully said as usual. The lies will continue until journalists become honest and report the truth and what they actually see, instead of what they are told to write.
As you point out, in 1944 the democrat leadership knew the FDR’s cardiovascular status would not allow him to live out his fourth term, and in fact, he died three months after the fourth inauguration. Biden‘s health problems is different, and he well could live to age 100. I think it may be too late to switch out Biden. The question is how to convince Kamala to go quietly and support her replacement. One possibility is to offer her the next open spot on the Supreme Court. It sounds a little crazy, but she was Attorney General of the largest state. Furthermore, there is a precedent with ex president Taft being appointed to the Supreme Court. If the Democrats choose a non-offensive replacement, they might well win – presumably Biden would agree to step down a few months after his second inaugural, after he “saves democracy from Trump“. if he doesn’t, I think at that point, the Democrats wouldn’t hesitate to invoke the 25th amendment. They would probably select someone they think they could control, like they thought they could control Truman. Unfortunately, for them, they couldn’t control Truman, who rapidly swept away the communists who had surrounded FDR.
I have trouble listening to anyone that doesn’t know the 2020 American election was stolen. I wait for someone to connect the dots between motivation to steal the election and the COVID release. Was it the CIA or the CCP? Maybe it was both?
Thank you Victor for again unpacking and explaining the Democrat / media lies and deception. The country is in serious trouble. The next elections (President & Congress) will determine whether we can get it back on track or fall further into chaos.
On January 20, 2025, Trump 47’s first order of affairs should include the birth of a new bureau of investigation. All new hires, and begin interviewing now. Begin dismantling the current FBI. Further on, anyone on the right should respond to all subphenas. The standard answer to all questions should be that I cannot answer due to an ongoing investigation.
The Bad Apples that can’t be fired should be transferred to Alaska wilderness.
Yes, Thank You, Victor.
Trump has said his revenge will be success instead of retribution. But if there is no accountability the left will have no reason to pause.
When I was growing up in Canada the grudging respect for the United States was widespread, if sometimes muted. The pinnacle of respect came when Reagan took over but today, the US makes me feel sad and afraid.
Sad for the decency that has been lost and afraid of the open door left for terrorists, Russia, China, Iran and others that hate the western way of life that the US used to epitomise. But, my fear isn’t solely foreign, I am also fearful of customs and immigration every time that I enter or leave the US and fearful of finding myself, for any reason, subject to the tyrannical legal and regulatory system in the US.
I am also surprised by how many Americans can’t see what the country has become, that’s tragic.
When their lies are their truth, and their truth is their lies, then it is time to call in the loan of political power made to them, with interest due!
The Democrats remind of what The Ministry of Truth (1984, by George Orwell) slogans were “War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.” That was “Newspeak,” in 1984 and “Biden just had a bad day” is today’s “Newspeak.”
Dr Hanson certainly spelled out the last few years of History very very plainly. Thank you.
Thank you!
This sums up what I’ve felt to be true but was unable to describe for years.
Several years ago, it occurred to me that the people and their minions we hired in good faith, were killing my country and calling me stupid for noticing.
Thank you for your epistles of truth.
Amazingly, much of the network television viewers are STILL in the dark about the 2020 election being stolen, the southern border situation, the seriousness of the fentanyl crisis (which they all mis-pronounce “fentanol”), and the general state of the country, thanks to their carefully-crafted narrative that always avoids the truth. “Orange man bad”, but they can’t say which of his policies they disagree with. It’s absolutely jaw-dropping that 60-70% of the population seems to lack critical thinking ability or has the slightest inkling to seek alternate news sources to get a different viewpoint.
With all due respect to Dr. Hanson, I think the basic issue is integrity. He seems to have it without acknowledging it. The people he describes here do not have it. Without it, human relationships cannot support stability and progress in those relations. i.e., if you cannot believe in someone’s integrity, particularly what he says versus what he does- you cannot trust him.
The country has been taken over by corrupt thieves. They get elected and proceed to enrich themselves not having any intention on doing what the voters sent them there for. This two party system is just a ruse to let on they are different. The truth is they are the same with the exact desire to fleece the taxpayer’s as much as they can to enrich themselves and there donor`s. And the sick part is they have become so greedy they do not even hide it.
Spot on, as always. Thanks to Victor Davis Hanson’s clear-headed analysis, and that of many other sane voices, more and more people are beginning to wake up and see that the “Emperor” is truly butt-naked and never was a leader.
The question is–now that the cat is out of the bag and the media is in concert, throwing Biteme under the bus, what comes next from the lying left? This was no-doubt, planned.
V. D. Hanson’s accurate summation of the recent history of the Biden Saga comes as no surprise to longtime followers of Fox News and it’s content like Mark Levin’s weekly programs. We simply thank him for recording history in written form.
When it’s put like that, it doesn’t look good.
But if Trump can lay the groundwork and ‘lock in’ certain things from ever being changed by an Executive Order or Legislation then there will be hope. Good will prevail. It must.
Yes, to it all, thank you!
Mr Hanson you have yet again stated the facts succinctly. It amazes one to think the leftist run government thinks it can continue to deceive the American people. The public has been hoodwinked by them far too long. This rape of our Republic must not be allowed to continue. Laws must be upheld regardless of which party is in power. The Oath of Office must be upheld by each person that swears to uphold it. The demise of our Republic is at stake. I thank you for your unabashed love of our country to speak out against what is happening in nation. It is people like you who will make our citizens wake up to the destruction surrounding this nation and hopefully they can and must change their laissez-faire attitude.
You hit it out of the ball park,I’m sorry to say about Our Country,but we have to hold responsible the liers in our Government or we will not survive as America
Thank You
Excellent article. Victor Davis Hanson is a genius.
It’s fairly obvious that voters aren’t voting for or against the politicians. They’re voting for or against the moral decay in the nation – for or against responsibility for their own actions.
For more than half of the voters in the nation, as long as they can get away with whatever behavior they enjoy, they’re happy.
Are they bright enough to see what it will cost? It certainly doesn’t appear so.
Well said, VDH, as usual….
I forgot to mention – haven’t we proven, well enough, that courts aren’t the proper avenue to protect a nation against the tyrants that have built their little empires within the structure of a government?
You say perfectly everything that is happening in these times. I hope that if this rogue Administration gets thrown out a lot of these people who have acted criminally will be indicted.
BRAVO ZULU, SIR VICTOR . . . !
Amen!
One of your very best, Mr. Hanson. I especially like the way you (and others) are actually starting to name names. Simply alluding to the Deep State as the source of much of the evil emanating from our government is not enough. Names, faces, net worth and sources of income (generally from taxpapers) need to be revealed so those who should be held accountable can be.
Soviet-style propaganda is norm from the mainstream media and Democrat political operatives. VDH continues to explain in exquisite detail the nature of the lies!! Thank you so much!!
Why doesn’t the Republican-led House demand punishment for any of the lies which has cost this nation dearly in so many way? Any attempts are always half-hearted and doomed to failure. They haven’t held anyone accountable but they love to hold hearings so they can bellow and posture for the cameras so their constituents will think they are doing something. They are worse and more dangerous than the Democrats/Left in my opinion because they are unprincipled traitors who are just as enamored with the Swamp as those across the aisle. They’re in on all the corruption and don’t want their ride on the gravy train to end. After all, that’s why many of them went into “public service”. They heard how lucrative it is with perks aplenty and no accountability as long as you play by the rules.
When we have a government that lies to us, and a media that won’t tell the truth: What do we really have?
With all of the Democrat surprise over Biden’s performance the other night interestingly, none seem horrified or even interested in who really is running our shadow government. Have they not paid any attention these past few years? Did they really think Biden was in charge?
This should be required reading for anyone of voting age!
This is The best article summarizing the state of the United States and the unprincipled men who have taken control of our country.. absolutely the best. I’d love to see it reprinted in the Wall Street Journal. Please send it to them Dr. Hansen.
Once again, VDH demonstrates why he’d be the Ideal President.