Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
The public is exhausted after a decade of chronic untruth from the left-wing and its media.
The 2016 presidential campaign will be long remembered for the false allegation that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to warp the election.
Citing the bogus “Steele dossier,” loser Hillary Clinton and other Democrat grandees claimed that the victorious Trump was an “illegitimate” president.
Almost immediately, the left and media then pushed for the appointment of special prosecutor Robert Mueller. He assembled a ‘dream team’ of partisan prosecutors to prove Trump-Russian collusion.
Some 22 months later, Mueller found no evidence that Donald Trump improperly won the 2016 election with help from any colluding Russians.
More hysteria followed when Trump was impeached in December 2019.
The left claimed he had pressured the Ukrainian government to look into the family of Joe Biden (then a potential 2020 election opponent) for its corruption with Ukrainian oligarchs—as a condition for releasing military aid designated to Kyiv.
Yet Hunter Biden was paid nearly $1 million a year by a Ukrainian energy company to enlist his father, Vice President Joe Biden, for quid pro quo services.
In turn, Joe Biden himself later bragged he had pressured Ukraine to fire its prosecutor, Victor Shokin—who happened to be looking too closely into the various shady schemes of the Biden family.
The deceptions and lies continued.
On the eve of the first 2020 debate, Biden aide and now Secretary of State Antony Blinken helped to round up “51 former intelligence authorities” to claim falsely that Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop—full of incriminating evidence of felonious Biden family behavior—was fabricated by the Russians.
Yet the FBI already had the laptop and had authenticated it as genuine.
The FBI was also actively enlisting Silicon Valley social media companies to suppress accurate news accounts of the laptop’s embarrassing contents—ostensibly to aid the Biden campaign.
The signees of the false letter included former intelligence kingpins such as Leon Panetta, James Clapper, and John Brennan. None has ever apologized for deliberating lying to the country in a (successful) attempt to help alter an election.
During the summer of 2021, top military officials, at least publicly, parroted the Biden administration’s lie that it was safe to abruptly withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.
The Biden plan was to take political credit for ending the two-decade-long war on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan.
Yet many intelligence officials in and outside the Pentagon had warned both Biden and the Pentagon top brass that any such reckless and total withdrawal would collapse Afghanistan.
They rightly also advised that sudden flight would give terrorists a windfall of equipment and infrastructure.
But they were ignored and during the subsequent Biden misadventure, thirteen American Marines were needlessly killed.
After the greatest military humiliation in a half-century, Biden and many in the media lied that the mission was nevertheless a successful withdrawal.
But that was not all. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was subjected to numerous criminal and civil suits in an election year.
Yet the federal prosecutor, Jack Smith, met with Biden officials. A high-ranking Biden Justice federal attorney joined the New York municipal prosecution. The Georgia prosecutor met stealthily with Biden’s legal counsel. And a major Biden donor funded the civil suit.
The once collusion-hungry media ignored all such lawfare and rank collusion.
During the 2020 Democratic primaries, the general election, and throughout the first three years of the Biden administration, it was evident that Joe Biden was physically and mentally incapable of serving as president.
Yet his aides and the media all misled the American people. They insisted that Biden was vigorous and sharp.
Then suddenly in June 2024, within a 24-hour period, Biden was declared by these same insiders as unfit to continue as the Democratic nominee.
Their new problem with Biden was not just his long-standing embarrassing dementia. Rather bad polls increasingly warned that voters no longer believed their lies and thus would likely not reelect Biden but would instead punish most Democrats in the upcoming 2024 election.
So, a new media narrative arose: the once-hale Biden was forced to resign as the Democrat nominee. His once widely caricatured vice president, Kamala Harris, just as abruptly was coronated as his replacement candidate by an equally suddenly gushing and colluding media.
In sum, for some nine years, the media and the left have successfully fed the country a succession of rank deceptions and conspiracies.
They did so because they proclaimed Donald Trump too dangerous to be president and therefore any means they employed to stop him were to be justified. And they are doing so yet a third time in 2024.
As they continue, they have all but destroyed democracy, ruined the reputation of the media, alienated the public—and embarrassed their country before the world.
Thank you, Prof. Hanson for your (as usual) excellent assessment. Didn’t think my memory was that good, but I am reminded of an old essay by Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell: ” There are two quite different evils about propaganda as now practiced. On the one hand, its appeal is generally to irrational causes of belief rather than to serious argument; on the other hand, it gives an unfair advantage to those who can obtain most publicity, whether through wealth or through power. ”
” Free Thought and Propaganda ” (1922), page 33.
The era of when the press tried to be impartial (call it the Walter Cronkite era) was really pretty short. Of course, you could claim even then that it tended to be liberal in its outlook, but perhaps less stridently so than today. For most of the country’s life the press has been highly partisan, often even reflected in the name of the newspapers (the West Podunk Republican or the East Podunk Democrat). Impartiality was also an unusual phenomenon in terms of the world press. The press in England was always pretty partisan, and as I read newspapers in South America they tended to be as well. The era of yellow journalism is back upon us, and it is more normal than impartial journalism. So, whatever you read or hear take it with a grain of salt, because someone is trying to work an angle. Who knows, trying to sift truth from lies or nonsense might actually benefit critical thinking skills.
Did you read the Mueller report? I realize it wasn’t in your usual pop-up picture book format but maybe give a try. Mueller did find Russian interference in the election. Its effects can not be quantified. Mueller determined Trump was not involved in the interference but did instruct the investigation. Mueller acknowledged the consequences of the obstruction were not his to determine.
In the case of the Zelensky “perfect” phone call – only a fool, such as yourself, after reading to the transcript, could conclude there was no attempt at an aid money for dirt on Hilary and the DNC. How you link this to Hunter Biden is either a serious flaw in your reasoning or the assumption you have that your readers are morons.
At this point your hypocrisy became nauseating and further reading of your obvious political agenda would be a complete waste of time. Perhaps your next op-ep in the right wing rag they call the NY Post can be on this topic:
How much of a criminal is too much a criminal? What are the crimes you’ll look the other way at? Bank Fraud? Sexual assault? Is trying to overturn an election and violate our constitution not sufficient a crime that you can’t hold your nose and vote for a dictator because it benefits you more? Or even if it benefits the country more ….is that a good enough reason to toss your moral compass in the toilet?
When your integrity has a price, you’re not on a slippery slope, you’re on a cliff.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the phone call which occurred after Biden got Ukraine to fire the investigator that was looking into corruption involving Hunter Biden.
You are purposely lying about the origins and intent of the Mueller investigation. You can assume Russia was interfering in the election just as they always do. Hillary Clinton and the Democrats did the actual colluding with Russia using the Steele Report as the basis to investigate Trump. They had zero evidence of anything Trump did to collude with Russia. What they do have is a boatload of evidence to investigate the Biden crime family and its dealing with Ukraine and other countries including testimony from eye witnesses. We will never see that investigation for all the reasons outlined in VDH’s essay.
Your parroting Democrat talking points along with the media “without evidence” is what is destroying our country and our way of life. I hope you’re proud of yourself. You either didn’t read this article or you did and you just choose to ignore the truth.
Disagree with R.D. Young. Mueller Reports I & II did not find proof that Trump obstructed. Mueller’s report concluded:
“At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly , while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Sorry, but stating a double negative – that Mueller had not found proof that Trump didn’t commit obstruction – is not coterminous with stating they had proven Trump obstructed. Insinuation and inference is not proof. I’m certain had you read the report, you wouldn’t have missed that carefully crafted concluding statement.
I agree. The impartiality of the media is a myth. I think that myth emerged when radio became a common medium, and the federal government got involved in the process by establishing the FCC. What was supposed to be a licensing agency came to use that power to influence broadcasters and their choices. And using the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” just perpetrated that myth.
That’s the insidious part. I don’t care of this broadcaster or publisher has a bias, as long as it’s known. But for a broadcaster, a publisher, an editor, a news anchor, etc, to claim that he’s unbiased is just a lie. And you can’t begin to address an issue like that, if you don’t admit that it exists.
Have they alienated the public? Not so sure. Lots of folks we know are dupes.
A little observation confirms that. Lots of zombies all around.
We shouldn’t be surprised by the Left’s use of our Constitution to hide behind “Freedom of the Press”…but I blame the American public for being gullible and the willingness to be deceived.
Thank you kind sir. I always like hearing from you. I stopped writing my field journal because no one reads it. Plus so much news happened even before the assassination attempt. Thanks again for filling in the gaps. Stu.
ps. I’m sorry our people are unprepared for our situation. My theory has been that, with open borders, there is no USA already. We are watching the destruction of what is left. Thanks again for your sincere leadership, Stu.
Well said. And that’s only a few of the misdeads and corruption of the federal government, and network media.
Thanks Victor for your incisive content to show how bad our Social Media, Media, Government, and Democrats are complicit in in the over throw of our American values and government. NOT For The People!!
Thank you for the clear and truthful illumination of the disasterous grip of corruption perpetrated by the institutions of government, education and media. The corruption of the justice system is the fatal blow to our strong but fragile American constitutional governance.
Right on as usual!
Victor Davis Hanson is so great in summing up the current state of political affairs!
Fantastic summation of many, but not all, of the reasons I will never vote Democrat.
Go about before that with Onsma’s lies abu healthcare.
If the public has continued to believe all this, it is the public’s problem. It has not been believable.
There is a video that displays the media’s role in politics. On the First night of the DNC, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins mocked the weakened president from the cheap seats:
“Donald Trump claims that you were pushed out from the top of the ticket, and this amounts to a coup from your party,” said Collins. “What do you make of those claims?”
Harris might still squeak out a 270 Electoral Vote win if she takes Pennsylvania and Michigan. There’s just more women voters than men and the big cities end up with late ballots not fully counted on Election Day.
And there will be many unverified, incorrect and fraudulent ballots. No way Trump will win PA and probably the same for MI.
Against such a leviathan, who can manage? Trump is trying, though. He is tireless and fearless. Trump talks to anyone, anywhere at any time-witness the interviews with NABJ and the Lex Fridman podcast. He has done much to spread his message of “common sense”, he’s been funny and self-deprecating. He is talking issues. By doing so, he may be lifting the social opprobrium he suffers among the chattering classes, while preserving his message and intent. His comfort in his own skin may be the thing that wins “a close run thing”.
The odds were seriously against Trump in 2016, yet he made a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and then defeated a strong Democrat to eke out a win. This astounding feat over BOTH Parties should be remembered. However, the dark cloud of election interference in 2020 hangs over things and the Chicago-style machinations of the Democrats back then remain still, casting a pall over all Republican efforts in 2024. Fairly, Trump should win because the incumbent is so bad, ala Jimmy Carter bad. But, the powers that be (the internetwork of agencies and think tanks running things behind the scenes) will not sit idly by. Four questionable lawfare suits and a botched assassination will not slow things down. The religious fervor of the Left (augmented by the complicit press) has no bounds. Republicans in America may be modern Huguenots if things go South. Orthodoxy is as orthodoxy does.
Regarding the State (writ large, really the sociocultural institutional complex in toto) I’m in the state of mind of a man who has caught his spouse in flagrante delicto:
I’m loth to just kick you to the curb; we’ve been together too long.
But you’ve been obscenely and foully unfaithful to me, and I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing you utterly destroyed for and by your infidelities.
I need to see some serious – and by that I mean painful – confession and atonement, and it needs to be sustained, for the remainder of our time together, before I can make an attempt at reconciliation.
I can forgive you – if you can persuade me to it.
But I can never trust you again.
That ship has sailed.
FKH
FTW
TRUMP4EVR!
The MSM are a bunch of KNUCKE DRAGGERS, let’s see if the block this post like all my others
Does no one realize that Blackrock and Vanguard have majority ownership in all mainstream media? Journalists may have had a liberal bias in the past, but they have marching orders now. The war is between good and evil and all lies are justified and applauded in the war. The more outrageous the better.
Sometimes you have to burn the whole barn down to be rid of the rats…
I guess we have safely passed through 1984 and straight into a Brave New World!
“Almost immediately, the left and media then pushed for the appointment of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.”
One edit here Professor, it should read as follows; Almost immediately, the left and it’s media then pushed for the appointment of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Other than that spot on as always.
When I see the now famous photograph of President Trump, fist raised in defiance and bleeding from a failed assassins bullet, I think of the words …. “The Tree of Liberty is Sometimes Watered With The Blood of Patriots”.
Thank you, Professor Hanson.
The article further reminds me of of Richard Jewell being falsely accused of the Atlanta Olympics bombing, false accusations leveled at the Duke men’s lacrosse team, the “Hands up Don’t Shoot” Michael Brown falsehoods, the ridiculous Juse Smollet claims, teenager Nicolas Sandman, the truth about George Floyd, the accusations leveled at Kyle Rittenhouse, the claims of border patrols on horseback “whipping” illegals, and that January 6 was an armed incursion. I’m sure there are many more.
Agree with John Gibbs. Applies to citizens in most countries.
Vladimir Putin made an interesting comment in his interview with Tucker Carlson: he described the US media as the most sophisticated propaganda apparatus in the world.
Propaganda does not have to be hidden to be effective
So well stated VDH! I’m growing weary of all the lies that the media and Democrats are using to cover for the Harris/Waltz campaign. Kamala claims that she is severely at a disadvantaged by the mikes being muted at the debate. I personally think it’s because the only thing she wanted was her “gotcha” moment. She has been having her staffers plant fake positions she says she now for. However, she doesn’t really know what her new positions are she wanted to use notes to remind her what they are. ABC to their credit, is refusing to allow this. So now Kamala is letting the world know the debate is going to be unfair to her and she will lose because she’s not getting her way. Bless her little heart.
Let’s not forget the perverse role the leftist controlled media played in deceiving the public throughout the pandemic. The “trusted” media was unrelenting in pushing propaganda devised to prevent the saving of lives with viable treatments on hand, to pressure people into complying with unlawful mandates for poisonous injections, and to demonize and retaliate against those who stood up for their human rights of speech and medical freedom.
Thank you for your articulate reminders. The country needs you.
“ruined the reputation of the media” Their reputation is, and has been, way past ruin before this.
Professor
A quote attributed to Samuel Clemens goes something like this: “Never argue with a fool; they’ll drag you down to their level, and beat you with years of experience”. The 51 former intelligence spokesidiots who signed the Hunter’s-Laptop-Has-Hallmarks-of-Russian-Disinformation farcical letter shamelessly to this day will stand by their statement. That’s because the question posed to them is framed poorly, to wit: “now that the FBI has proven the laptop is genuine, do you still stand by your letter?” Of course they do, & they’ll breathlessly claim that’s where the data at the time was leading them. A better question would be: “now what the FBI has proven the Hunter Laptop has been proven by the FBI to show no signs of Russian disinformation, how can you continue to call yourself an expert in intelligence?”, with the followup question “accordingly, shouldn’t your intelligence credentials & top secret clearance be revoked?”
As James Cromwell’s character in I, Robot mused, “ah, now you’ve asked the right question”
[and as a parenthetic, the letter by Raymond D Young above would more properly be assigned to the Angry Reader column, with a thorough lesson on what the Mueller Report clearly stated and didn’t state]
Verumipsum