Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
American left-wing heroes are proving to be a creepy bunch.
So what do some of the most renowned “resistance” left-wing heroes have in common other than shared hatred of conservative America?
They are either criminals, pathological liars, or self-described performance-art victims.
Take Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the current face of progressive resistance to the enforcement of federal immigration law.
No one questions that Garcia had previously received deportation orders before he was re-arrested by ICE.
No one argues that his current wife, Vasquez Sura, had in the past successfully petitioned for at least two protective restraining orders against Abrego Garcia—to stop his violent beatings and his manic destruction of household items.
In the old Democratic Party, the worst allegation possible was to be cast as a beater of women.
No one contests that in 2022, Garcia was pulled over in Tennessee for speeding and recklessly veering out of his lane.
He was then found to have an invalid driver’s license. He was accompanied by eight illegal aliens without IDs. And his vehicle was registered to an imprisoned and likely human trafficker. Garcia had been variously recognized in deportation hearings as a member of the violent and lethal MS-13 gang.
Yet when ICE began to deport him, the left went ballistic and constructed him as some sort of civil rights saint.
Senators tossed drinks with the illegal alien.
A few politicos trekked on a holy hejira to El Salvador to demand from the autonomous El Salvadorian government the release of a Salvadorian citizen held in jail on Salvadorian soil—as if they were 19th-century Yanqui imperialists dictating to an elected Central American government that the United States had more rights of jurisdiction over an illegal alien than did the government of El Salvador over one of their own citizens on their own soil.
Feminists said little about his brutal propensity to strike women. Anti-gang activists went mostly mum about his MS-13 affiliations. Those decrying human trafficking were quiet about his transportation of illegal aliens.
Instead, all that was needed of this useful illegal alien pawn was the Democrat meme that Abrego Garcia was a victimized person of color and a target of Trump’s supposedly racist, restrictionist, and xenophobic border policies. His crimes in comparison were immaterial if not advantageous to the cause. No one bothered to remember the legions of innocent women killed and raped by violent illegal aliens.
Mahmoud Khalil was a different, far smoother sort of leftist icon. The pro-Hamas Algerian “student” came to the US supposedly for the chance at an Ivy League education. He soon stayed on a green card, becoming the poster boy of anti-Israel protests at Columbia.
To counter sometimes violent campus and urban pro-Hamas demonstrations and endemic anti-Semitism in elite higher education, the Trump administration decided that it no longer wished to import student force multipliers of widespread anti-American and anti-Semitic boilerplate.
In other words, the Trump administration ordered Khalil deported on the grounds that he was admitted as a guest student, not a perennial campus gadfly organizer spouting support for the terrorists of Hamas.
Note the U.S. is the host, Khalil the guest. And hosts need no reasons to disinvite unruly or obnoxious guests, who abuse the privileges (that most American citizens lack) of attending an Ivy League school.
Yet in the Democratic binary of oppressed/oppressors, Khalil fit the bill.
He was a “lite” Hamas supporter and a clever anti-Israel activist who oversaw demonstrations that were overtly anti-Semitic in his host country. The only lingering question is why do pro-Hamas, anti-American Palestinians so often demand to visit and study in the hated U.S. when there are universities receptive and conducive to Islamists and Hamas enablers closer to home?
The left seemed mostly uninterested in any of the 1,200 slaughtered on October 7 in a time of peace, only in those who championed the cause of that murderous rampage.
The left also went gaga over the wealthy, aristocratic, and supposedly charming young Luigi Mangione, the assassin of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. Not since the terrorist and mass murderer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev adorned the cover of Rolling Stone has the left so romanticized a stone-cold psychopath.
Mangione quickly became a supposed counter-culture freedom fighter, with his good looks battling the corporate insects who supposedly feed on hoi polloi.
In reality, Thompson was an up-from-the-bootstraps Midwesterner who, by merit, not birth, climbed to the top of the corporate world, murdered by Mangione, a spoiled, rich wannabe pseudo-intellectual who cowardly hid in wait to blow apart Thompson for the supposed crime of running the company that made a profit selling needed health insurance to willing buyers.
But for the left, the death throes of Thompson were out of mind and out of sight, while Mangione was interviewed and lauded on social media as a righteous revenger and the arm of the exploited.
Do we even now remember the faker Jussie Smollett?
He was the multiracial actor who was worried that he was a fading star in a soon-to-be-cancelled TV show.
So he staged a violent crime in which he hired two burly assailants with red MAGA-like hats to 1) ambush him in the early morning hours, 2) be warded off by the feisty, heroic, cell-phone- and sandwich-holding diminutive Smollett, and 3) manage nonetheless to “whiten” Smollett with bleach (defying the laws of chemistry by not freezing when thrown on Smollett in the arctic winter Chicago night temperature) as they tossed a “noose” over his neck, shouting MAGA slurs about his black-cast Empire television series.
Smollett’s rent-a-thugs were taped buying the tools of the ambush. They had cashed Smollett’s checks as proof of his hire and confessed both to the crime and its practice run.
Yet, Smollett became the immediate heroic victim and thus proof, according to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, of endemic racism.
What a horrific America when brilliant and brave black stars had to fight off red-hatted, noose-carrying, bleach-bringing, Empire-hating, 2-AM-lurking, white-male, MAGA racist bullies, prowling randomly in sub-zero temperatures for targets in a liberal, mostly black neighborhood, and on the lookout for innocent, brilliant, brave, young, black, movie stars so often wandering in the deep night.
The left not only fell for that skit but for days ran with Jussie as proof of what black men have to put up with from the white establishment in Chicago.
There are lots of criminals who could be added to the leftist pantheon.
The now iconic George Floyd, despite the tragedy of his detention and death, was resisting arrest while stopped under the influence of drugs, while likely trying to pass counterfeit money, while an eight-times convicted felon, and while a former four-year convict who previously had staged a home invasion and robbery and aimed a gun at the abdomen of a female occupant. No wonder he soon appeared memorialized on murals with wings and a halo.
Michael Brown, of the lie “hands up, don’t shoot” that went viral, was supposedly gunned down in the back as he vainly tried to flee a white racist cop looking for prey in Ferguson, Missouri.
No matter that in truth, Brown was a thief who had just strong-armed a store clerk and was confronted by a policeman while brazenly walking down the center of the street.
Brown then attacked the cop and sought in vain to grab his weapon. After their struggle, he ran away, then turned and charged the officer until he was shot.
For the left, he was another instant, noble victim of racist white police.
So naturally, weeks of protests followed, sometimes violent, as liberal elected officials visited Ferguson to show solidarity against “the militarization of the police” and to honor Michael Brown. White, entitled CNN anchors paraded in their newsrooms while holding their hands up, chanting the lie “hands up, don’t shoot.”
Octogenarian Native American activist Leonard Peltier was recently granted limited parole. He was successfully convicted a half-century earlier of murdering two FBI agents—allegedly executing two defenseless young officers with coup de gras shots to their heads as they lay wounded.
For decades, he posed as a “political prisoner” of a racist, white-rigged system. And despite an earlier failed prison break and serially refused pardons, nonetheless, in the fleeting hours of the autopen Biden administration, Peltier was finally released home under supervision—a defiant leftist resistance hero and unrepentant murderer to the end.
Both these violent and suave heroes were canonized by the left because of their perceived opposition to corporate America, or law enforcement, or a conservative administration, or white people, and, in particular, more recently, to the hated Trump.
Given its cosmic morality, the left never really cared that Jussie Smollett not just lied but that his lies could not possibly in a Newtonian world be true, or that assassin Mangione showed all the mercilessness of a professional Mafia hit man, or that it proved impossible for the guest “student” Khalil ever to voice disapproval of the mass murdering act of Hamas on October 7, or that America in 2025 did not need to import more wife beaters, human traffickers, and gang members.
Why does the left make martyrs out of monsters?
One, in postmodern America, there are too many victims for too few victimizers. So to distinguish the one from the many requires all the more psychodramas and grammar-school dramatics. Violence and claims of racism add to the hero’s mystique.
Two, the heroes are mere pawns in a larger game of “social justice” in which both useful idiots and ruthless criminals alike can advance the cause.
Morality, then, is never defined by the means but only by the eventual ends. Facts don’t matter; only the noble lies for the cause.
Three, the worshipers are, for the most part, affluent and safe; the worshiped are not so tame.
So it became easy to immortalize a Garcia—as long as he does not live next door.
It is virtuous to praise publicly a Mangione—unless he is armed and hiding in wait for your parents.
Smollett is a noble victim, at least when you’re not a cop at 3 AM trying to sort out all the preposterous lies of Jussie’s noose, bleach, and “bruises.”
“Hands up, don’t shoot” is a catchy civil-rights call to arms—at least when Michael Brown is not strong-arming you in a store or he is not charging you head down.
You can play-act Gandhi—when you’re not Garcia’s battered girlfriend, or you do not answer the door at night when George Floyd barges in with a pointed gun, or you’re not wounded and begging for your life when Leonard Peltier pulls the trigger.
Oh how we all hope against hope that future conservative, America-loving candidates for all offices, federal, state and local, could share the beliefs of VDH and state them as cogently and effectively.
Daphne Patai,
It’s actually spelled coup de grâce. We wouldn’t want to contribute to the decline in literacy, would we?
Clinton uncorked the Leftist Genie when he pardoned such violent 1960s radicals as Susan Rosenberg and Puerto Rican nationalists. By the 1990s the Dick Gephardt type traditional liberal democrat just wasn’t cutting it with a majority of Americans, of whom many were fast becoming former Democrat voters.
Fast forward to 2008 and the election of the silver tongued Barak Obama. Like Bill Clinton he was charming and charismatic. But unlike Bill Clinton, Obama was never a pragmatist who could tack to the center when necessary. So, when the shine of Hope and Change had worn off and his party got “shellacked” in the 2010 midterms what came next was Lois Lerner and the Benghazi cover up. What followed was the Russia hoax, two frivolous impeachments, five lawfare lawsuits, the J6 persecutions, and a complicit judiciary and media.
Our first black president was first and foremost a power hungry radical who should’ve been impeached, and, moreover, pushed back into the genie lamp.
Losers supporting losers. People on the left are of two categories: 1) they are unsuccessful at their jobs (if they even work) and their relationships or 2) they’ve been successful but harbor such guilt that they cheer for the losers. It is behavior that I recognize, but will never understand.
Great summation. Lets not forget one of the left’s favorite victims, Trayvon Martin, who was glorified by the Press as well as our President.
Most are fading quickly into the blur of repeated depravity only to be referenced as factual history when needed to further the next chapter in the narrative. Referencing your “creepy” comment, Gavin Newsom appears to be the prefect poster boy for “creepy!” Halloween is coming soon. Keep up the good work.
I blame Obama. And the naive fools who thought that electing him would be the final step to racial healing. Your essay demonstrates (as if it is necessary) that America is not dealing with a racial problem rather with a cultural problem. And that in 8 years Obama ripped the ban-aid of 2 generations of healing off and pick the scab of racial resentment raw on both sides. 2 final thoughts. First, I think Judge Boasberg has earned a spot on the list & 2nd if Dr King came back today and repeated his words he would at best be called an Uncle Tom and more likely he would get the “black face of white supremacy” treatment that other black leaders get for failing to embrace the intersectional narrative. It is clear to me that the so called leaders of the Ds care more about destroying America and enriching themselves than they do helping those they claim to represent
‘It’s all Trumps fault’ Victor and that is their mantra and they are going to stick with it through thick and thin! I’ve said it before and I keep saying it; The principles found in the bible of right v wrong, good v evil are fleeting in our society. The left wing, pseudo-intellectual lemmings are the ‘poster children’ for this hatred. I apologize for repeating myself to your faithful readership, however, the simple truths, as you so eloquently state, is that this treasonous group of deviants will subvert and sabotage POTUS every chance they get. Will they ever give him a pat on the back? No. Will they ever put America first? No. Will they endeavor to augment their personal balance sheets through insider trading? Yes!! There is NO PROFIT for them in supporting Trump, so why do it! Pathetic is the term that comes to mind. Many thanks to you, Jack and Sami as you are a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Please don’t contribute to the decline of literacy, professor Hanson.
It’s “coup de grace,” not gras.
I admire your courage Sir. Keep the truth coming.
Lenin was pretty clear about how you go about destroying a society. The western left has absorbed his lessons well. Their kids, if they have any, will pay a fine price for all this.
You are the best! Thanks for all you do. -j-
As a teacher, I saw this behavior begin when poor behavior was met with conversations about being kind while the perpetrator went right on bullying. Never held to a set of morals, respect for others never developed. The adults in the room found it easier to look the other way and hope the children would outgrow their poor behavior.
They didn’t. It became ‘normal’ as they linked with ‘their own.’
I tremendously admire adults who are not afraid to wield their innate power and discipline children.
Congratulations.
Another brilliant piece. We need you in office in Washington to tell them what’s what.
Thanks Victor for such a clear analysis of the Democratic Party gone mad. I can’t understand how anyone would vote for them in the midterms?
Agree wholeheartedly, it’s an excellent summary of some of our woes. Thank you, professor.
Even though most of us have lived within this nation’s borders for years and many even decades, the questions still nag; what happened to us, what happened to reason, how the heck did we get to this.
Well written. The criminal minds absorb firm belief of very wrong to be very correct. I saw that in short contract work at two prisons. It is their “game” to be against all law, civilizing tendencies, police, judges or prisons. They do not fear these civil structures and certainly never fear the victims of their crime. Often “paid in full” democrat liberals win when it is their turn on the crime playing field, they bought a ticket to a comfortable ride.
Many liberals/democrats supporting criminals that I worked for often wished the leftists best in crime in order to hide the possibility that they themselves come under question for behaviors. Some would say it that directly, they want to be left alone. Be it retaining the keen IRS entertainer tax rules or any civil matter where leftists seek the upper hand, democrats in government often give it to them. One person in entertainment I spoke with said he might have to pay 30% to the democrats but it keeps the road free for his deeds and huge returns.
So crime is given safe harbor by these radical leftist democrats. Buying protection for when they themselves are called into question for carrying extra aces up the sleeve. Democrat politicians, prosecution, judges and police are paid in advance to keep the road level.
Hence large collections of criminals inside dense democrat controlled cities , a beehive of crime and attention focused on avoiding getting caught.
I forgot about a bunch of these.
I think it is about the need to feel superior. They always have explanations and distinctions that only their group can “understand”.
Professor Hanson,
I am confounded and astonished at the way the left glorifies and martyrizes murders, women abusers and repulsive, viloent criminals as you so clearly show here with your examples. How can you possibly defend lawlessness and violence and glorify perpetrators refusing to bring them to justice or incarcerate them to protect our citizens? All of this perversion of truth and justice worse actively supporting it makes no sense. How does virtue signaling possibly make one feel good? It makes me wonder if I am living in a different dimension/time warp. Even Oikophobia repudiating our culture doesn’t seem to explain such illogical behavior.
In my opinion, u write better than u talk.❤️
You work on a campus in California and yet you appear to be unaware of intersectional interpretation of history. And you are 1 of the 5 smartest guys around. Something doesn’t add up. Perhaps you are bored being a reasonable public intellectual and want to try your luck as an agent provocateur.
Note that the female occupant at whose abdomen George Floyd aimed his gun was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.
It appears the left embraces violence and hates crime fighters.
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Excellent summary of the heroes of the left (i.e. Democrat Party).
Keep up the good work, sir.