Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault, including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.
The Revolution began under the Obama administration that sought to divide Americans into oppressed and oppressors, and then substitute race for class victimization. It was empowered by the bicoastal wealth accrued from globalization, and honed during the COVID lockdown, quarantine-fed economic downturn, and the George Floyd riots and their aftermath. The Revolution was boosted by fanatic opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. And the result is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.
Here are 10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought.
Free expression. In large swatches of American society—particularly the corporation, the media, the government, the public schools, and the university—it is suddenly dangerous to speak freely. At a DEI workshop, politely object that “whiteness” does not account for all the challenges of “marginalized peoples,” and you will become either ostracized, reprimanded, or perhaps fired.
Suggest to a class that man-made climate change and the state remedies for it, are still under debate—and your career and livelihood are endangered. In 2020, state that Covid lockdowns would do more eventual damage than the virus—and your career was through. Express doubt that there are more than two biological sexes, and if an athlete or high school principal you will be shunned or rendered professionally inert.
The government, in league with social media, censors the news. “Liberal” universities often first require McCarthy-era type “diversity” statements for one to be hired. Commissars review syllabi to spot incorrect or improper speech or insufficient DEI zeal.
The Left now seeks to modify the First Amendment, and its empowerment of “hate speech,” defined as most anything impeding the progressive project. The state and the universities properly issue word lists of approved vocabularies.
The old ACLU or Sen. Church Committee would now probably be deemed rightwing. The methodologies of Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover are the preferred models, once they were rebooted to the right cause.
The Weaponization of Justice. Administrations and their efforts to stock the justice department with supporters come and go. But in the last decade the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party—whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends. Nomili wonder Eric Holder described himself as Obama’s “wingman” and became the first Attorney General to be held in contempt for ignoring a congressional subpoena.
Never in U.S. history have the Department of Justice and sympathetic state and local prosecutors indicted a leading opposition candidate and likely nominee of one of the two major parties, and at the beginning of a presidential campaign. Donald Trump is currently charged with nearly 100 felonies by at least two prosecutors. He likely eventually will be hit with more than- 500 indictments, from four prosecutors, every one of the latter with a long record of either leftwing associations or Democratic service.
The mass murderer Charles Manson faced less legal exposure. No one believes Trump would have been indicted on such counts—most of them involving allegations from years past—were he not running for President.
One count that Donald Trump is not charged with is bribery, or taking money while in office, a crime cited as impeachable in the Constitution and germane to the accusations that Joe Biden and his family raked in millions from foreign governments due to the improper use of his prior Vice Presidency. For what reason did Joe Biden lie that he never discussed his son’s business? Why did Hunter complain to his daughter that Joe demanded half of his own grifting income? Why would a Vice President serially call disreputable Ame1rican grifters and foreign corrupt oligarchs? Can Joe’s lifestyle ever be reconciled with his reported income?
Given such asymmetry in the application of the laws, conservative or even apolitical Americans are apprehensive that any political prominence will draw the attention of government in effort to either indict or bankrupt them with legal expenses.
The last four FBI Directors have either admitted they lied under oath, or preposterously under oath claimed ignorance or amnesia about events directly under their control. Or they simply stonewalled subpoenas and testimonies about alleged FBI crimes.
The former CIA Director admitted to lying twice under oath. The FBI hired social media corporations to suppress election-cycle news deemed unhelpful to the Left. The agency, along with Democratic operatives, helped hatch the election-cycle conspiracy of the 2015-2016 Russian-Collusion hoax, and the 2020 Russian disinformation laptop hoax. The FBI played a central role in many of the 2024 indictments. In other words, the FBI along with the DOJ, has sought to warp three presidential elections in a row.
On the prompt of a Joe Biden campaign official (and now Secretary of State) and a former interim CIA director, 50 former intelligence officials lied to the electorate that an authentic but incriminating Biden computer was a likely Russian plant—a fact known to be lie but not disclosed as such by the FBI.
The Attack on the Supreme Court. Once the Court achieved a more or less predictable conservative majority, the Left sought to diminish it in a variety of ways. It has called for packing the Court with leftist jurists to create a new 15-justice bench. Leftist law professors in the Ivy League, in neo-Confederate nullification and insurrectionary style, call for the nation to ignore Court rulings on abortion and affirmative action.
The Senate minority leader led a throng to the doors of the court, threatening justices by name: “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Protestors now mob the homes of individual justices hoping to intimidate them and alter their upcoming opinions—confident that the Department of Justice will exempt them from any legal consequences of such felonious behavior.
The media routinely accuses conservative justices of improper or illegal behavior, without worry about the emptiness of the charges. A traditionalist justice now accepts that a controversial ruling can result in media charges that he is corrupt, in shrieking protestors mobbing his home, in a mob assembling at the doors of the Court, in disruptions during Court hearings, in politicians issuing threats to his person, in congressional calls to alter the century-and-a-half make-up of the Court, and in Ivy League law professors urging the country to ignore majority decisions.
In sum, conservative jurist must be careful where and when he goes out in public.
The Media-Democratic Fusion. If one were to listen during the last few years to NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, or CNN, or read the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, or the Los Angeles Times, then one would have believed the following:
- A) Donald Trump worked with the Russians to throw and win the 2016 election. As part of that skullduggery, frolicking amid prostitutes he urinated on a Moscow hotel bed to spite Barack Obama. B) He was mentally incapacitated as president and should have been removed under the 25th C) In 2020, his campaign once more worked with the Russians to create an exact replica of Hunter Biden’s laptop, replete with dozens of lurid fake photos and hundreds of cleverly doctored emails to smear the Biden family and aid his own reelection effort. D) Trump as chief conspirator preplanned a violent and armed insurrection that sought to storm and permanently occupy the government, violently hijacking the balloting and seizing the presidency—resulting in the murder of a Capitol police officer and the subsequent deaths of other traumatized officers.
- E) For the last eight years, none of Trump’s political opponents have ever destroyed subpoenaed evidence, conspired to hire foreign nationals to compile false and lurid files on him to subvert his political campaigns, or used their political offices to help solicit foreign money for family lobbyists. F) Trump is the first major candidate and politician who allegedly overvalued his real assets to obtain a loan that he repaid; the first to have concluded non-disclosure agreements with potential embarrassing liaisons; the first ex-president to remove sensitive files to his personal residence; and the first to phone a state official to whine about the integrity of the vote count. G) He is the first losing presidential candidate or major politician to question an election result or to seek redress through government agencies to rectify the purported corruption of the balloting.
In sum, for the first time in American history, nearly all the major communication and journalistic networks have been fused with a political party. They believe the new role of the media is to advance a shared progressive cause, oppose and even defame common opponents, and feed their audiences things that are not, and cannot possibly be, true.
The Destruction of Common Law. By defunding the police in major cities, and by showering leftwing district attorney candidates with millions of dollars in campaign funding, the Left systematically eroded the law as we know it in our major cities.
As a result, downtowns are after-dark, no-go zones, as once great metropolises resemble veritable combat theaters. Cities are becoming depopulated as consumers and businesses no longer find it safe to conduct commerce. Criminals and homeless now routinely break the law with impunity. Public violence, defecation, urination, fornication, and injection do not even rate as misdemeanors.
The Left has redefined violent crime to such an extent that shoplifting is no longer actionable. Flash mobs that take over streets and swarm to loot stores are rarely if ever arrested. Security officers who apprehend thieves or intervene to stop violence are more likely to be prosecuted than criminals themselves. There is no longer any immigration law; it has been utterly destroyed by Joe Biden. Seven-million illegal entrants flood into the U.S. and, along with the Mexican government, make demands on their hosts to accommodate their illegality.
In sum, in blue states and at the federal level, leftwing prosecutors and justices decide to enforce or ignore statutes, pile up or reduce indictments, increase or decrease punishments not on what the law entails, or evidence directs, but on the race, class, or ideology of the perpetrator, usually in connection with the particular status of his victims. If asymmetry in race, class, or ideology is suggested, then the law must modulate in redistributive fashion to contextualize the crime and criminal as a victim rather than a victimizer. The result is the veritable destruction of law and order as we once knew it.
The Erosion of the Military. Rarely has the American people polled so little confidence in the U.S. military. It perceives the Pentagon mission largely one to greenlight social change through the rapidity of the chain of command, not necessarily to maintain deterrence, much less to win all its wars.
The Left has ensured that our armed forces are underfunded, short on munitions and weapons, and military officers are used to promote progressive social agendas. Officers expect to be promoted or stalled on the basis of their views on race and gender.
Those who traditionally died at twice their numbers in the general population in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are ostracized and in near record numbers leaving, while their friends and relatives are no longer enlisting in the military.
Former Pentagon four-star officers violated the Code of Uniform Military Justice in attacking a sitting president with the harshest invective, invoking comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini, again predictably from a leftwing point of view.
The public expects the Joint Chiefs to be both appointed on ideological considerations, and from time to time even to free-lance to contact enemy counterparts should they feel a conservative president is dangerous to world peace.
There is no longer any social stigma or legal jeopardy for retired officers in working as defense contractor lobbyists or board members, after revolving from or soon back to the Pentagon.
Sexes. The heterosexual male and female, marriage, and the nuclear family are all to be suspect. There are three sexes or perhaps still more. English language pronouns are inadequate to reflect sexual diversity.
So adherence to such ossified languages is career endangering. An epidemic of childlessness, singlehood, and collapsing fertility rates are either of no national importance or illustrate the preferred non-nuclear family model. Powerful hormonal drug regimens and permanent radical sex-change surgery should be the choices of minors alone who know best when they choose to transition to another sex. Graphic sex manuals and drag queen shows with simulated sex acts can perhaps acculturate preteens to the dangers of growing up in an oppressive “normative” binary society.
Sex, but not race, is constructed, and thus a matter not of biology but of individual choice.
Race, Not Class. Racial inequality and lack of parity are due to “whiteness.” Racial quotas, segregated dorms, graduations, workshops, and safe spaces are exempt from civil rights statutes given they are necessary to achieve equity. Integration and assimilation are the opiates of the masses. Apartheid and segregation are misunderstood modalities, and thus, if enlightened, sometimes necessary corrective measures.
Reparations are to supersede ineffective affirmative action. Wokeness liberates us to see how race explains everything in America, past and present. At universities and in popular culture “proportional representation” of various ethnicities and races is no longer sufficient remedy.
Instead reparatory hiring and admissions are required to atone for prior generations of discrimination. It is taboo to suggest that cultural conditions not just race accounts for inequality. Everything from meritocracy to promptness to physical fitness is racist in nature, requiring DEI experts to expose and inform about the systemic nature of American racism.
Debt is a Construct. Modern monetary theory proved that annual deficits and national debt are just a state accounting challenge. So printing more money is an act that properly diminishes the value of existing capital improperly horded by parasitic profiteers. Spreading the ensuing cash wealth to the more deserving and victimized is long overdue social justice.
At any time, the national “debt” can be deconstructed by renouncing usurious bond obligations, appropriating private retirement accounts, or further inflating the currency—if governments are committed enough to social justice.
Universities. It is now heresy that universities should be places of disinterested inquiry and inductive investigation. They can properly instead become a valuable tool in ridding society of racist and sexist forces, platitudes about free speech and equality under the law, and the tyranny of private property, capitalist profiteering, and white, male heterosexual Christian oppression.
So the role of a university is to create a brief safe space in which graduates can leave with proper training about the terrible history of the United States and the ways in which it must be dismantled and then be rebuilt by the properly trained experts from the ground up. Counterrevolutionaries or deluded liberals and their quaint adherence to a racist and archaic Bill of Rights have no place on these islands of progressive resistance.
None of the above was true at the millennium; all are now—with more still to come.
We have reached the Tipping Point for the American Electorate to begin dismantling the unstable facade of progressive government
Sure. Let’s just vote our way out of this quagmire. Easy-Peasy.
Can you assure a free and fair election?
Excellent point.
Well not voting isnt going to help.
So agree, I’m tired of people saying “then don’t vote”. Everyone needs to pay attention here and vote.
Apathy is the wooden stake of freedom. As with Dracula, our country is being killed in broad daylight.
To do that, you’ll have to vote above the margin of cheating
Why do you think counting was halted in FIVE KEY Counties in FIVE KEY States? bc Insane Left didn’t print enough FAKE BALLOTS earlier. They never thought PDJT would get that many votes after 5 yrs of constant attack by msm. Insane Left won’t let happen again, they are printing ballots as I type!
When there are serious voting irregularities in a district (=county?) the entire vote count of that district should be nullified, and rescheduled.
This should be mandated by the courts if we are going to have voting integrity.
There certainly needs to be a Stop of All this Democrat Conspiracy by various unprincipled and dishonorable DA’s to attack Trump and his Associates that are honorable and did their jobs legally and honestly.
Anyone that thinks that the Rigging and Theft of the 2020 Election was not a Conspiracy by Democrats and a weaponized Deep State at both the Federal and State levels is either naive or lacking in integrity or intelligence!
Just the “2000 Mules” DVD by Denish D’Souza + “True the Vote Foundation” for undeniable proof of extreme 2020 Election Fraud funded in part by the Facebook founder, etc. They proved the Election Fraud by specific Democrat Centers & Dem-Paid Mules able to Steal It!
Also, so much more political and corrupt malfeasance!
Then they have the Gall to Charge Trump and his legal associates with the RICO Act when the real Racketeers are Joe Biden (Godfather) and his “Biden Crime Family” when clear and undisputable evidence abounds, on Hunter’s Laptop (suppressed by the FBI for years and false testimony by 51 high-level Corrupt Bureaucrats lying and swearing that the Laptop was “Russian Disinformation” while fully knowing that was NOT TRUE and the bribery that Joe Biden was doing” — Joe even confessed to his “Quid-pro-Quo” on national TV bragging about how corrupt he was to get the Prosecutor Fired that was about to indict his son Hunter, Devon Archer and the Ukrainian Oligarch.
Oh, what a shameful and deceitful web Joe and the Democrats in power weave!
Not an easy task. We should demand all paper ballots and only one day to vote…
they have a saying in Russia– sometimes a revolution is a good thing dont you think?
Well said. Terry.
The only way out of this is REVOLUTION. Victor almost says this in his first sentence – “We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. ” I am 66 years old and hope I live to see it happen. We cannot vote our way out. We cannot change a few laws and hope they are followed.
Perhaps it is about time that ALL PATRIOTS, be they Republican Democrat or Independent who truly believe in the Constitution, NOT for revolution, people die in revolutions. Time to withdraw their labor, peacefully and with destruction. – WALK OFF THE JOB.
i am 78 and old coast guard and would just love to be at the tip of the spear to fire the first shot. lost mama in 2020 got nothing to loose so i dont give a ——–
Exactly. You can’t vote your way out of a coup d’état. We are being governed by anti-American communists who now control our elections.
Victor David Hanson, is one of the great minds of this century. This article encapsulates everything that is going on in America. The population of our country must be we can do the facts that are provided in this article!
Who is to be the arbiter of the corrupt state that no longer follows the principles of its foundation? Did the Founders not anticipate a rogue destruction of our Republic?
Why, yes! Yes they did!
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
“it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it”
This was tried in 1861 and didn’t work out so good.
How did it not “work out so good?”
The US is still in one piece (for now).
Yes, you are right regarding the 1860’s, the states rights issue was also pretty well
settled including the right of secession.
Yes, you are right regarding the 1860’s, the states rights issue was also pretty well
settled including the right of secession.
Richard, You’d best reread that history lesson you blew off about the origins of the “War Between the States”
What occurred 1861-1865 was necessary. Human beings on American soil were denied their rights enshrined in the Constitution. It was long, bloody, brutal. But necessary.
But, the insane violent criminal radical Communists of the 1960s found safe haven by becoming the Establishment via academia. Subsequently, two generations of young people made arguably the most expensive investment into their lives – a college education. They were sold a bunch of lies, exited years later with the equivalent of a home loan debt on their backs, to find there were no jobs. There is no shortage of Social Workers with masters degrees in this country. It’s just they are paid $40K a year (peanuts) and cannot afford the services of their high school classmate who became a plumber or electrician instead of wasting four years in a progressive university with ashtrays. They don’t know about the sacrifices of George Washington but they worship the alter of George Floyd.
The reconstruction of the US needs to begin by radically altering its institutions, particularly academia, the military, finance, entertainment & the media. Fortunately, capitalism and the natural course of nature is handling the last two industries. Disney was $180 a share a little over a year ago. It’s now worth half that because the American values Disney represented sixty years ago was a mere exploitation which the corporation shook-off like an old dog with fleas.
Agree!
Very well said!! We need to start with academia first and then increase knowledge of the jobs available so young adults don’t believe it is all about attending college.
You hit the nail on the head. God bless America, give us strength and the wherewithal to fight for its freedom!
The media-Democrat fusion is perhaps the most frightening development of all. The founders could not have envisioned the technological advancement that would allow 90+% of essentially all information/communication in the hands of a few — a radical few. There was a reason that they put freedom of speech first — and it is nearly gone.
… And to help prove your point, I note that Microsoft’s email program blocked my access to this very website, claiming it was “dangerous” and suspected of “phishing”.
This is called big tech shadow banning. Expect more of same the closer we get to election day 2024.
Yep, they blocked me with the same Phishing excuse!
The Declaration of Independence gives the solution.
There’s so much about what Trump has gone thru – starting with his campaign and continuing with all the Deep State indictments it’s a wonder how , as a billionaire, he just doesn’t walk away from it all.
Think about this: if not him, who will be the one to tear apart this mess we are in now? There is no one. He knew what the swamp was like with the minute he campaigned. Perhaps he didn’t realize how deep it really was as he had to exit the WH knowing full well the Deep State installed a puppet regime in 2020.
How do we know this? Look up EO 13848 – created in 2018. Why has it been renewed even during O’Biden’s administration? Why would the puppet sign his own death warrant?
There’s more to this than meets the eye, imo. The recent DOJ Jan 6 indictment is the tell all: either the DC swamp judge allows Trump’s team full disclosure of the evidence or they stomp on his 1st amendment rights and throw him jail. Either way, the American people will know full well what we are dealing with here.
Am I allowed even to read this?
I feel to combat this, we must expose Barack Obama as the fraud he is. I feel he too is at the core of the Joe Bidens corruption, this is why the press doesn’t want to harp upon Joe, as it ultimately will expose their Obama.
Why isn’t anyone asking how Obama left the white house with $135 Million Dollars?
Since leaving the white house Obama Purchased ~
$8.1 Million Mansion Washington D.C
$11.75 Million Martha’s Vineyard
$20.1 Million Mansion Hawaii
Lucrative book deals! Just kidding. Good question. The fact of the matter is that given how long he and Biden were provided the steel curtain of media protection, they had the time to get away with many “Burisma-type” deals. They could have money in any number of offshore accounts that is very well hidden. Perhaps part of why Biden taunted and dared us all with his reply of “Where’s the money?”
Book and netflix arranged payoffs….typical ..to avoid scrutiny..hunter sells paintings to donors…clinton had her ” foundation”….legal money laundering.
🎯
YES!
Obama must be held accountable like MUSSOLINI was and he must receive the same demise and fate. The Top 50 Leftists undermining America must also be tried and hung as traitors.
Let’s start there !
Obama has turned America into The Hunger Games. Expose him by all means.
Exactly.
Yep. Yep. Exceedingly well detailed.
Breaks my heart for America and ALL our people.
I finally understand why “they “ hate Trump so viciously. This was ALL to be kicked off with Hillary.
Much pain and suffering will now follow no matter what road is taken.
As my father would say: “Son, we’re about to have a comin’ to Jesus meeting. “
Thank you for filling in the blanks.
Indeed!
VDH is amongst the best of the “Captain Obvious” journalists out there.
What VDH and others like him should be doing, imho, is to very explicitly describe what EXACTLY this “Fundamental Transformation” / “Build Back Better” IS going to result in if We The People do not correct the course of the Republic.
Like Dan Bongino says, “silly time is over”. It’s time to get real and decide how we’re going to end this crap-a-thon and re-establish something like a true democracy.
He’s not a a fortune teller. Who knows how this all ends up. It’s likely we’ll never see the fruits due to the fact that these people are not only evil, but also stupid. They’re getting us into a war with China and Russia that will probably be the destruction of us all.
Is there in any state statute the equivalent of the Federal FARA registration requirement? If there is than the appropriate attorney general could charge the President – such a charge would satisfy the immediately the requirement for removal from office, and the presidential self pardoning power could not be employed to a state (non-federal)level infraction. Perhaps Paul Manafort could offer defense counsel?
Like him or not, Trump is the only politician willing to attack every one of these problems.
That’s why they hate him.
That’s why they use the courts to bring him down.
That’s why they join together in the media to degrade him and lie about him at every opportunity.
Fairness has nothing to do with how they fight.
They lie every day and we see it clearly.
They will likely achieve their goal of taking him off the chessboard.
Then what?
Will it then be time to act? But how? What will make a difference?
Whatever happens, I want to be around to see it.
I probably don’t have too long to wait.
Smart and respected reader, what do you think?
Unfortunately, Trump is slitting his own throat. I do not think it possible for him to self-correct. He proves this and double-downs every single day.
Trump has brought so many of his troubles on himself. He made it easy for the msm and all his enemies to go after him. It is tragic for our nation.
You are an obvious DeSantis simp ( no offense, really… I’d vote for him if he legitimately got the nom ) and you backed the ( obvious to all but the soft and squishy ) wrong pony, my guy. Trump has lost more to defend your liberty than anyone in American history, and has over 600 years in prison facing him because they fear and hate him so…and because you ( no offense ) are a hypocrite and alleged moral arbiter, you are happy in your cowardice and betrayal. Even your language, “slit his own throat”, is directly out of a desperate DeSantis’ own mouth…”we’re going to be slitting throats on day one”, his latest attempt to get oxygen. So much for the kinder, gentler version of Orange Man, am I right? We all know you’ve already taken your toys and gone home, so go pout. The rest of us have one last chance to fix this mess, even if it’s with an egomaniac, crass, New York douchebag that keeps stepping on his own pecker. Feel good knowing Professor Hanson agrees with you and not me.
Loving America and fighting the radical left is “slitting his own throat”?? You a Democrat or worse, if there is such a thing, Ricky
There’s so much about what Trump has gone thru – starting with his campaign and continuing with all the Deep State indictments it’s a wonder how , as a billionaire, he just doesn’t walk away from it all.
Think about this: if not him, who will be the one to tear apart this mess we are in now? There is no one. He knew what the swamp was like with the minute he campaigned. Perhaps he didn’t realize how deep it really was as he had to exit the WH knowing full well the Deep State installed a puppet regime in 2020.
How do we know this? Look up EO 13848 – created in 2018. Why has it been renewed even during O’Biden’s administration? Why would the puppet sign his own death warrant?
There’s more to this than meets the eye, imo. The recent DOJ Jan 6 indictment is the tell all: either the DC swamp judge allows Trump’s team full disclosure of the evidence or they stomp on his 1st amendment rights and throw him jail. Either way, the American people will know full well what we are dealing with here.
Yep, there needs to be a national divorce and pragmatic partition of the country like India/Pakistan in 1947
They won’t stop until they have the whole US under their thumbs.
Three million ex-subjects of the British Raj were murdered, by each other, in the process of partitioning, which was sub-partitioned several decades later when Bangladesh split off from Pakistan, entailing maybe another several hundred thousand dying in the process. Is that your preferred solution?
Before Hitler began the Nazi roundup of Germany’s Jews, he confiscated all private firearms of the Germans. A Jew found with a gun was shot on sight. We American citizens must NEVER allow OUR own private firearms to be confiscated OR registered in a federal database.
Donald J Trump is the only candidate to take on this mess. I pray to God he gets re-elected……
Amen!
A masterful construct of today.
How does it foretell the future?
We are an enormous and diverse land mass; populated by over 300,000,000 people. Are we likely to accept this dark future?
Perhaps the response from ‘the people’ will be to resist the downward shift in their physical, mental, intellectual, and general wellbeing.
This resistance is already showing evidence in business, municipalities, education, and purchase preferences.
We are on a razors edge: true. But there are two sides to that edge.
I walked into a Walgreens here in my small city of 300,000 here in Texas to buy a bottle of Gatorade 2 weeks ago and as I was in line to check out a woman was leaving the store with a handbag which was empty when she walked in and full as she walked out, completely avoiding the check out. The clerk yelled out, “Can I help you mam?” to which she replied, “No I’m good” and proceeded to her car. The clerk mumbled “I guess I shouldn’t care”, To which I asked her “What just happened?” She replied “Store policy prevents us from confronting shoplifters”. I asked if this happened often and she said at least twice a day, as many as ten times a day on the weekends. I saw the shoplifter in the parking lot and heard through her open windows giving instructions on the phone as to the location of this Walmart. I also noticed her car plates were from Houston. It just makes me sad that our nation has come to this.
It’s tragic. Professor Hanson has spoken about how it lines up with the collapse of several great empires a “systems collapse” as he calls it. I think tragically that’s where this empire is at now. It ceased being a country at the beginning of Biden’s presidency. I think that it’s a reflection of any nation that has forsaken the gifts that it has received from God to see tragedies like this happen. All nations and empires have moral codes and standards for civilization that are at bare minimum loosely inspired by God if not directly. Many are directly inspired by God directly but when all of these nations reject God, collapse is imminent. Even the ones that are more loosely inspired by God suffer this because they eventually outright reject God and reject the loose moral code that was inspired by God. The next election will be the determination of the people of this empire if we are going to let a full collapse occur or if it will be rejected.
Agree!
Wow. Thank you VDH for this summary listing. All of our societal illnesses succinctly listed in one place is mind boggling. If the leftists succeed in taking out Trump in the manner they attempt, unless Vivek or another are not able to replace the Trump energy, Biden or a replacement his handlers offer will likely win and continue the upheaval. The left’s hatred of Trump is stunning. Even now at various sites across the web, their irrational sputtering mar the environment. It is disproportionate, utterly unreasonable, and myopic. So much denial of biology and logic. Comically, even math is racist. What happened to reason? Such seems impossible without support from the traditional media and social media. China was correct a few years ago to not allow Google and others free rein there. These people (Big Tech) have really done a number on America. Xi will very likely celebrate his dream of world dominance because leftists here have infected so much here. Even the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, recognized the rapid decline months ago. Bukele cleaned up the crime in his nation. Notably, our media attacked him in the same manner Venezuela’s Maduro attacked him. Still, he continued his effort. Leftists here have no idea what awaits with Xi’s values. Their lack of reason will not be tolerated.
A grim and foreboding commentary indeed Professor Hanson. As a retired senior naval officer of many years (and a senior citizen), I acutely understand your documentation and warning. I live in a red southern state where life goes on very normal with crime and murder held in check. We have no riots or the looting of stores. We have good political leaders generally from the state level on down to our school boards with peaceful living in our neighborhoods. I cannot speak to the numerous universities in our state and their influence. Except for the recent inflation and other adverse influences from the Federal Government, life is normal and it goes on seemingly unabated only to read and view on TV the awful things you describe. I assume that a high percentage of us own a number of firearms – we are law abiding citizens. I would hope that a large part of Red America still enjoys the stability I have described.
I seriously wonder how much longer our peaceful existence can continue as it is today. I sense an increasing probability of civil war with those who are trying to make a new America and those of us who like what we have and want to continue with the old America that we grew up with and love.
We would love to hear your take relative to how much longer we can expect to enjoy the relative comforts described above and measures we can take to preserve them. Your crystal ball seems much clearer than those of us out here in the streets.
–JB in Tennessee
After I wrote my comments above, I have learned that due to his latest indictment, Donald Trump shall have the power to subpoena witnesses on his behalf. A privilege not previously afforded him in this Witch Hunt. Perhaps our prayers for him have been answered in part and a real judicial look see be taken relative to the 2020 Election. This youtube video offers more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WacP1CrWY
–JB
Dear JB, I am also hopeful that our prayers have been answered and Trump will finally be able to put all the evidence out there 🙏
I am confident that on deeper observation, you will find a prominent, growing echelon of elite community leaders giving in to the DEI, CRT, and BLM movements. I am a senior, over-educated female suburbanite from one of the reddest of states, AL. Our very best schools, with the highest of national rankings, have created George Floyd murals, are immersed in CRT (by another name, thus winning approval), transgender training (lest suicide ensue) and DEI emphasis in all things. Former Trump supporters are succumbing to claiming their moral superiority in choosing another candidate, rationalizing that the lawsuits substantiate their turn. These people are not visceral in their current values – just browbeat into the elite ranks. This is demoralizing to the rest of us suburbanites who believe Trump can and has strengthened America. We are those who bother to educate ourselves on events and politics and the truth behind the lawsuits and political events. We tend to follow the money.
What does the future offer? When societies crumble: At best a Napoleon; at worst, a Stalin.
One day, if we manage to keep our Republic, VDH will be required reading in schools and Universities. Either way, his writings will be studied and treasured by the people.
Do we have a cure if the voting process remains compromised?
The electorate has clearly been compromised, and VDH’s absent recognition to this effect speaks volumes. There is a cure – sadly a very unpleasant and costly cure.
Do we have a cure you ask?? Yes, it is called revolution. When everything is corrupted, it the the right of the people to take back their government. Hopefully we can do it peacefully but I am not sure about that.
Doctor Hanson,
I am a living fossil of another era and my eyes fill with tears as I read your words. I have repeatedly seen the truth of the decay and rot in the political houses of our glorious nation as well as the abandonment of the public trust by the fourth estate. Perhaps only in another lifetime can these wrongs can be righted.
Paul Duke
Professor Hanson,
In 1965 as candidate for an MBA at Columbia University Graduate School of Business I was a student of Martin Anderson. Professsor Anderson and I were both graduates of Dartmouth College, and I identified with him. His wife, Annelise, was in our Finance Class.
Martin Anderson was an extraordinary teacher who stimulated me to consider his many interests. Of particular note was his MIT Dissertation which was ultimately published as a provocative book titled, “The Federal Bulldozer”.
In 2014, I was touring Stanford University with one of my grandchildren, and I visited the Hoover Institution hoping that I could meet with Professor Anderson to tell him how he had impacted my life. I was told that his wife was handling his affairs and that I should reach out to her. I suspected that there was something very wrong and wrote a note to Professor Anderson care of his wife.
I have followed Martin Anderson’s career ever since taking his Finance course and mourned his loss when I read of his death.
I have also followed your career, Professor Hanson with great interest even before I realized that you hold the Martin and Illie Anderson Fellowship at the Hoover Institution.
Several years ago I had cerebral surgery to implant a shunt in my brain to correct Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). The surgery was very successful correcting a number of debilitating conditions.
I will continue this message in a subsequent email.
Perfectly analyzed and highlighted!
Loco
A brief continuation of my previous email:
An unexpected side effect of my surgery is that I now have very vivid and realistic dreams. Recently I dreamed that you and Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida visited me at my beach condominium in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. I would like to make this “dream” a reality. With your agreement, I would like to invite DeSantis and his wife at a time when you and your wife can visit us for a couple of days of strategic dialogue.
Bob Silverman
Dan Bongino (former Secret Service Agent and Bush, Obama, Biden protector) has been speaking of this on Rumble for years. Finally, others are beginning to catch on.
Read Dan Bongino’s Spygate, and Follow the Money. It connects the dots to Biden, Obama and HRC.
Thank you, Victor Davis Hanson. I’m proud that you are a Californian.
Astonishing. Is there hope?
All of it is an act of defiance. Otherwise known as giving America the middle finger.
Today’s Woke Revolution should have been confronted when it first flared in the 1990s, the decade of Anita Hill-Rodney King-OJ-Prop 187. The “White Disparagement” Professor Hanson has written about had just begun… For example, in a 1991 California teacher credentialing class, my fellow white student would angle her binder-paper sketch of a pistol at me, pretending to fire bullets whenever I spoke, because I was a “white male.” The professor offered me private sessions rather than expel her.
Things are too far gone now, but back then, conservatives still hung on at institutions, and even moderates predicted accurately the outcomes of “PC,” “victimology,” and then-novel hate-crime laws
Today’s American media exists to run interference for the Democrat party; to save face for liberal voters; and to demoralize the working class. Their goal is a white minority “by any means necessary,” and immigration, illegal and otherwise, is their weapon.
Conservatives are always too little too late. Just saying “Wow, that is crazy!” does nothing. Incremental is the nature of the beast. Until now. They can see the win coming.
“…their quaint adherence to a racist and archaic Bill of Rights…” so good!
Thank God for Victor Hanson
Amen! And thank you for that comment, Harry Allen White II.
The deterioration of America as I knew it growing up is happening at such a rapid rate. I can only hope that this path will reverse at some time and this nation can return to what it once represnted a proud one that people respected world wide.
This is a soul-trying time in the history of America, without a doubt. It isn’t the first (and it won’t be the last), but I believe we have turned the corner: the worst the media (the New York Times, etc.) can do, and what’s worse than fomenting Marxism, is behind us, and we are on to any dirty tricks in front of us. Keep the faith.
I too, celebrate the down to earth brilliance
of VDH.
Proud that he is a Central Vally Californian
and National Treasure. May God protect him and all of us.
With no strong opposing party to counter the Democrats and the rest of the uni-party Republicans, I have no confidence that any one election cycle can change the tide, even (while not likely) if enough politicians willing to fit for change were elected. The deep state is like an underground fungus that runs for hundreds of miles in all directions and is fully buffered by NGO’s and corporate interests.
I’m now thinking a possible answer is to make it worse and hope we reach the final tipping point of this era in whatever form that takes. That means don’t vote. At all. For anyone. If the masses of disenfranchised citizens refuse to use the system, maybe, just maybe, enough of the sleepwalking public will take notice wake up and join us. But a “Just don’t vote” campaign might be too hard to muster.
That’s not the answer. That’s a concession to apathy. I think the answer is to try at every turn to warn people that the road that this nation is on is a road of self destruction. I don’t know if anyone reading this believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the lord our God but I think the way to attack the issue is more like the way God handled Jonah in the tale of Jonah or like the father did in the tale of the Prodigal Son. In the tale of Jonah, God tells Jonah to forecast doom for Nineveh but Jonah goes the opposite direction. God unleashes a violent storm onto the ship he was on and the people around him turn to God after throwing him overboard and then he is swallowed by the fish. Jonah repents after being in the fish for three days and does what God says. The people of Nineveh repent and Jonah gets angry. God then puts a flower to give him shade and then has the flower get killed and asks Jonah shouldn’t he care about the people of Nineveh who were living in darkness but repented and turned back to him. Jonah was angry that God decided not to destroy Nineveh after their repentance and we should not think in those terms. The Parable of the Prodigal Son has a very similar theme. The first son rejects his father and goes off to party and screw around only to lose everything and be forced to eat pig feed. He eventually realizes that he had it better with his father and decided to return home to have a job with him again so he could eat.
Began after 2010 midterms. Obama was embarrassed. The Tea Party had to be stopped.
The first victim was comedy. Late night comedians stopped poking fun at Obama. Then all Democrats.
Under every administration, you could see a plethora of anti-administration and anti-president books on the NYT bestseller list. No meaningfully critical books were written about Obama.
Obama earned 3 million less votes in 2012 and still won. Why did Romney take the last month of his campaign off?
Obama meekly pushed for Garland’s confirmation. Then the buzz began that HRC would select him for Scalia’s seat. In anticipation he bought a house in DC. He’d campaign hard for her. Even undermine her opponent. He’d do anything because he wanted that seat…Even use his army of leftists he placed in justice after purging the conservatives. I’m
Do an Amazon search for author Jack Cashill. He is an excellent writer and has produced many books exposing Obama’s strange–and mostly unreported–past.
As we all know, the progressive project is predicated on bastardization of the language.
Starting in the late 60s words such as “patriotism” were redefined to be worthy of ridicule (roll your eyes at Pat Boone…). So any disagreement with liberal orthodoxy was laughable.
By 2000 until now “hate” speech covers any criticism of unprotected classes or progressive ideas, so any disagreement is bigotry.
Soon, any disagreement will be criminal. (See the attempted disbarment of many of Trump’s lawyers and the current Jan 6 persecutions).
God help us…
Public and private virtue are essential to preserving the Founders vision for our Republic. Virtue is no longer the norm in our country, and that is the cause and consequence of our problems. It has resulted in tyranny of the Left.
What a great piece! Thank you for putting so many disparate topics together for us VDH.
The woke claim racial inequality is the result of evil “whiteness.” This argument has allowed for the wholesale transformation of our society, because no-one will stand up for evil people. Mass immigration is tolerated while the native born population is suppressed. We face a Marxist worldview where people are grouped together and made to war with one another. Karl Marx designed his worldview around class warfare, which made sense. But now the woke make it about racial (identity) warfare, which doesn’t make sense in America. The only way to equalize people in this contrived universe is through racial / gender mixing and the privileging of lower castes above others. VDH offers an interesting observation that integration and assimilation are the new “opiates of the masses.” Christianity has been outlawed, to clear the way for this unmitigated power grab.
India did much the same thing, back in the 1940’s. They got rid of the British by demonizing “colonialization.” The Indians turned their nation Marxist (Communist), to turn everyone against the white man. This enabled them to expel the British from their country. Of course, the Communists always fail at governing and the country took a nosedive without the Western culture to lead it. Now, India is busy stealing high-paying job from us. While our weak-willed government does nothing to protect the future of its own people. It is wrong.
Secession is the only way to salvage this. All of us that know what made the US great, need to flee to one state and break away from the union. Divorce is necessary at this point. It can’t be salvaged.
Just like Rome the rot and laziness from within brings down the empire, with a dark age to follow. It was a nice run while it lasted and maybe when the next civilization rises out of the wreckage they will make history mandatory, and keep control of the education system and cultural values. Good luck with that.
As a believer in the creation of America and a descendent of a Revolutionary War Patriot, I enjoy Mr. Hanson’s commentary and historical studies about WWII and Greece and Roman Republic. Mr. Hanson’s stories of the farm are relevant to myself and memories of my grandfathers 650 acre Kentucky farm.
It sometimes seems that we are experiencing the results of bad government brought on by a feeble executive referred to in Federalist No. 70 “There can be no need, however, to multiply arguments or examples on this head. A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.”
A strong executive many be able to clear up some of the problems created by Biden.
A lot of this also came from the last century of bipartisan administrations, especially the “weaponization of justice,” which we tried to combat in the late 1970s-1980s-early-1990s. But after 9/11, weaponization of justice became an institution. We can’t fix any other problems without fixing this problem.
When prominent conservatives started fleeing California in 2019/2020 I thought how hypocritical! These same people would say about illegal immigrants “If your country is that bad, stay and fix it!” But they couldn’t do the same in their own state? Three years later, I feel the fear/disappointment/helplessness they must have felt before leaving. I am a senior, my husband is disabled. We are both retired Navy. And the only survival mechanism we have left is to flee. We are making those preparations now. We are too old to fight. And who would we fight anyway? I wonder how many others are preparing to leave the country they once loved.
By denying Trump’s rights and violating US Voters Rights to demand Jury Trial PROOF of Independent Free and Fair elections via Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241 – Conspiracy Against Rights? Subpoena Obama Barr Comey Wray Clinton Brennan Clapper Elias Holder Pelosi question under oath did all conspire to Thwart American Peoples right to PROVE Election Integrity ? https://www.instagram.com/p/CvA5OtAyQsj/
https://www.influencewatch.org/person/marc-elias/
Do an Amazon search for author Jack Cashill. He is an excellent writer and has produced many books exposing Obama’s strange–and mostly unreported–past.
The Cloward Piven strategy was to overwhelm the welfare system. Along with Rules for Radiclals the two systems have been unleashed on all constructs of America.The 10 items you listed are proof that that has been the plan all along.
Forgot Trump lost the election, this same group says what about 2020? Never mind their party has been doing this stuff for many decades! Famous LBJ photo with what reported on his car hood again back in the 40’s. JFK in 1960 who by the way had alternate delegates who if I remember were seated, counted by the electoral college from Hawaii. How about the dozens of recent congressional seats flipped after continuous recounts until a democrat “Won”. Believe it was Mark Levin who pointed out the 1982 Illinois governors race was so shockingly close though Thompson was always ahead by 20% in every poll they took, that the FBI was called in who then found massive corruption dating back to 1960. Funny how the courts rarely stepped in on redistricting but now with republicans in charge, do today.
Regardless of what they say where not conspiracy nuts because some refuse to take only their Word on this topic like the above mentioned! Here’s my favorite: (government figures by the way so ask them)214 million registered voters, 66% voted which is 141,250,000 possible votes yet Biden over 81 million and Trump 74 million? Over 81 million in less then 17% of the counties in the country. There’s thousands of other examples! Here’s one I find interesting also: less than one percent of votes were thrown out in the 2020 general election in California yet around 33% regarding the California governor recall which required a signature, it was defeated was it not?
It seems the only question is whether the civil war will be kinetic. The ballot box is less of a defense with each election.
The article clearly articulates the issues as they have evolved as most commentary today by conservative commentators achieve clear complaints of where the country is going. What we need is more emphasis put on solutions and ideas to promote. In the absence of a vision then eventually violence is the only resolution. I personally hope we can get on course without violence. Leftist promote ideas, we complain and defend. I’m speaking in absolutes of course, there are some out there promoting but we need a more concentrated effort as we tend to be individualistic in nature which is part of the challenge of conservatism. But to make sure I am not contributing to the issue I just wrote about here is one of my solutions: Promotion of the States power over the Federal. We need to work on electing governors who will exercise the constitutional powers of the State and hold a constitutional convention ultimately to correct this power imbalance. If we had 30 Ron DeSantis governors around the country the Federal Government could be reigned in. I would surmise we have approximately 5 of those now.
There is no main stream news, only progressive propaganda which is endless and 24/7! Sure there are exceptions and wonderful people like Dr. Hanson do exist to inform reality. Otherwise, it’s an endless parade of woke ideology or whatever leftist term you choose to use. There is not a single topic or issue that is not affected by this indoctrination. Race relations, climate change, military events, political coverage, economic data, name it as you can’t find one not slanted to their bias. Sure there are disagreements as to how to tackle problems but the problem is unless you’re of a like mind set, you’re ignored, ridiculed, and now openly targeted for retribution these days in many forms.
Victor Davis is RIGHT!
As a security guard in Austin Texas I must be very careful to ascribe greater rights to blacks and browns or suffer exclusion. This is why I am very aware of who I confront as my job is on the line when money talks. I am just trying to survive because I’m am obviously a White, Christian, Conservative, Male. The horror! I will vote for Trump so you can pound sand Demoncraps . But I’m smarter than the average bear so I am not as afraid as I might be otherwise. Its all a joke and I need to leave.
I may move to West Virginia! Those people are very tribal but they have some honor in spite of there economic circumstances. There grievous situation can be explained as the result of OBAMA!
They are GODS people Even if their children have become drug addled by there desperation. In spite of every illegitimate attack they persevere.
I left the bay area in California on the reelection of that racist from Kenya!
My family there are mostly brain washed and ignore the dark future they are inviting.
History is a bitch and they will soon involuntarily be reeducated in how bad it can be. Read history FOOLs! I still love you but I pity you! I’m glad my imperfect WW2 veteran dad is not forced to watch this fall to a ignominious hell on earth. While he lived I didn’t much like him but he was far better than my poor ass. If there is a God?
So the solution is so simple IMHO! THROW THE BUMS OUT!! VOTE REPUBLICAN!!! We need to spread the word like what Professor Hanson is trying to do!! Excellent writing btw as usual! WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO WAKE THE HELL UP! Nuff said and so simple!!!
A bleak commentary on the decay we are witnessing daily. How do you fight the battle when most of the soldiers, who care, are over 60- still responsible taxpayers, busy with jobs, church, community, life, or retired? Trump’s dogged, indefatigable spirit is perhaps the blueprint to follow?
The United States is a young civilization and this is its first major illness and so it will be particularly violent. This will end either in disillusion or Caesarism. It could only ever end this way for the Americans being that they are now so diverse as well, I believe, as utterly and hopelessly dysgenic. From this time on government in North America will be based on force.
Brilliant and insightful. Victor Davis Hanson is indispensable.
So what can we do? There must be something!
Worst of all, we cannot vote our way out of this disaster because most States are using hackable, vulnerable electronic voting machines in their counties along with outdated Windows software / drivers etc. Piece of cake for hackers to re-work the tabulation. Non of this will be solved UNTIL WE RETURN TO SERIALIZED PAPER BALLOTS, PHOTO ID AND THUMBPRINT. It’s worth that much.
We already know this, Victor. So what are your solutions?
What makes you think VDH is a saviour?
Something not mentioned in the article which I think is the worst thing that happened was the forced lock downs, quarantines, and vaccinations during Covid. The people who decided not to get the jab were treated like the lowest people in society. You couldn’t even go into a business or travel unless you had your vaccine passport. The worst part of this was the government covering up and denying that certain therapeutics could have helped. Ivermectin, Vit. D, hydroxychloriquine, etc. were all demonized and denied from the sick. Pharmacies were told to not honor prescriptions for Ivermectin. The facts were hidden about these therapeutics. Doctors are losing their credentials who support Ivermectin. Millions of lives could have been saved. I think that this is the crime of the century. Dr. Fauci should be arrested NOW. The vaccine didn’t work but everyone was forced to get it. What was in it that they didn’t tell us about ?
What’s a Nomili wonder ?
(o, I see now Nomili wonder must b an error for ‘no wonder’ though I don’t know whether the “mili” came from)
SLICED or DIECED? I’m a simpleton conservative. VDH’s article beaks it down.
Sovergnity Diversity
Liberty Inclusivity
Individuality Equity
Capitalism Communism
Exceptionalism Elitism
Democracy Divisionism
VDH’s 10 issues presented are spot-on. We are in crisis; but who gives a shit? It’s about time that we all start giving a shit; make your voice be heard from school board elections and up the municipal, county, state and national election process.
I see one way out.
We must concentrate on the fact that we are fifty individual states.
The “States Rights” must be emphasized and such federal departments as education should be disbanded.
Absolutely no need for Federal rules and federal “standards” of education.
And the department of Urban Development. Why should the federal government have an influence on what cities the state government and people choose to build.
And on and on.
So-called progressives, perhaps beginning with Obama, realized they could not win on the merits of their arguments, or could not reveal their true plans to an American populace that was still largely anti-communist. They needed to cheat, lie and steal to hold power, and buy the time to create a legion of proto-communists disconnected from the central role of private property and liberty. Obama has largely succeeded.
Thank you for cutting to the heart of the problems and putting them into Words that make sense, I always understood this but nice to feel vindicated. If I may pass this on, having autism I see the world and what Mr Trump does and its classic high functioning Asperger. Was so exited to see him win and see what he would do, and he did it with both hands tied behind his back. All this in spite of
being pounded every day by the bureaucrats. Never understood the hatred that is directed to him, dives straight to the problem and fixes it – what more can you ask of a politician. You are right America will never appreciate the hits he has taken for his country, I hope he gets another chance to fix the country without the horror of his last term.