Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Three recent but completely unrelated events illustrate the deranged hatred of Donald Trump and his supporters continuing now even into a second decade. And yet the venom only further marginalizes the left.
In its too-long 50th anniversary spectacle, Saturday Night Live offered a skit in which marquee actor Tom Hanks did an impression of what the left thinks is a supposedly neanderthal Trump supporter.
The episode was NBC’s tele-version of the recent Obama-Hillary Clinton-Biden vocabulary of cheap MAGA disparagement: clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, and ultra-MAGAs.
Most of those stereotyped props were evident in Hanks’ character.
He was wearing a red MAGA hat (real and not the fake versions of Jussie Smollett’s wild and sinister imagination).
Hanks sounded off as a superstitious evangelical, a slow-speaking Southern twanger, and a poorly dressed slob.
And of course, the SNL writers insisted that he play the gratuitous racist. So, Hanks, as a clueless Black Jeopardy contestant, initially refused to even shake the hand of the African-American, assumed intellectually and morally superior, gameshow host.
We are supposed to believe the Hanks caricature is in contrast with progressives—usually represented in society as the bicoastal enlightened, well-spoken, and snappily dressed.
Perhaps the SNL crowd thought the counterpart to Hanks’ MAGA sluggard was the recent hard-left, Democratic standard-bearer—the eloquent Kamala Harris of mesmerizing word-salad fame?
Aside from the reality that Trump captured a record number of African-American male voters, nearly split the Hispanic vote, and made gains with Asian- and Jewish-Americans, he also won massive defections from Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
So, does the SNL, Tom Hanks, or the left have any idea why it lost the popular vote due to such a diverse group of Democrat apostates?
Democrats should ask: Who is truly slow-witted? Is it the stumbling Tom Hanks caricature or the real Joe Biden and his ilk?
The latter bequeathed Americans an open border, 12 million illegal aliens, hyperinflation, two theater wars abroad, mega-trillion-dollar deficits, and the Green New Deal that impoverished the middle classes of all races.
At about the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation. He was immediately pressed by host Margaret Brennan, the epitome of the supposedly sophisticated, hip, left-wing journalist, and thus the converse of the Hanks caricature.
Yet when pressing Rubio about the recent dress-down speech of Vice President J.D. Vance to the European ministers, Brennan thought she would draw on her historical wisdom to confound the supposed Trump megaphone.
Did Vance not know, Brennan demanded of Rubio, that he was lecturing Europeans about their unfortunate abandonment of free expression and speech? And in Germany of all places, she intoned—the very place, she insisted, where the Nazis once weaponized free speech to conduct the genocide!
It took Rubio about a nanosecond to clue the historically illiterate Brennan that the Nazis never allowed any free speech.
It was not excessive or even crude free speech that caused the Holocaust, but precisely the complete absence of all sorts of dissenting views in the marketplace of ideas.
Ironically, it was precisely Brennan’s own defense of censoring “hate speech,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation” that the Nazis used to brand as extreme and unacceptable any view contrary to their own.
Next, the stunned European ministers in Munich, of course, sat aghast at Vance’s tutorial.
None refuted what he was saying, namely that European elites’ efforts to delay or cancel elections that might bring national conservative populists to power are contrary to the European enlightenment.
The use of weaponized, selective law enforcement to go after peaceful anti-abortion protestors, but not known violent Muslim illegal immigrants, is not only contrary to a free society but suicidal.
But Vance had a deeper subtext to his remarks.
The left-wing European elite fear even more than they hate the rising populist pushback.
The European apparat knows their own past two decades of massive illegal alien influxes, disarmament, deindustrializing, crashing fertility, green mandates, high taxes, crushing regulations, asymmetrical trade tariffs, and suppression of free speech and dissent were precisely what created the populist backlash.
The growing counter-revolution was not because of bogeyman charges of “racism,” “Islamophobia,” or “xenophobia,” much less “hate speech.”
The real culprit was bankrupt policies that not only did not work but impoverished the entire European Union middle classes.
So, the cure to restore European influence and prestige abroad and prosperity and security at home is not more censorship but more debate, dissent, and fresh ideas.
All that transparency might jumpstart the economy, encourage entrepreneurism, ensure national security, and return Europe to a civil, safe—and influential—society.
Sometimes Trump haters prove to be his best allies. Their venom shows us they either lack common sense or intelligence or both.
Such was the case with Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennen, and the European ministers.
An accomplished actor is just, nothing more.
An accomplished actor is just that, nothing more.
I was wondering how far Victor would ‘nutpick’ to find enough sugar to coat yesterday’s blatant treason. I admire Victor’s cleaning out the horse stables attitude, like the old joke, “there got to be a pony in there somewhere”. But there is no pony. Trump has prostituted himself and America spreading manifest lies of his apparent puppet master. “Russian collusion” was a hoax without any evidence, but now I wonder. NOTHING BIDEN DID WAS THIS BAD (I never thought I would say that). Victor projects his vastly superior reasoning on a feckless, craven, and lazy failure who has does nothing to deserve it.
The Left always accuses its political opponents of exactly what the Left is guilty.
They even invented a word for it: projection.
A great opportunity for America to attract Europe’s smartest and most promising individuals to a country that offers Freedom & Liberty.
I was surprised that Hanks did not appear as Forrest Gump with a MAGA hat. I am really enjoying the demise of the Blue Party and believe that one day soon what has happened to the USA will be seen as a plan of destruction planned and executed by a cabal of Soros backed lobbyists.
Elites like Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennan, and European ministers simply cannot fathom, nor tolerate, resistance from those they consider inferior to themselves, aka the “common man”. Anyone criticism of leftist ideology or challenge the global elites vision for the world is verboten. Vance and Rubio are spot on in their criticism of Germany’s attack on freedom of expression and speech. How refreshing that intelligent and bold US leadership is back on the world stage. Time for all of the freedom loving peoples of the world to pushback against totalitarianism.
Referring to the Tom Hanks character in the skit “Black Jeopardy”, it is obvious that VDH has not seen “Doug” when he first appeared on SNL during Trump’s first term. The other contestants and host quickly relaxed as Doug gave answers they identified with. The host was surprised and appreciated Doug and did shake his hand, despite Doug’s initial reluctance. The skit made fun of both black stereotypes and MAGA folks who need to just relax and not take themselves too seriously.
Reminds me of that Manhattan parlor socialite who, upon hearing that Richard Nixon won 60% of the popular vote and 49 states in ’72 said, “How could he have won? I don’t know anyone who voted for him!” I’m guessing the only time Hanks talks with “regular” people is when he hands the keys to his Benz to the valet at some swanky L.A. restaurant. Other than that, he’s probably locked inside the Mind Hive Bubble of the hard left.
Is this brief respite, Republicans should pass enabling legislation with funding in perpetuity, to create a parallel PBS and NPR broadcasting system. Let the left have the existing pbs and npr, it’s theirs anyway and has been for decades. Let a new PBS ie NPBS snd new NPR ie NPBR begin broadcasting truth in news, not fake news that has half our citizenry indoctrinated in wokeism that’s destroying our institutions and our country. The damage must be reversed by all means possible.
Dr Hanson: Watch out! Margaret Brennan might outdo you as a historian. You have stiff competition out there.
Isn’t it wonderful of the Left to continue to remind everyone of their delusionary and narcissistic view of the world? Just when we think that things may be coming back to the center a spew of malicious, reeking, hubristic dreck comes flying out of the Leftist camp ensuring that we never forget just how terrible these cretins are in almost every way.
I wouldn’t have a clue where to find SNL or CBS on the TV. Then again, I probably no longer know how to turn the damn thing on to begin with.
The traditional networks and cable news shows are headed for the digital scrap heap anyway.
Vance, Rubio, so many other informed and incisive leaders in this new administration. . . there’s hope.
They are both very biased and extremely stupid people. Hanks really is Forest Gump with an IQ of about 75 !!!!!👎❤️👎❤️💯👎❤️💯
What a wonderful article. “The Trump haters are our best ally” – brilliant.
Stupid is as stupid does, like mama used to say.
Thank you, Victor, for continually enlightening us. I so appreciate your efforts!!
My father was a gunner on a liberty ship; My stepfather was a Marine and wounded on Tinian: My uncle was a submariner in the Pacific theatre. It would be nice if more of these pseudo-intellectual leaders in Europe would be more grateful to us that they are not speaking German or Japanese!!
Prof Hanson,
I’ve traveled in and done extensive business with everyday folks in China, and quite a few ex-pats living here. A common remark of the locals here is the similarity between our current rejection of wokeism and rise of MAGA [and common sense]to the ending of the Cultural Revolution .
They have now lived it twice in one lifetime.
Saturday Night Live has been losing viewers nearly as fast as MSNBC which is about half the rate that CBS lost millions of viewers but not nearly as much as those abandoning CNN. Just give it time and more stupid skits like these and it will catch up!
Excellent expose of these ultra-liberals with zero comprehension of history or other relevant facts.
Keep up the good work, sir!
Sad that Hanks, who has portrayed so many Iconic American patriots, lacks any measure of self-awareness or insight into what he is portraying when attempting comedy.
It reminds me of a remark that Truman Capote once made during an interview. He said that there was an inverse relationship between an actor’s skill and his intelligence. The better the actor the more stupid he is.
Bravo, well said.
Yes, there’s a lot of truth in that theory! Numerous examples spring to mind, but I don’t want to disparage so-called least-accomplished actors, who are often in fact the most aware and articulate, although many have achieved great fame, and some are even regarded as icons.
It’s OK as long as THEY get to define what “hate speech,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation” is. They freak out and tweak if somebody else is allowed to dissent.
I would have loved Hanks’ skit if it were solely for comedic reasons. Sadly we all know it was a subtle message. Not so subtle, actually. Wasn’t he the joker that said “when pigs” before DJT would be POTUS? What would it be for 2X?
Insightful and accurate article! Thank you, Dr. Hanson, for articulating with such clarity and incisiveness the laughable, for very different reasons than they intended, skits by the jesters of SNL. Tom Hanks, in particular, has won favor for a career of skillfully pretending to be interesting and usually well-developed characters. At SNL, the script however, was instead undeveloped with zero insight as to exactly WHY a majority of Americans chose the brash and blunt Trump, with all of his obvious flaws. How is it that a guy with Trump’s overly documented foibles looks so much better than the best that democrats could offer? As you point out so brilliantly, it is in fact the very nature and character of the latest iteration of progressives that has so propelled most Americans to prefer Trump’s agenda over progressives. In my 60+ years of life, I’ve observed that all political parties have a normal distribution of IQs, and even education, if we can count both university and life experiences as valid sources of meaningful “education”. Moreover, people’s common intuition seems to have “Trumped” the presumed “intelligence” of progressive elites last Nov 8th. Never mind that even some formerly democrat geniuses like Musk have joined Trump, at least for a time. One wonders if progressives’ education and intelligence without morality has given us the unfolding fiscal corruption in our government, the growing magnitude by which we are daily shocked.? They “doth protest too much…”
The only thing I’d say to Tom Hanks is:
“Stupid is as stupid does.” … Forrest Gump
One thing left out in this discussion is that the supposed elites are really just bullies who have used their power, the power of the press, the power of Hollywood, the power of the “left” over minorities, as ways of controlling and getting their agenda through. Bullies have certain traits like: using power to control; they are insecure; they have internal doubt about who they are and how they are seen; they easily bend to peer pressure; they’ve seen others bully and get power by doing so, so they see this as a way of forcing their thoughts on others; they are really the ones with poor social skills (have you noticed who is doing the yelling, who is using the “f-bombs” to try to voice opinion?); they are not really the deep thinker they think they are and want others to think; and, they profess to be empathetic, when in reality they have no true empathy – it is all about them. Over time, those being bullied say, I’ve had enough, and they start pushing back. When that happens, bullies have no idea what to do since they are used to getting their way and just running over anyone who stands in their way. This is what Trump brought to the table – the will of those being bullied to stand up and say, enough. In return, the bullies’ true self has been exposed, and they are left with small groups acting silly by singing silly songs they think are creative and cute, and they rant into their video phones to a world that no longer listens or sees them as elite.
This sentence is spot on.
“Sometimes Trump haters prove to be his best allies.”
Every time one of the talking heads on Fox comment that the democrats should or the democrats really need to….. I want to scream, no no no, they are doing just fine!
Leave them be! They’re brilliant! If you don’t believe it just ask them!
They truly are modern day Jacobins as Victor often points out. Talk about irredeemable, geez!
Love the new website, the podcast and watching it on Rumble.
Keep up the good work Victor, Sami, and yes, you too Jack. 👍 🙂
Excellent analysis. Thank you, sir.
College students Hans and Sophie Scholl founded The White Rose. They were executed for distributing pamphlets that were critical of the Nazis. If memory serves, they were beheaded, which is especially horrifying. They were lovely kids.
I’m embarrassed for CBS. They gave a big job like Face the Nation to a flighty mooncalf like Margaret Brennan.
Tom Hanks, itching to be back in the front row of a Presidential portrait revealing or other liberal Democrat activity. Gotta keep pushing buttons from inside the safe and well gurded zone created by millions of Americans who funded the Gulfstreams and mansions for his safe passage. So the SNL skit is his way of thanking the millions of Americans that bought all that comfort.
SNL would have been better off with a Vance / Brennan skit: “Margaret, you ignorant slut.”
The irony was that Hanks resurrected this character for the anniversary show but later introduced a segment on what are supposedly now offensive characters and sketches that didn’t age well and therefore are now considered dead.
Brennen is stunningly stupid.
No, Brennan is stunningly arrogant. She’s certainly not stupid. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Yes but….European chauvinism in the 20th century lead to tens of millions of dead, communism, fascism hyper racism and economic policies that made war inevitable. This is what European elites see in their rear view mirror & in a large way explains why they react to Trump/Vance lecturing them on free speech. Of course they are wrong. In a great irony & seldom spoken historical continuum Hitler rose to power because he became the leading political spokesperson for the legitimate nationalist grievances that were the result of the “great & the good” imposing a harsh & punitive peace (after they said they wouldn’t) in the name of ensuring peace in Europe at Versailles. Definitely no irony there. Of course there is 1 more huge similarity. Neither Russia nor the USA signed the treaty that made the peace in 1919. Instead the Europeans attempted to deny reality and recreate the west by themselves. No similarity to how they are reacting to the US & Russia meeting in Saudi to figure out how to end the war in Ukraine. They say they are upset because Ukraine is not present, they are not being truthful, they are upset because they weren’t invited.
Pretty obvious to even a casual observer that people like Hanks and Brennan are completely and probably irreversibly out of touch with anybody other than those who share their social circles and opinions. They consider themselves “worldly” but are culturally reclusive. And increasingly, they are irrelevant.
Thank you for this take on these events.