Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
In the last 20 years, the Left has boasted that it has gained control of most of America institutions of power and influence—the corporate boardroom, media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the administrative state, academia, foundations, social media, entertainment, professional sports, and Hollywood.
With such support, between 2009-17, Barack Obama was empowered to transform the Democratic Party from its middle-class roots and class concerns into the party of the bicoastal rich and subsidized poor—obsessions with big money, race, a new intolerant green religion, and dividing the country into a binary of oppressors and oppressed.
The Obamas entered the presidency spouting the usual leftwing boilerplate (“spread the wealth,” “just downright mean country,” “get in their face,” “first time I’ve been proud of my country”) as upper-middle-class, former community activists, hurt that their genius and talents had not yet been sufficiently monetized.
After getting elected through temporarily pivoting to racial ecumenicalism and pseudo-calls for unity, they reverted to form and governed by dividing the country. And then the two left the White House as soon-to-be mansion living, mega-rich elites, cashing in on the fears they had inculcated over the prior eight years.
To push through the accompanying unpopular agendas of an open border, mandatory wind and solar energy, racial essentialism, and the weaponization of the state, Obama had begun demonizing his opponents and the country in general: America was an unexceptional place. Cops were racist. “Clingers” of the Midwest were hopelessly ignorant and prejudiced. Only fundamental socialist transformation could salvage a historically oppressive, immoral, and racist nation.
The people finally rebelled at such preposterousness. Obama lost his party some 1,400 local and state offices during his tenure, along with both houses of Congress. His presidency was characterized by his own polarizing mediocrity. His one legacy was Obamacare, the veritable destruction of the entire system of a once workable health insurance, of the hallowed doctor-patient relationship, and of former easy access to competent specialists.
Yet Obama’s unfulfilled ambitions set the stage for the Biden administration—staffed heavily with Obama veterans—to complete the revolutionary transformation of the Democratic Party and country.
It was ironic that while Obama was acknowledged as young and charismatic, nonetheless a cognitively challenged, past plagiarist, fabulist, and utterly corrupt Joe Biden was far more effective in ramming through a socialist woke agenda and altering the very way Americans vote and conduct their legal system.
Stranger still, Biden accomplished this subversion of traditional America while debilitated and often mentally inert—along with being mired in a bribery and influence-peddling scandal that may ultimately confirm that he easily was the most corrupt president to hold office in U.S. history.
How was all this possible?
Covid had allowed the unwell Biden to run a surrogate campaign from his basement as he outsourced his politicking to a corrupt media.
Senility proved a godsend for Biden. His cognitive disabilities masked his newfound radicalism and long-accustomed incompetence. Unlike his past failed campaigns, the lockdowns allowed Biden to be rarely seen or heard—and thus as much liked in the abstract as he had previously been disliked in the concrete.
His handlers, the Obamas, and the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren radical Democrats, saw Biden’s half-century pretense as a gladhander—good ole Joe Biden from Scranton—as the perfect delivery system to funnel their own otherwise-unpopular leftwing agendas. In sum, via the listless Biden, they sought to change the very way America used to work.
And what a revolution Biden’s puppeteers have unleashed in less than three years.
They launched a base attack on the American legal system. Supreme Court judges are libeled, their houses swarmed, and their lives threatened with impunity. The Left promised to pack the court or to ignore any decision it resents. The media runs hit pieces on any conservative justice deemed too influential. The prior Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer whipped up a mob outside the court’s doors, and threatened two justices by name. As Schumer presciently put it, they would soon “reap the whirlwind” of what they supposedly had sowed and thus would have no idea what was about to “hit” them.
Under the pretense of Covid fears, balloting went from 70 percent participation on election day in most states to a mere 30 percent. Yet the rates of properly rejected illegal or improper ballots often dived by a magnitude of ten.
Assaults now followed on hallowed processes, laws, customs, and institutions—the Senate filibuster, the 50-state union, the Electoral College, the nine-justice Supreme Court, Election Day, and voter IDs.
Under Biden, the revolution had institutionalized first-term impeachment, the trial of an ex-president while a private citizen, and the indictment of a chief political rival and ex-president on trumped up charges by local and federal prosecutors—all to destroy a political rival and alter the 2024 election cycle.
Biden destroyed the southern border—literally. Eight million entered illegally—no background checks, no green cards, no proof of vaccinations. America will be dealing with the consequences for decades. Mexico was delighted, receiving some $60 million in annual remittances, while the cartels were empowered to ship enough fentanyl to kill 100,000 Americans a year.
“Modern monetary theory,” the Leftist absurdity that printing money ensures prosperity, followed. It has nearly bankrupted the country, unleashed wild inflation, and resulted in the highest interest rates in a quarter-century. Middle-class wages fell further behind as a doddering Biden praised his disastrous “Bidenomics.”
Biden warred on fossil fuels, cancelling federal leases and pipelines, jawboning lending agencies to defund fracking, demonizing state-of-the-art, clean-burning cars, and putting vast areas of oil- and gas-rich federals lands off-limits to drilling.
When gas prices predictably doubled under Biden and the 2022 midterms approached, he tried temporarily to lease out a few new fields, to drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and to beg the Saudis, and our enemies, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and the Russians, to pump more oil and gas that Biden himself would not. All this was a pathetic ruse to temporarily lower gas prices before the mid-term elections.
Biden abandoned Afghanistan, leaving the largest trove of military equipment behind in U.S. military history, along with thousands of loyal Afghans and pro-American contractors.
Biden insulted the parents of the 13 Marines blown up in this worst U.S. military debacle since Pearl Harbor. He lied to the parents of the dead that he too lost a son in the Iraq war, and when among them later impatiently checked his watch as he seemed bored with the commemoration of the fallen—and made no effort to hide his sense that the ceremony was tedious to him.
Vladimir Putin summed up the Afghan debacle—and Biden’s nonchalant remark that he wouldn’t react strongly to a “minor” invasion of Ukraine if it were minor—as a green light to invade Ukraine.
When Biden did awaken, his first reaction was an offer to fly the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the country as soon as possible. What has followed proved the greatest European killing ground since the 1944-45 Battle of the Bulge, albeit one that has now fossilized into a Verdun-like quagmire that is draining American military supply stocks and killing a half-million Ukrainians and Russians.
Suddenly, there are three genders, not two. Women’s sports have been wrecked by biological men competing as women, destroying a half-century of female athletic achievement. Young girls in locker rooms, co-eds in sororities, and women in prison must dress and shower with biological men transitioning to women by assertion.
There is no longer a commitment to free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union is a woke, intolerant group trying to ban free expression under the pretense of fighting “hate” speech and “disinformation.”
The Left has revived McCarthyite loyal oaths straight out of the 1950s, forcing professors, job applicants, and students applying for college to pledge their commitment to “diversity” as a requisite for hiring, admittance, or promotion. Diversity is our era’s version of the Jacobins’ “Cult of Reason.”
Race relations hit a 50-year nadir. Joe Biden has a long history of racist insults and putdowns. And now as apparent penance, he has reinvented himself as a reverse racial provocateur, spouting nonsense about white supremacy, exploiting shootings or hyping racial tensions to ensure that an increasingly disgusted black electorate does not leave the new Democratic Party.
The military has adopted wokeism, oblivious that it has eroded meritocracy in the ranks and slashed military recruitment. It is underfunded, wracked by internal suspicion, loss of morale and ginned up racial and gender animosity. Its supply stocks are drained. Arms productions is snail-like, and generalship is seen as a revolving door to corporate defense contractor board riches.
Big-city Democratic district attorneys subverted the criminal justice system, destroyed law enforcement deterrence, and unleashed a record crime wave. Did they wish to create anarchy as protest against the normal, or were they Jokerist nihilists who delighted in sowing ruin for ruin’s sake?
Radical racial activists, with Democrat endorsement, demand polarizing racial reparations. The louder the demands, the quieter they remain about smash-and-grab looting, carjacking, and the swarming of malls by disproportionally black teens—even as black-on-black urban murders reach record proportions.
In response, Biden tried to exploit the growing tensions by spouting lies that “white supremacy” and “white privilege” fuel such racial unrest—even as his ill-gotten gains, past record of racist demagoguery and resulting lucre and mansions appear the epitome of his own so-called white privilege.
This litany of disasters could be vastly expanded, but more interesting is the why of it all?
What we are witnessing seems to be utter nihilism. The border is not porous but nonexistent. Mass looting and carjackings are not poorly punished, but simply exempt from all and any consequences. Our downtowns are reduced to a Hobbesian “war of all against all,” where the strong dictate to the weak and the latter adjust as they must. The streets of our major cities in just a few years have become precivilizational—there are more human feces on the sidewalks of San Francisco than were in the gutters of Medieval London.
The FBI and DOJ are not simply wayward and weaponized, but corrupt and renegade. Apparently the perquisite now for an FBI director is the ability either to lie while under oath or better to mask such lying by claiming amnesia or ignorance.
Immigration is akin to the vast unchecked influxes of the late Roman Empire across the Danube and Rhine that helped to finish off a millennium-old civilization that had lost all confidence in its culture and thus had no need for borders.
In other words, the revolution is not so much political as anarchist. Nothing escapes it—not ceiling fans, not natural gas cooktops, not parents at school board meetings, not Christian bakeries, not champion female swimmers, not dutiful policemen, not hard-working oil drillers, not privates and corporals in the armed forces, not teens applying on their merits to college, not anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The operating principle is either to allow or to engineer things to become so atrocious in everyday American life—the inability to afford food and fuel, the inability to walk safely in daylight in our major cities, the inability to afford to drive as one pleases, the inability to obtain or pay back a high interest loan—that the government can absorb the private sector and begin regimenting the masses along elite dictates. The more the people tire of the leftist agenda, the more its architects furiously seek to implement it, hoping that their institutional and cultural control can do what ballots cannot.
We could variously characterize their efforts as destroying the nation to save it, or burning it down to start over, or fundamentally transforming America into something never envisioned by the Founders.
Will their upheaval succeed? All the levers of the power and money are on the side of the revolutionaries. The people are not. And they are starting to wake to the notion if they do not stop the madness in their midst they very soon won’t have a country.
Obama is the “divide and conquer” president.
It’s interesting that Obama was worried enough about his image that he was only somewhat aggressive. Now that he has installed a useful idiot as puppet he has become much more aggressive and obvious. Interestingly, he has retreated to his compound on Martha’s Vineyard where he will be isolated from the havoc he is intentionally creating.
!sweJ !sweJ !sweJ
He still is head of the deep state. Burner phones and emails perhaps with fake names ala. Joe Xi-den.
An unfortunate prediction; the incompetent Biden will not be the Democratic party candidate for president in the next election. Even his oval office handlers and woke democrats are concerned about his level of dementia and the family corruption scandal slowly unravelling. Kamala Harris is a proven non-entity. No other contenders have appeared and we don’t see any white knights waiting in the left wing so in my opinion it will be “shock and awe” all over again when the left’s silent savior emerges suddenly to take the stage and divided Republicans are both shocked and unprepared to effectively deal with it: Barack Obama all over again! Heaven help us all, and heaven help America!
RFK jr. would be an acceptable candidate. At least he has a brain.
RFK would be more than acceptable. He would be fantastic. He represents the (D) long before Obama took over. Possibly even pre-Clinton. No one yanks RFK’s strings.
Well, If you like no gas, high prices on everything, no firearms, love climate change Green New Deal and paying reparations to people who don’t deserve it, then RFK Jr. is you man. If you don’t want those things I suggest you research what RFK Jr is really about he is No conservative and he’s No America First man he is more far left then middle. He may not be as bad as Biden but who really knows he believes are more far left then most people bother to learn about
It will be Obama again in the name of Michelle Obama! Not sure that even God could help us out of that one!!
Yes,
“Order out of Chaos” that is thier motto. It is tattooed on baphomets forearms. The anarchy comes from the very top. From the private money printers that call themselves the “Federal reserve bank” Old Abe defied them when he printed his Greenbacks. JFK defied them when he printed his United States Notes. We need to give the power to coin money back to congress where it belongs. We need to overturn the Federal reserve act of 1913.
We need to buy some rope and have an old fashioned party.
Order out of chaos is indeed their motto. Also the phoenix rising out of the ashes of destruction. Also the New world order as printed on the back of the dollar bill. It is completely pagan and thoroughly occultic.
All of this is shown as symbolism in the many mystic schools, in many various sculptures for example, the baphomet, and in various writings such as Madame Blavatskey, Alice Bailey, Manly P Hall, and so forth and so on. However we, the common people on the streets, if we even know anything of these things, take it all as mere symbolism and far fetched mad ideas. We can hardly imagine that there are a group of people fully committed to, and believe in these things, and have dedicated their lives to work behind the scenes, and for hundreds of years with each successive generation, they’ve pushed the agenda as far as they could within their lifetime. They believe it is the only way to both enlighten and save humanity. That such people even exist and serve such a horrific agenda is completely alien and unbelievable to most people.
The greatest deception the devil ever pulled is making people believe he couldn’t possibly exist, let alone have a most diabolical plan whose seeds were sowed many millennia ago, and has been painstakingly working through the many different civilisations that have existed to completely subvert humanity and re-create it in his own image.
hope and change……..
This was such an Informative and a confirmation of the intent and success of a group that has manipulated Americans to hate the principles the constitution implemented. Our youth is becoming the new Nazi soldier towing the government line. They see everyone of a conservative, constitutional, patriotic slant, as their enemy. They can’t tell you why, they just repeat the dogma language given over and over by the cabal of elite controllers through the media and Hollywood. Parents have been too busy getting ahead, paying bills, to take the time needed to train up a child into a quality adult. Mom’s were awakened when covid forced them to be at home paying attention to their own kids. Mom’s used to be the keeper of the castle, the CEO, the watcher until they were manipulated to burn their bra and exchange it for a blazer to be more valuable to society. Yes, we’ve been played in so many ways. Our vote will surely be corrupted this time too as it surely was in 2016 and 2020. If you had clear sight, you witnessed it. The elites have to control the vote to continue and grow their control. Trump may not be the choice of a weary country, but we have to put a president in office that can get running on day one to remove this cancer. Republicans have a very competent bench, but they aren’t as knowledgeable of where the enemy is lurking like Trump and his team are. Conservatives, independents HAVE to unite to win. The democrats are exception at this and we can be too, if we unde
You hit the nail on its head.. We are kinda of lucky we had covid, for only that reason parents started hearing what the purple haired non binary rainbow waving freaks were teach and grooming our children.. I always known,told my kids that I fear this pendulum don’t swing too far right when handling these left leaning communist unisex type minor attracked persons and illegal aliens.. Go with God,God Bless America!
Thank you for stating the major problem we have here in America! While Hanson clearly and succinctly lays out the timeline and the predicament In which we find ourselves, he offers no solutions. Nor do any of the various and sundry “experts” that flood the airwaves with the same talking points day after day.
My opinion is that this borders on pure cowardice. That includes all of the talking heads that have been spewing the same things ad nauseum. It amounts to fear. That is something neither our founders or our military have never had the ability or the desire to engage in.
Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump come closer to flesh and blood patriots because they say what the Left means to make punishable by death, either literally or figuratively. It seems to be working. No one even dares to legally protest anymore because they’re AFRAID. Most websites stringently moderate their comment sections because they FEAR getting sued or cancelled by the Left if someone says the wrong thing.
We are in “1984” with a vengeance. We’re Winston finally saying that four fingers are actually five because we FEAR the Left and the consequences they can bring to bear on us. It only gets worse from here. There are no Patrick Henry’s today.
Puleeze…everyone where I live is ready to roll and we are not afraid. Cowardice is not in our vocabulary, but .556 is.
You could not be more correct. I believe the first solution is to re-elect Trump. I don’t think there is any other, though all conservative candidates are very capable for a normal time, but this is not a normal time, this is war. We have to have an insider that has learned the ways of the enemy and who and where they are. He’s the only one. I pray we as independents and conservatives can get ourselves out of the way to unite to win our country back. This will be our last chance without another revolution, another civil war. I enjoyed your comment.
Are you interested in discussing the specific requirement in your State Constitution (and in the SC Constitution and in most if not all other State Constitutions) … which if effectively made into State election law … would inherently ban all use of mail-in ballots … and create a starting point for creation of Election Integrity in regard to proper uses of mail-in ballots?
Please call me … Bill Coleman, Greenville SC, 864-419-27 97, 10am – 8pm or anytime I answer my phone, any day.
SC Constitution …
Article II, “SECTION 1. Elections to be by secret ballot; protection of right of suffrage. All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret. The Right of suffrage, as regulated in this Constitution, shall be protected by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, undue influence from power, bribery, tumult, or improper conduct.”
Obama, Hillary, Bill and Nancy are the worst thing to happen to this Nation in the past 30 years.
Started with a clen well spoken black man who smokes.. no it started way before that.. It started when hi grandpa sent his little girl to to be used as a set kitten, has a bastardo, pinned it on another man, As he grew and was twisted to specs,Little barry Satoro trained well up to age.
In steps fuddy who was placed to swap in birth cert # (that belong to a 80ish white man then) she’s only person who died in a freak plane incident.. this go’s on and on.. remember “I wish I could become prez and someone else does all the waving and ceremonial stuff while I could sit behind the scene making all the decisions” or close to that is what Barry said.. now his cook the was writing a tell all book drowns in a 6ft pond,it takes a day to find his body, accident happen but COME ONN!! HILLARY where were you? I joke, only cause I won’t get to pissed or cry.. this pendulum is swinging.. I hope poopy pants don’t start a war to stop a election.. that’s what I fear.. WE WONT EVEN GET TO PUT THE ONLY MAN CAPABLE OF FIXING THIS.. And make the evil and criminals PAY! JAIL,GILITINES and put on pikes on white house lawn.
Shown on live tv.. and then left to rot as a message.. DONT!! Long live Donald Trump and protect him and his on way back to our House,The Peoples House, The White House!! And God Bless America and United States.. Pitchforks and torchs! Amazing! The patience shown.
This sums it all up. For the past few years, I’ve been saying that the fundamental transformation of America began with Obama… and continues today under his direct oversight of the pernicious, corrupt, and disgraceful Biden administration.
Excellent article. Left is crazy
I’ve been trying to figure out a good word to describe the citizens of my city Chicago here. It is Nihilism, like u say VDH. Along with a dose of demoralization
Thank you Mr. Hanson for such an accurate description of the criminality, anti-American, anti-semitic, multi-front attack from within being perpetrated on our beloved country, our people, and our identity! Sadly, so many bought into the woke propaganda, few realized what was happening, and now we are in great peril; teetering between waking up to the truth and getting it together. This truly is a fight for our existence! May The Lord guide us, bless us, empower us, redeem us, and reinstate us as “the shining city on the hill” built on the corner stone of “One Nation Under God,” and return us to our former glory! In The Most Precious Name of Jesus!
Hallelujah and Amen!!!
You could not be more correct. I believe the first solution is to re-elect Trump. I don’t think there is any other, though all conservative candidates are very capable for a normal time, but this is not a normal time, this is war. We have to have an insider that has learned the ways of the enemy and who and where they are. He’s the only one. I pray we as independents and conservatives can get ourselves out of the way to unite to win our country back. This will be our last chance without another revolution, another civil war. I enjoyed your comment.
0bama was carefully groomed for this destruction of our Constitutional REPUBLIC by Marshall Davis. He was the perfect Manchurian Candidate because he actually was anti-American. He didn’t grow up here, so he had no patriotic loyalties; he attended all the colleges as a foreign student. He never considered himself a citizen, perhaps why he removed the citizenship question from the Census forms. But he believes he has the right to destroy our beloved Constitutional REPUBLIC. And he was paid well for the process. Weaponizing govt agencies & destroying the rule of LAW… were just a few of his accomplishments. Using RACE, he managed to destroy patriotism, convince people that a Marxist government would be best… and successfully funneled hatred to Donald Trump.
I researched 0bama the summer of 2008, discovering just how anti-American he really was. Of course, because of corrupt politics & a dishonest media–no one would have believed it then. NOW they tell me CA has a bio Lab to create a new planned-demic to eliminate those of us who didn’t want to relinquish our Constitutional REPUBLIC??
Wow, your reply should be read by every American. So perfectly written. When Obama came on the big screen in the 2008 presidential campaign and proclaimed “we will fundamentally transform America” my heart turned over with deep concern. I started digging into, who is Barack Obama? I read his book, “Dreams of My Father” and discovered his father didn’t hate America but he dreamt of cutting her down to size of smaller, unfluencial countries. He hated America’s exceptionalism. He wasn’t close to his unloving father but vowed to carry out his father’s dreams. I couldn’t believe that he actually put that in print, out in the open and not one main stream investigative reporter disclosed that info. So, I, like you, continued to investigate and that was my first big wake up call to their plans. Victor is very intelligent. I want him to give suggestions of steps we can take to get our country back. Knowing the problem is only useful if we know the solution and implement it.
Envy, resentment and arrogance.
The photo says a lot.
Sadly, many are too lazy or blinded by the actions of the above to take the time to read the truth. And even if read, won’t get off their blessed assurance to join those fighting this war for America’s and possible the rest of the countries that currently follow the American example.
I have, we all must, get involved, spread these facts person to person because the majority of media lie to the people. They are only talking heads. Newsmax, and bloggers like Beck and Bondgion tell it like it is.
Finally get on your knees and pray God forgive us one more time and protect President Trump and now Tucker Carlson who have prices on their heads for telling the truth.
It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s facts now. Stand up do your duty give back to the country that has given you freedom all your life because you’re about to lose it.
I’m learning to completely lean on JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth. I’ve stopped listening to the news. I’m expecting FATHER GOD to direct us.
As JFK said back in the 60’s, “God’s work must truly be out own.”
Check out Dr. Shiva interview on brighteon.com/27061461-d568-4644-9741-1ed95d12b5e6
“Dr. Shiva UNLEASHES on the whole charade” really makes me wonder…
Amen.
Nothing further need be said.
Emboldened by a highly complicit media this tsunami of progressive redesign of America appears to be omnipotent … your writings Dr. Hanson at least conclude with a solution to our deep-seated malaise ..
Solutions to our seemingly dire situation rest solidly on the shoulders of the individual peering back at me in the mirror .. we all have a post to walk & prescriptions for engagement from the trenches to the command post.
May we collectively awaken from our blissful slumber & answer the call.
So scary… I feel sorry for my grandchildren… Not the same country I grew up in… Victor, please keep educating …. The country needs to hear your voice loud and clear. Thank you.
Brilliant , as always!
Yes and Joan Rivers knew the truth about him an Michael. They are just two gays that entered into the Whitehouse. Antichrist server is who he really is.
And he left behind the Senior Executive Service to serve as a cadre to implement their plans. All must be identified and rooted out.
a brilliant assessment, unfortunately…
this needs to be widely published, read…
the time is now for patriots to act !!
why has there not been public outrage in the
assault on Pres. Trump ?
wake up America, before it’s too late…!!
Ate you aware that our coybtry was 89% white in the 1970s? It is now 59%. They have been working for decades to outnumber us. Hispanics already outnumber blaqs as the Left/ globalist kepp talkungcabout how much they care about them. Treason. And the DHS enacted a special visa to bring in Nicaraugans, Haitiabs, Venezuelabs and Cubans and give them immediate residency so they can work and of course become citizens sooner.. Our country is being destroyed. Bankrupt and filled with the worlds trash. One day soon Biden or McCarthy will say how great it is that we are finally multicultural. ( majority hispanic.) In addition to millions of Asians, Indians, Sudanese, etc. That will be the end of the US. All planned. Same in the UK and Ireland. Our Western European protestant founded and settled country turned into a 3rd world narco dump. TREASON. Not Israel though. They are deporting all illegals and building a wall around their country. Manned with soldiers. And nowhere else in the world outside the white West
Few commentators realize the more fundamental reason we are in a death spiral. Kruschev in 1956 and 1963 promised to bury the great American experiment. Read my https://jawingjerry.com/2022/04/23/dark-agenda-the-war-to-destroy-christian-america/
Excellent! Thanks! Bob
As usual, Victor Davis Hanson lays out the problem in exacting and excruciating detail but offers NO detailed solutions or action plan to solve the problem. What a waste.
I, too. was looking for answers to combat this turn. A place of weakness where we could find purchase and be a part of toppling all of this. I was always told, “don’t come to me with the problem” instead, “tell me what the challenge is a propose several solutions.” We will definitely lose if we have lost hope. That’s all that’s left to us.
Only a waste to those who don’t appreciate a bare bones assessment with all the distractions and deflections stripped away. Supposedly nothing of use to be found in this piece that the reader can use in discussing these issues and the current situation with others. Or by sharing it with others. Because (apparently) every concerned American is already just as articulate and skilled as Hanson is when it comes to laying the facts out to their audience. And so, this piece is useless and redundant.
Only a waste to those who are only capable of providing criticism is that it wasn’t twice or three times as long to include detailed solutions – while their whining criticism was ALSO unaccompanied by offering any detailed solutions or an action plan to solve the problems.
They become exactly what they complain about. Kind of like Democrats!
I fear the 2022 election cycle proved that the obidens have indeed succeeded… and the 2024 election could be the last nail in our coffin if Americans don’t hwake up to their treachery.
Perfection. When we meet the aliens, we shall hand them this piece so they will understand our recent history.
As always, VDH lays out a truthful and comprehensive assessment of the tragic condition of our Republic. Yes indeed, we constitutionally faithful Americans must wake up and act, or we and our once great nation are lost, to be thrown on the garbage pile of failed governmental experiments.
Col. James Kress, USA (Ret.)
Great column. Too bad the “proofreader” missed the annual remittances to Mexico.
VDH, you have made numerous comparisons between the present-day cults of climate, trans, and DEI with the Jacobins’ “Cult of Reason.” I have done some reading on this in Wikipedia and a few other places. However, I suspect you have researched it in depth. Please devote part of your podcast and an article here on the Jacobins. I confess not to understanding at any depth what your repeated comparison to the Jacobins signifies. Please elaborate.
I noticed the direction we were headed long ago. I spoke out and took action, but, not unlike the Little Red Hen, I found more effort was needed than I could take. I made a decision that if I couldn’t even get the fix started, my kids would never live in a country like what I saw coming. The only sure way I could make that happen was to never have kids.
Maybe it will work longer the next time around.
We can start our protest by saying “hell no” to masks, distancing, lockdowns, school closures, and zoom classrooms. We cannot be rolled this time. This is the test. If we succumb to covid restrictions once again then we are done. If we do give in, it will make my life simpler. I’ll no longer have a need to read these types of articles, since they inspire no reaction from the disorganized, dispirited and beaten down public.
The government, our government, is trying to scare us into submission.
They are doing a pretty good job, I’d say.
George Orwell would be amazed and stupefied by our collective inability to protest effectively.
The frog is still in the pot and the water is getting close to boiling.
Excellent!!!
Obama DID get his third term via phone.
Question for me is…..who’s handling the handler?
I do not see any of the folks in Congress with that capability.
I don’t see Obama with that kind of intelligence.
He’s too bought and sold out to be motivated to care enough.
Figure THAT one out and we will have the head of the snake.
Could it be George Soros and his ilk?
We should not forget the people associated with the Chicago communists, i.e., Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Axlerod, Klain, others. They “selected” Obama, Jarrett and Rice and Klain (?) also supported the Obama house in DC close to the WH O had said would be his headquarters for his coordination work against the incoming Admin.
Our VOTES are irrelevant if the left gets away with CHEATING to “win” elections!!! That is the final insult! The lefg has made it irin clad that no matter how many turn oug to vote them out, they will still “win” by there multiple methods of cheating across this country…”We the People” have lost our ONLY means of assuring THIS kind of corrupt power can not preveil…the “camel” is IN the tent and without DEVINE INTERVENTION, there is NO getting the camel out!!!🙏🙏🙏
When the only response and explanation/justification is “The only possible reason we lost the election is because they cheated – we had perfect candidates and policies!”, we are going to ensure Republicans continue to lose elections.
Two or more things can be true at once:
1. There can be vote rigging, thumbs put on the scales by news media propagandists, cheating, etc. Been going on for centuries in America – in living memory LBJ and JFK successfully cheated their way into office.
2. We can choose poor candidates, good candidates who perform poorly, good candidates that say and do remarkably stupid things, political leaders that say/do incredibly stupid things during elections. The GOP is remarkably good at doing all of those things in elections.
How was Senator Lindsay Graham bugling about a new GOP government enacting federal abortion bans just prior to the 2020 election with the hysteria of the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade a great way to beat pro abortion Democrats? How was telling GOP voters to NOT vote in those Georgia senate races the best way to defeat the two radical Democrats who won? And why is obsessively focusing on attacking fellow Republicans instead of spending that time instead criticizing Biden and the Democrats the best way to win over the independent/undecided voters?
The supposedly unbeatable cheating failed to beat now Governor Youngkin. Nor DeSantis who eliminated Democrat presence in Florida.
Poor excuses aren’t a winning strategy.
In this accounting of the Left side of an out-of-balance sheet, the Right side can claim few accomplishments. Accordingly, Trump 2016-2020 was simply a bump in the road to complete transformation, and prevalence of speculation about his candidacy from numerous Republican sources points to a disastrous disunity for the party in 2024.
I’m 80 and will soon enough leave all this behind. At least I will be able to say I lived in the best of times. Never ever though I’d see Marxist America. Sad.
Hanson has always been my go-to columnist and he nails it on this one…. there’s no denying what the left is doing to our nation…. WAKE UP AMERICA
Obama; the beginning of the end!
“In the last 20 years, the Left has boasted that it has gained control of most of America institutions of power and influence—the corporate boardroom, media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the administrative state, academia, foundations, social media, entertainment, professional sports, and Hollywood.”
Every Republican politician should read this article. I am not sure if – to this day – they really understand the above paragraph. The Left has captured a major portion of America, possibly the majority, considering the younger electorate. The midterms were a message missed, and Mitch McConnell is still sharp as a tack.
Mitch McConnell “is still sharp as a tack”?
Look at him, two “brain freezes” and counting. He looks sickly and appears as if he’s lost weight.
Bottom line–it doesnt matter who gets in office, America is done and Hansen just listed all the reasons why.
The damage is deep and entrenched. America has been around 250 years or so, the time most once great powers crash and burn.
You need to pray. “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Do not give up. Our Founding Fathers did not. DeSANTIS 2024! ⚔️🇺🇸✝️
Good summary of the mess we’re in right now. Not to worry, we’ve been caught flat footed before. God is in control and willing to restore godliness and righteousness to our land when good men and women stand up and take a stand. It’s happening! I am praying for a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit throughout our land and throughout the world. To God be the glory, great things He has done and will do again!
Yes, the madness in our midst . . . that sums it up . . . that’s why I didn’t feel quite right in Harvard Stadium in spring of 1973 . . . .and now we’re facing a full-fledged madness.
“Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.” Sound familiar?
In this painfully accurate account of what has happened, I believe the statement about remittances to Mexico should indicate that they are in the billions rather than millions.
Dear Dr. Hanson,
I have great respect for your observations and analysis. How do we change the current of this flood? It took New York State and the Federal government more than a hundred years to remove a substantial amount of power from Tammany Hall.
If our country is to survive, it will be because of brave people who realize the we are the worlds last hope.
Thank you for all you do to help keep people informed.
I am 78 years old and I am so distressed with our country. I have voted every election since I was 17.
Pray for our country.
I appreciate VDH’s calm recitation of the rage inducing, honor insulting, and yes treasonous actions that have been carried out by the epitome of American Racketeering organizations deserving of national rebuke, and criminal prosecutorial attention, to the admitted acts by and on behalf of the Democratic Party & its National Committee. I am not optimistic that our opposition’s leadership have the spine or fortitude to save us, and would rather go meekly into the mire than stand and fight.
If the Left controls elections and ballot processing, it doesn’t matter.
When the only response and explanation/justification is “The only possible reason we lost the election is because they cheated – we had perfect candidates and policies!”, we are going to ensure Republicans continue to lose elections.
Two or more things can be true at once:
1. There can be vote rigging, thumbs put on the scales by news media propagandists, cheating, etc. Been going on for centuries in America – in living memory LBJ and JFK successfully cheated their way into office.
2. We can choose poor candidates, good candidates who perform poorly, good candidates that say and do remarkably stupid things, political leaders that say/do incredibly stupid things during elections. The GOP is remarkably good at doing all of those things in elections.
How was Senator Lindsay Graham bugling about a new GOP government enacting federal abortion bans just prior to the 2020 election with the hysteria of the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade a great way to beat pro abortion Democrats? How was telling GOP voters to NOT vote in those Georgia senate races the best way to defeat the two radical Democrats who won? And why is obsessively focusing on attacking fellow Republicans instead of spending that time instead criticizing Biden and the Democrats the best way to win over the independent/undecided voters?
The supposedly unbeatable cheating failed to beat now Governor Youngkin. Nor DeSantis who eliminated Democrat presence in Florida.
Poor excuses aren’t a winning strategy.
You are so right on. Thank you for writing thoughtful, truthful articles.
Thank-you for pulling all the details together to show how America got to the pitiful and weak condition we are in today.
Our God, won’t you punish them? We arer powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us . We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are upon YOU.
2 Chronicles 20:12
This is a Marxist, bloodless revolution, most of it carried out in secret and but in front of the eyes of the American people. They have succeeded so far because there has been no organized opposition
and those who have tried have been put down do to the strength of those who control our institutions.
The corruption disease in this country has spread so far and so quickly that the only opposition political party has decided to join those in the Democrat Party and sacrifice our constitutional form of government to fill their own pockets by methods that have proved to be favorable to those who have succumbed to their Marxists masters.
The American people who remain loyal to our founders and constitution – which is approximately half of the voting public – have been left with a land of open borders, the elimination of the voting process and unable to express their opinion as to what type of government they want. The only power left to them is the second amendment which is on the verge of also being taken away from them.
A land without borders and a voting system is not a country. A land that does insure law and order for it’s citizens is not a country. A land where is judicial system, media outlets, educational system and politicians is an arm of the executive system is nothing more than a Marxist dictatorship and that is almost what we are.
Good summary of sad state of affairs.
To say that the Democrats are nihilists is a bit of a tautology. You haven’t really explained the nihilism. There’s something wrong at the core of their souls, something worm-eaten and malignant. Something abhorrent and wicked. That heart of darkness is what no one yet has been able to explain, except in purely theological terms.
The last jog in my 30 year career in the military was training and deployment as a psy ops operator. While it sounds dramatic, essentially psy ops is marketing. Marketing of ideas, marketing of emotions, etc to the target audience. That audience can be village elders in a shura, or it can be an entire country like America. You don’t need an extensive six month course to figure out how to do it, nor a book like Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals.
The presumption in the face of it successfully getting so many Americans to vote against their own self interest and that of your children that these people must be malignant, abhorrent, and wicked is sophomoric and blind at best.
Humans have had mental frailties regarding rational thought, emotion, etc that spans known history and all the cultures of the world. And people within those cultures have always attempted to exploit those frailties for their own benefit and purposes throughout history.
There is nothing new here, including the success we are currently seeing at getting people to vote for and support governments in direct opposition to their own self-interest. Presuming that those it has worked on are abhorrent and wicked, with hearts of darkness is not a recipe for successfully opposing this.
Sadly, I can’t publish what I am actually thinking. Neither can any of you. Everything else is either lip service or, as VDH is presenting here, simply objective observation. The lines have been drawn.
Exactly!
Yes!!!
Although you’re clearly a brilliant man, it’s fortunate this is merely an opinion piece. That excuses your broad generalizations, but your credentials as an historian suggest you well know that the Left is not uniquely responsible for the changes in our society you so despise.
Remember when GWB had an immigration law with bipartisan support, until the bigots and crazies of the “conservative” movement killed it? That’s a big reason we have such messed up borders today. Remember when Trump and Pompeo negotiated the Doha Agreement? That’s the binding agreement for the U.S.A. to remove its military forces from Afghanistan no later than May of 2021?
At least be intellectually honest.
The reason we have such messed up borders today is because the current insane administration has invited and welcomed illegal entry into this once soverign nation.
cherry picking spinner… worthless input…
If you demand intellectual honesty as you claim this piece lacks, don’t expose yourself by claiming the Doha Agreement was a binding agreement for the USA to remove its military forces from Afghanistan by May 2021.
Your posting that suggests you lifted that straight out of the Biden/Democrat excuse playbook, that the Doha Agreement compelled Biden’s actions. Your post suggests you never actually READ the Doha Agreement for yourself, just picked the Biden/Democrat excuse.
The wording of the Doha Agreement EXPLICITLY puts numerous conditions on the hajjis to meet prior to US withdrawal. They did not meet a single one of those conditions – which is why Trump almost immediately went back to bombing them, etc instead of preparing for withdrawal.
Biden initially attempted his OWN withdrawal agreement – while his spokesmen told Americans the hajjis were not in compliance with any of the Doha Agreement conditions for withdrawal. The anniversary deadline and his desire for a photo op moment led to Biden abandoning Afghanistan to the hajis.
An honest (never mind intellectual) commentator would recognize that Biden demonstrated he was not bound by ANY of Trump’s agreements. Not only Doha, but the border, the Paris Accords, Iran, etc. He happily reversed them as he chose – but NOT the Doha Agreement that the hajjis weren’t in compliance with.
Ditto your revisionist history of GWB’s attempted immigration “fix”.
Begone, you dishonest and non-intellectual charlatan!
So unfortunately true, all of it.
You’ve stated the obvious once again. How about a detailed plan to FIX THINGS???
I think the DNC under Obama was able to cobble together all the fringe groups under the democrat banner. That recognition only served to make them even more radical, which led the leaders to a point where (to decide not to decide is a decision) any insanity became acceptable to the party.
They say they do not believe in ‘day of birth’ abortion but are unable to articulate when to place when it becomes unacceptable.
The sordidness of the article screams for action, and the concluding remark that the people are starting to wake and will stop the madness is incredibly doubtful. How will this happen, without the means or the leadership to challenge and defeat the leftists? Wringing hands, pitying the injustices, and crying over their losses, will do nothing to stop the destruction of the United States. What,Who, and How will work, Mr. Hanson?????
You are spot on and what you described is absolutely distressing. How do we come back from today’s reality? Trump is only one man and you didn’t even cover the permanent DC government body that will forevermore do what it wants, regardless of who is supposedly in power. A CIA, DOJ/FBI, Intel Community, vast numbers of agencies…..all of which no longer respond to outside attempts to restrain them.
I think one of the most amazing qualities of VDH’s writings is the sheer volume of examples he can cite in such a concise and pitch-perfect way.
Where would we be, we who must be reminded from time to time that it is we who are sane and the world who is barking mad, were it not for VDH?
Very succinct. Victor Hanson is gifted in his ability to capture and express what’s happening in America.
A Google search on “move abroad tax free” had 183 million results. Sadly, moving abroad doesn’t exempt you from U.S. taxes. They’ve got you cornered.
You are missing something Victor The RINOS ALLOWED ALL OF THIS TO HAPPEN.
And the intellectuals complain and whine about it for the past 50 years, but never could or did anything about it, besides talk, talk, talk. This is nothing new — it did not start with Mr. O.
Victor at his Best! A MUST Read.
We haven’t won a war since WW 2 since Truman listened to the Sec of War Stimson not to drop the bomb on Kyoto because it is the Spiritual capital of the Japanese people all the while our troops were praying to Almighty God that gave us America to win. Gen. Doug MacArthur brought Christianity to the Japanese, and Truman called him to the Korean war then fired him when Gen Doug MacArthur recognized he had to bomb China to stop the war.
When they = Progressive Liberal Democrats face God and he asks, What did you do with my son? and they will reply, we had him killed at Satan’s pleasure, because the world is Satan’s and he gives us power. That won’t sit well with Almighty God who created Satan for this purpose. Isaiah-45-7, I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
We must break the Devil and the Dem’s illegal LAWFARE to save our Costitution and Bill of Rights or teach our childern Mandarin.. Our currnency is the next the Democrats will get rid of because on our money we state “In God We Trust”, digital currency makes the Government god.
Understanding the step-by-step decline of our country, clearly outlined in morbid detail, gives each us of a fighting chance to recognize and resist it.
Pass it on.
Well done, VDH!
Demon position becomes religion: The Devil’s game has never changed, he attacked Eve with the lust of the eye and the pride of life, she dwelled too long and succumbed. He tempts us through the lust of the eye, flesh and pride of life. What you dwell on most, is your god(s)
Victor Davis Hanson is the college professor who I never knew that I always wanted. I love his wit, intellect, insights, analysis, and unbridled honesty. He is a national treasure of institutionalized sanity.
A very clearly written explanation of the chaos being pursued by the left in this country. But I still don’t understand the why .
Many thanks
Amen, Victor, amen!!!!!!
Yup.
Amen.
Every day I pray that those who vote, and our representatives wake up, stand up and reverse the actions of those who hate us and our constitution. I vote, I donate to candidates who share my beliefs, and politely share my beliefs when appropriate.
Thank you for your writings and your spoken words. You are making a difference.
Hello
This is the smartest man in America. All the reasons to get involved and take back our institutions, entertainment, news media.
Common sense folks need to attend the political meetings.
Its been very disheartening to watch this country go from somewhat prosperous to third world sh!thole.
Three things:
First, this is an excellent article, but remember the situation is even worse than VDH can sum up.
Second, stop using the words “woke” and especially “elite.” There’s nothing “elite” about these scum. Come up with different terms. Using the left’s language means they’ve won.
Third, put in motion a movement for an Article 5 constitutional convention to re-structure or dissolve the union. Nothing else matters.
It is going to be difficult enough to get that Convention of States – NOT a “constitutional convention” – to try and enact specific fixes that would hopefully have the necessary number of states in support to pass. Balanced budgets. Term limits.
A sweeping action to dissolve the republic or “fundamentally re-structure” it differently than Obama envisioned is (thankfully) guaranteed to be a miserable, abject failure.
Add that to the list of “things that at least I don’t have to worry about”.
I really enjoyed reading this article. It is very concise and thoughtful. We need to heed Victor’s warning.
Your teeth are showing, Victor, and I hear you growling.
Bravo!!!
Yes…..so very yes.
Well written Professor.
I tried to warn everyone at the time, but it was either Obama or McCain….
1-Just one of these issues would be bad. All of them in total is devastating. Those of us who understand what is happening will fight back. But corrupt elections will make it impossible.
2–Older people have the knowledge and convictions to fight the change. Younger people have been “brain washed” and have little knowledge of history or the constitution so they won’t fight the change. We need strong leadership to guide our youth. Leadership to inspire the people to fight this destruction of our country and its values.
3-And most critically we need to safeguard fair elections with voter id and in-person voting again so the people’s voice can be heard and we can save our country.
Obama proved that a 1-term president can do enough damage to require 25 years of subsequent repair, and a 2-term president can do 50 years’ damage. Add Biden as “Obama’s 3rd term,” and America will be repairing the damage done by those 2 presidents into the 22nd century.
Three strikes and we’re out. The country will NEVER recover from the damage these evil people have done – never.
The issues in America are very much intentional. Our enemies have captured our government and nearly every aspect of our country. The only solution is to stop mail-in balloting.
Dr Hanson
Thank you so very much for your thorough thoughts and your detail understanding of situations and able to articulate so well . We listen and read your podcast and newsletter everyday! We value and trust your options and just want to thank you for all you do for our country and the farmer and the value you give to the working middle class citizens!
You give us hope as there can be change as you unravel the corruptness of our politics,leadership and government .
Thank you for all your wisdom!
Americans better wake up and soon or we will not recognize our country! It will be Venezuela or worse.
Maybe too late
As usual, Mr. Hanson thoroughly sets out the facts. I’m afraid we’ve passed the tipping point and another civil war or revolution against the political class will ensue. I don’t have any faith left in the intelligence level of the American People.
Fabulous!!! He is a national treasure!
When I heard him use the word transformation in his speech in Denver when he was campaigning for his first term.. I saw threw him as someone who wanted to overall our country to a place none if us wanted to go.
At this moment, the leftists appear to have momentum across the fruited plane and especially in the large cities. However, it is also the case that citizens appear to be awakening to what has taken place right in front of their eyes. The question really is will sufficient numbers vote next election to counter the left’s tactics before, at, and after that Tuesday. The hatred witnessed toward conservatives and maga citizens, nevertheless, on many websites is stunning and is completely disproportional.
God help us.
This is so depressing. It will get worse before better. There is a high probability of an assassination of Trump, our only real hope, or an attempt. That event will be the end of this decline and will spark real national-scale violence. Democrats will be sought out and punished. Sad, wrong without due process, but they probably have it coming. I still am so depressed that my fellow countrymen could be so evil as to steal my votes, an act of treason. No apologies for it or care in the least while now they have even doubled down on their efforts to do the same in 2024 with the most egregious election interference via lawfare of all time plus all the usual fraud in counting faked ballots. I didn’t think they had it in them, but they do. Very sad.
Vic Hanson is again over target.
Spot on. The dystopian left seems intent on burning it all down. And the Obamas poured the foundation.
VDH, you have eloquently “told it like it is” and I praise your honesty and discernment. Now, sir, what can citizens do to stop the destruction of America? Please, address this issue for me. I am an 85 year old woman, an author of three books, well educated, a patriot, who has time on her hands. What can I do? My name is Virginia “Ginny” Tschanz, and I will send my CV so that you can suggest a role for me.
Our Founders were wise, but not clairvoyant. They could not have foreseen our intent on self destruction.
Bless you for being good, and perceptive and honest about the state of our nation. I’m a Stanford graduate, class of 1960, who was educated before insanity overtook our colleges. Virginia Knobel Tschanz
Happy Birthday! You have been my unknowing companion for over 25 years, through your books, articles, lectures, courses at Hillsdale and now this website and the podcasts. You have enriched my life significantly – Thank You. BTW Virgos are the best (my B’day is the 6th, 3 years before yours).
We went over 2 decades without a fundamental disagreement on anything important. The above article highlights 2.
We are at significant variance with Putin motivation, although your points are valid. I’m no Putin fanboy, but suffice to say that my research on the matter makes the Feb. 2022 invasion the exact same calculation in principle as JFK’s re. Cuba in 1962. With a few significant differences – Putin tried seriously to diplomatically negotiate an acceptable arrangement repeatedly from Bucharest 2008. More recently Minsk 1 & 2, Jan. 2022 discussions with the USA (and prior discussions with Biden in December). When he did invade, it was with a force that was no way bi enough to subjugate a country of 40 million, with a NATO trained army more than twice the size of his force. It did succeed in forcing negotiations in Istanbul that would have worked, had we not scotched the deal.
I do not believe the military is underfunded. I believe it’s mission is counter-productively broad and could be more usefully brought into current funding, or perhaps even less.
Mexico remittances are $60+ Billion.
Otherwise this piece is brilliant. Depressing, but required and spot on.
Have a great Birthday.
Virgos are the best – my B/D is the 3rd, and if wishes are flowing, count mine in.
Great Summary of America Wakeup Americans!!!
Maybe it is time for the states that want to follow the Constitution to unite. Form a better union.
All this started with Obama.
Not that he is running this, it is bigger than him.
Had to pass this article on to all my friends. VDH is one of our very favorite writers – of all time! Since I do not want the left/libs to succeed – I will do everything in my power to thwart them – while informing all others what’s going on! In the meantime, I pray our youth, and those standing center right/center left will finally see the disaster that’s at hand.
Many, many thanks!
Brian
Rush knew Barry Sotero was a communist at heart. That’s why he said he wanted him to fail.
Please excuse my long-windedness.
Your exhaustive list above, leaves out what I consider to be one of the most damaging actions taken by the Biden administration: The weaponization of the dollar based financial system via the Russia (country, businesses, citizens) sanctions. To a world that was already tiring of our coercive diplomacy, we actually sent a clear and unambiguous signal to all countries (and all wealthy, influential citizens of said countries) that could potentially find themselves at odds with US policy – that finding an alternative to the dollar system is an urgent National Security imperative. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and U.A.E. joining the BRICS, is a crystal clear, undeniable signal of the coming damage. It is one thing to sanction Cuba, Iran or Venezuela. It is quite another to attack Russia and its citizens…………and fail. And then we pull the stunt with Khan in Pakistan, blow up NordStream, run out of arms for Ukraine while forcing them into a Mission Impossible Counter Offensive without air/air defense parity, or sufficient artillery (lesson from World War IIs), pressure India and others unsuccessfully, ticking them off etc. I suspect this will work about as well as the attacks of Charles, Napoleon and Hitler did, when they invaded.
It will take a while for the impact to be felt, but Boy is it coming. We are not going to enjoy the ride.
Ohh we very soon won’t have a country. No matter how it starts, it ends with total destruction of everything. If we win it will take two generations to rebuild. If we lose. The ones left alive will be slaves, worked to death. We have waited to long to rid our country of these communists. We let our enemies militaries get to big. As soon as war starts they invade. Enjoy life while you can…
Thank you for speaking the truth.
The answer to how do we peacefully recover from this leftist mess and see a working republic worth passing on to the next generation is voter ID verified elections. I farm and as such look ahead, which seems to be infrequent with most city “leaders” who have caused dangerous conditions and rapid ruin. Established businesses are exiting at alarming rates. Citizens that would leave cities if they could are trapped in ever increasing decay and hopelessness within most blue state cities. I fear that only when social order is more distressed and broken will the great silent majority finally realize this sick revolution must end. I hope it can be achieved at the ballot box but hope of late is starting to feel foolish.
I don’t really understand your objections… you LOVE this regime. you posolutely LOVE the war the transsexual militants are waging against Christian Russia… you LOVE IT. You can’t get enough of it.
What are you crying about Victor. You know, if you added an ~ia suffix to your name you could transgender yourself into accordance with your favorite war authors, Victoria…
You go girl!
That post is the most inarticulate, incomprehensible thing I have ever wasted ten seconds of my life reading on the internet.
Well done, Smedley!
I guess…
Is there a working relationship between the American Left and the World Economic Forum?
Victor Davis Hanson is one of the top intellectuals left in our country who has both a clear vision of what we were, what we could be, and the direction that malevolent forces are pulling us toward.
good summary of what I too am seeing.
Great summary, an important point not cleary stated is – will there be enough people who will make a statement and vote of dissent not scared by their tactics? The attack upon those who disagree to silence dissenting discussions deserves another article; jailing conservatives, adding IRS, Trump arrest, canceling conservative voices, political judges, Jan 6 massive arrests and lock ups without bail showing no regard for fairness, religious attacks, Biden red rage speech..it goes on. The result is we are scared to vote. I would love an article on all these efforts to openly scare us.
Thank you!
Good summary. Alarming state of affairs. People need to speak out & vote to remove these self-serving atheists, if not nihilists, from government & boardrooms across the country.
AMEN!!!
That about sums it up! Only thing I would add or expound upon is the war on the Constitution’s 2nd Amendment.
The anti gun rhetoric calms down until there is a mass shooting. Leftist are quietly pushing firearm control through the state courts. The leftists continually fail to address drive by shootings that affect minorities by the thousands. They must keep that under wraps to maintain their ever declining minority support, particularly blacks!
“Hope & Change” is rapidly approaching “Grope & Chains” for all patriots trying to get out of this morass.
A magisterial dissection of the current state of our failing country and way of life.
Could you imagine how great race relations would be if we had a black president for two terms recently!!
Thank you professor Hanson for a great comprehensive article on the direction our great America is being dragged by a dangerous political party.
I sometimes wear a cap emblazoned with “Korea Veteran Proudly Served”. I wear it to keep the sun out of my eyes, not for the occasional, “Thanks for your service” or “You get a 10 percent discount off your bill”. Although the words are nice to hear, I get a little embarrassed since I never set foot in Korea. I served in the Army during the Korea campaign and have a Korea campaign ribbon, but I was never deployed there. I went where my country posted me and did what my country wanted me to do. As strangers notice my cap and are willing to talk a little history, I mention that the Korea conflict was about 70 years ago. Many vets were around 20 when they entered service, so they are about 90 today as I am. I recall that our military training back then involved killing communists. I also mention that enemies of the USA 70 years ago were North Korea, China, and Russia. Then I state that our enemies today, 70 years later, are North Korea, China, and Russia (not to mention Iran). So, what was accomplished by the Korean war? What has changed?
Sadly, my country has changed. As I sit here contemplating the situation I worry that my country now elects communists to its Congress and has elected in my opinion a closet, corrupt, incompetent Communist from Delaware to be its political leader and Commander in Chief of its Armed Forces.
The rest of my pos
We are now so “Woke” that according to Congressional sources, the Air Force Academy had its cadets participate in a seminar discouraging use of the word “terrorist”. What? We are afraid of offending some terrorist’s sensitivity. Please!!!
I am tired of writing. If you have read this far, you are probably tired of reading my rambling. I wish I had some memorable words of wisdom to end with. I’ve got nothing except, “War is Stupid.” Elect in 2024 a competent America loving man or woman as POTUS and Commander in Chief of its armed forces (Trump is not a bad choice). Stop Russia from taking Ukraine, defend Taiwan, and secure our sovereign border.
Elections have consequences!
The rest of my post.
We are now so “Woke” that according to Congressional sources, the Air Force Academy had its cadets participate in a seminar discouraging use of the word “terrorist”. What? We are afraid of offending some terrorist’s sensitivity. Please!!!
I am tired of writing. If you have read this far, you are probably tired of reading my rambling. I wish I had some memorable words of wisdom to end with. I’ve got nothing except, “War is Stupid.” Elect in 2024 a competent America loving man or woman as POTUS and Commander in Chief of its armed forces (Trump is not a bad choice). Stop Russia from taking Ukraine, defend Taiwan, and secure our sovereign border.
Elections have consequences!
Absolutely brilliant and “spot on!” Thank you good Doctor.
Second Revolution in the USA
Question: Is revolution impossible in the USA but is being spoken up as if it is?
Answer: No, revolution is not impossible in the USA. On the other hand, revolution is definitely possible in the USA. However, it will not and must not be started by the political Right. If it is started by either the political Left and/or the corrupt Biden-Harris administration, then, a revolution is possible and highly probable.
However, they must trigger the revolution by first killing thousands of conservatives and Republicans in a massacre. That dastardly action would guarantee the triggering of a revolution in the USA. Then, the millions upon millions of firearms owners throughout the USA would be motivated to action to save the USA from these two evil forces. Additionally, 90% of all military veterans would join the gun owners of America in the revolution. Furthermore, the digital warriors of the Q-Anon network would join in to support the revolution to save the USA.
The globalists and Uniparty want to initiate a revolution. Indeed, they want to start World War III to reduce the worldwide population by 50%. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is the one to watch. The revolution will be a free-for-all in liquidating the corrupt, Satan lovers on the political Left. There will be no two-tiered justice system any longer. It will be the survival of the fittest. So let it be written; so let it be done!
I’m somewhat bemused at anyone who would never consider that the very anonymous “digital warriors of the Q-Anon network” might actually be just another Russia Dossier ploy.
Kind of weird how the FBI and DoJ can use the NSA, digital providers, etc to track down, expose, and arrest – or at least out – the opponents of Democrats and their administrations. And yet, ol’ Q-Anon somehow or other successfully continues to elude their search! A brilliant leader like this, we must all follow!
After being sent as an uninvited guest to numerous revolutions/civil wars during my 30 year paratrooper career, it has become my assumption that the “patriots” either calling for or hoping for a similar civil war here have never had the delightful opportunity to attend one in uniform themselves.
How many of America’s gun owners similarly look forward to “service” in another American civil war, I do not know. Ditto the anonymous Q-Anon warriors, moving from their Combat Keyboards to real guns.
As both a military veteran and a firearms owner from both before and after my time in the military, the very last thing I want to see in America is a civil war like those I saw overseas.
And the very last thing I will do is follow anonymous Next American Civil War randos on the Internet. Randos who believe in and follow Q-Anon as though they’ve received assurances that not only is Q-Anon not a Democrat false flag operation, but instead verifiably one of the Founding Fathers reincarnated.
We have something similar going on in the UK now, especially in our major cities. Since about 2010 the Tory Party, who are meant to be conservatives, have been moving more and more to the liberal left, especially socially, but even fiscally also. So much so and so incrementally that the average Brit has barely noticed it. Its the death by a thousand cuts routine. In the UK big government, lots of social policies, lots of regulations, the nanny state and crony corporatism is generally accepted even by so called small c conservatives, and endorsed by what we call Blairites. For evidence of this just look back at what the majority of Brits demanded of the government when Covid came along.
Sometimes when reading history, I would wonder what it was like to live in the late Roman or Byzantine Empire as the barbarians were storming the gates, and the walls were crumbling, but now I know! As we observe the twilight of the American Empire, which you chronicle so well, I realize the “barbarians” are not so much storming the gates, as they are incrementally taking over and transforming one institution after another, and moving into the neighborhood so to speak. Next, they will be moving into our homes, and leaving us in the streets! I wonder VDH, was there ever a civilization that recovered from such degradation? Or, Is the best we can hope for, just to slow down the rate of decay and inevitable collapse? Sounds like a good topic for a column!
The difficulty I’m having is that there’s a logic disconnect that there isn’t at this moment a clear explanation for. If the effort to create anarchy assists the left in its goal of achieving total control, it will have simultaneously won the prize and drastically reduced its value. They’ll have an ungovernable country and they’ll have to engage in a massive campaign of the same sort of suppression that they claim to oppose. That country will be vulnerable to assaults on its own autonomy in the meantime.
The other possibility is that this is a third party effort to destroy America and thus empower one or more of her enemies. That seems more likely to me at the moment.
What about the funding to the DNC? Soros will certainly send more to more newly created agencies, NGO’s, etc. for 2024. Soros’s Open Society ideology is spreading like the wildfires promulgated by the green new deal cultists. Indeed, nihilism is the ultimate goal.
What I see is liberals whether in the media, politics, education or just plain folks, having more drive, no moral constraints, more commitment to creating the world they want to live in than the conservatives. While there may be people in between the liberal and conservative mindset, they don’t count because they don’t play, they just drift with the current.
Republicans are supposed t represent the alternative to Democrats et al but in reality they don’t. Trump loyalists do and they alone do. And only a return of Trump to the presidency even gives the country a chance to step back from the brink. Trump is not perfect but he did a helluva job as president which web sites heralding his accomplishments testify to. And Trump was afflicted by lack of trustworthy subordinates and lack of experience in the political swamp we call DC. He is afflicted by neither of these issues today but the government is massive and so it will be no small task to change its direction if Trump gets in.
only the naively hopeful won’t take a hard look at where we are at which is dire to unable to survive as historically positioned.
Externally China has outmaneuvered us and taken a dominant position in the world through its 2013 New Silk Road launch. *(What I see is liberals whether in the media, politics, education or just plain folks, having more drive, no moral constraints, more commitment to creating the world they want to live in than the conservatives. While there may be people in between t
“Will their upheaval succeed? All the levers of the power and money are on the side of the revolutionaries. The people are not.”
This scenario has repeated itself for millennia and always ends the same…revolution, usually bloody.
It is inevitable. The greedy, narcissistic oppressors (I realize that is redundant as, in fact, greed and narcissism lead to them becoming oppressors), who “know everything” ignore history, or at least count on it not happening in their lifetime.
The human spirit and drive for survival will only tolerate so much oppression (disguised at first as regulations, and building to the absurd, eg declaring multiple genders and forcing public compliance to this apostasy). It is an innate drive of the human organism. The greedy ruling oppressors NEVER stop in their attempts at absolute power (if they succeed in taking an inch, then they want a mile). You cannot force your values, your ethos, or your culture down someone else’s throat. They will spit it out every time. This is why the left’s greatest agenda is indoctrinating the youth (as done in the USSR and PRC). However, even if successful in inculcating their values, ethos, and culture in the next generation, humans will see through the charade and revolt. Maybe not that generation, but discontent will fester each successive generation as the incompetence of no meritocracy will weigh down the productiveness of the society. This will lead to shortages of basic necessities to the point that people are so
The view of a friend below
The essay is mostly distortion, enhancing the author’s political view. He presents
a number of realities but uses many out of context or describes others which factually
are not true.
As much as I dislike Biden, he is not the most corrupt president we have had. There were a number
likely worse; Nixon, Andrew Johnson, Hoover. Rutherford Hayes and more.
Probably, the most self-serving and corrupt of all, Donald Trump is not mentioned. This tells me that this is not a critical
factually examined essay looking fairly at complex events and history but likely political propaganda
Ever since I heard Larry P. Arnn utter the words “The Enablement Act of 1933” in my Intro to the Constitution course, I feel the Biden administration is on this very same path. This time, they are coming for the middle class and, in addition, they are sterilizing children through transgenderism.
Masterful writing, as usual, although this particular edition flows like watercolor paint on a canvass…I listen often to your podcast and have noticed that your articles organize and polish your spoken word, which is logical and not surprising, but it underscores a consistent and well organized thought process. I’m also impressed by your encyclopedic memory cataloguing relevant events from the past, most of us have forgotten, and reminding us further how they are connected to the present. I don’t remember many historians able to do this with your degree of relevance, clarity, and ease. Thank you for making history fun again…I also recommend your many video taped interviews available on the internet on war, historical figures, and social commentary.
Rome 1527
Obama hates America and he’s currently destroying it for financial gain provided by a host of enemy nations. Using the Biden campaign & administration to sidestep The Constitutional “red tape” and Biden’s senility and previous reputation for incompetence as a way to stay unaccountable. I trust it’s unlikely he would have been a good president even if he had good intentions to begin with. When you apologize for America, (which he should be doing now), and denying the principle of “American Exceptionalism”, it is clear there is disdain for all that our amazing history holds and our future can provide. This is what Lisa Page was referencing when she texted her turncoat her lover, paraphrasing, ‘he will undo all that we have worked for?’ fearing Trump would right America’s course. Our current position has always been part of the goal of so called “elites” and most those making up the “UniParty”, the Bush party. White, liberal, Democrat voters have enabled it through their squeaky wheel approach to public discourse. Sadly, they’ve enabled those with nefarious intent, to pillage our commercial power and darken the special history of America that is a tribute to humanity. They didn’t want to see it because it didn’t come from their politician, so it wasn’t “good”. Headstrong, argumentative, spoiled, selfish, lazy grown children living out their dreams, in their parent’s basements. The successful ones live in burnt down, crime ridden, concrete jungles, failed and alone.
My family is hopelessly leftist. Sadly, they are exactly who Paul described in Romans 1:32.
The reason Obama does what he does — he was called out by name 2000 years ago………….www.satanasbarackobama.com
Sad day! You could not have said it better! Spot on!
That being said, I don’t understand why you 3-times made reference to the “Democratic Party” and once to “Democratic district attorneys”. What? Surely you must mean “Democrat Party” and “Democrat district attorneys”. Why would you refer to Democrats as Democratic(s)?
Yes, that is what the left did to America and sadly we patriots allowed it. We are the problem, shame on us!
Are you interested in discussing the specific requirement in your State Constitution (and in the SC Constitution and in most if not all other State Constitutions) … which if effectively made into State election law … would inherently ban all use of mail-in ballots … and create a starting point for creation of Election Integrity in regard to proper uses of mail-in ballots?
Please call me … Bill Coleman, Greenville SC, 864-419-27 97, 10am – 8pm or anytime I answer my phone, any day.
SC Constitution …
Article II, “SECTION 1. Elections to be by secret ballot; protection of right of suffrage. All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret. The Right of suffrage, as regulated in this Constitution, shall be protected by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, undue influence from power, bribery, tumult, or improper conduct.”
yes our country is in trouble. Too bad you didn’t take the time to list the disasters the republican party has brought on the country and continues to bring with their hatred, bitterness, and divisive attitude. Not to mention the severe mental illness demonstrated by many Republicans in important offices. Babe, you continue to read one side of the story. I am not a Democrat and I do not agree with the bumbling way the Democrats are forging ahead, but I continue to have liberal views and do not agree with most of the conservative agenda.
I am a middle boomer and Obama is a late boomer. I have my opinion on those of my generation that started out saying they wanted to make this world a better place, give back to those around us less fortunate, and fight against our establishment motivated by power and I’ve got mine, eff-you thinking:
You betrayed everything. And I allowed it to happen.
Many of you betrayed your beliefs and your soul. You were conned by those offering a new world order if you would just like them, accept their beliefs and “truths” about race, sex, creed, age, others who disagree, and of America. And changed you into a mob mentality, based on following the crowd, United in your manipulated anger and victim mentality.
We were bonded by a common vision for freedom and acceptance and you betrayed me and everyone not like you. And you helped the puppet masters in the shadows take over the media, education, church, law enforcement, healthcare, and the levers of government. You traitors are now either at the top of your food chain, or useful idiots at the bottom with nothing to show for your life except a brain rewired to hate those that disagree, eliminate freedoms, condone violence and lying to feed your insatiable need to feel righteous.
I blame myself for allowing you to grab all the power and control.
There is no hope for you. You are minions. You lost control of your destiny decades ago, your death and destruction of everything you think important is already but not yet over.
Dr. Hanson wrote an excellent piece very similar to this one about 3 years ago, summing up the Trump presidency and all the crazy attacks that had been levied against it. It summed up our country at the time perfectly. I posted it on Facebook and was immediately attacked by all of my crazy liberal “friends” whom I have since blocked. There is no longer any civility for differing opinions. I mourn the loss of our country.
Thank you for the excruciating truth so succinctly and intelligently conveyed.
Marianne
Dr Hanson doesn’t address it here, but NOT TOLERATING HARM-DOING in one’s family, associates & neighborhood is a MUST to “stop the madness in [our] midst”.
If individuals are resistant to logic or simple verbal persuasion to NOT DO HARM, then DO NOT VOLUNTARILY ASSOCIATE WITH THEM. NO SALES/ NO SERVICE / NO FRIENDSHIP, esp this last!
Start w/ one’s own circle of associates, obtain their understanding of this absolute NEED AND WORK OUTWARD INTO THE GREATER COMMUNITY! A truly “grass-roots” movement!
This era was institutionalized in our justice system, from whence it bled through all government bureaucracies, with the advent of the hate crimes movement, which traces its official birth to 1997, when Clinton, Holder, and Kagan hosted the first national hate crimes conference.
There were earlier, more contrained “bias” laws, but they did not include a major movement within government to spread the built-in inequalities of hate crime law to every institution touched by government — especially schools via the DOE and DOJ, but also the military, HUD, the DHHS, and so on.
Free speech was said to be sacrosanct, even under a hate crimes regime, but that was never the intent. The newly empowered hate crimes industry — rather corporate-military-educational-industrial-complex — immediately began pushing the free speech envelope via charges targeting mere simple assault, which may just be speech, and vandalism. Meanwhile, the DOE, HUD, DOD, and virtuaqlly every academic institution and large corporation began enforcing their own “extra-legal” versions of hate crime laws, which have now warped two generations of children so severely that the vast majority of young people do not support speech rights.
A media that portrays itself as being the last defender of free speech capitulated to the rules and reign of the hate crimes industry, censored what they published, then further submitted to activists’ ever-changing demands to warp language itself. And so we are here today.
And I would add that the modern trans movement, which targets women’s bodies, young men’s sexuality, and the rights of females to compete fairly in sports and be safe in bathrooms, is also an outgrowth of the hate crime industry’s warping definitions of sex and gender. Heterosexual “cis” women are quietly excluded form hate crime protections in even the most extreme cases of targeting women — stranger rape and stranger rape/murder — because, as Abe Foxman and Clinton said, there’sjust too many such victims, and “counting them” would “distract” from the statistics they were seeking.
This was the beginning of treating trangender and gay women as the only “woman” aganist whom sex or gender hate can be expressed, or prosecuted. This was nowhere encoded in hate crime law but everywhere practiced. Hate crime trainers confided to me that they “never addressed rape in writing and saved if for unrecorded Q & A (Simon Weisenthal Center trainers), or they gleefully told me that had prosecuted seven sex crimes against women in a year — all transgenders, none biologically born heterosexual women who were raped or killed by strangers. That was from Carla Arranaga, then an ADA leading the hate crimes unity in Los Angeles.
Womern ceased being women under hate crime laws. Rape and kill 150 women and it wasn’t hate: tug a Muslim’s headscarf during an argument, and Eric Holder helicoptered in with a team of DOJ prosecutors to bring the gavel down for a simple assault.
100% the determination seen in the face of this man is reflected in the destruction and dilapidation of small town America, little to no smiles of passerbys, rude young people, lack of competent workers, superficial concerns of public officials.
The US non Southern Border is lack of presidential leadership. The answer is to use the military to secure our border. In 1952, President Eisenhower sent the military to Little Rock, Arkansas to restore order. A regiment of infantry, with orders, to allow no one to pass, should have been ordered two years ago.
Republicans had the authority to stop and kill Obamacare in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, but were too spell-bound and feckless to take action.