04/24/17
From an Angry Reader:
Mr. Hanson,
As a registered Republican, I am disgusted with the behavior of President Trump and always surprised with the support he receives from people who appear to be well educated knowledgeable, and intelligent.
I would give your written opinion more credit if you did not position yourself so far to the Republican right. Certainly every president inherits the responsibility to address the current problems of the United States and world politics and it’s effects on the US. One of Obama’s first, was the financial crisis caused by wide spread banking fraud allowed by Pres. Bush. When the American sailors were taken into custody by Iran, they had trespassed (lost or not) into Iranian waters, and diplomatic efforts, under Obama resulted in their release. Obama was an eloquent speaker and displayed strong family values, something the Republican party use to tout as very important but now with Trump fathering children from three different women and bragging about sexually grouping women at the age of 59 years old, the Republican’s stay quiet on this character flaw. Russian and China may have launched cyberattacks on us, however Trump cheered Russian on, to continue those attacks during his election.
My hope is our government has enough protections in place, so that we can control Trump’s “kneejerk,” and “loud mouth,” twitter reactions to avoid an unnecessary war and if war is required, we are in the best position to win that war.
Nina Jacobs
Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:
Dear Angry Reader Nina Jacobs,
Where to begin?
The “banking fraud” of 2008 was caused by lax standards, mandated during Clinton-era “reforms” at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which led to vast sums loaned for subprime mortgages to unqualified buyers—a result also of Wall Street/banking greed, Clinton appointees enriching themselves, and identity/progressive politics.
American sailors were taken on the high seas. They were videoed, humiliated, and manhandled because the Iranian government wished to remind the world that the Obama administration, in search of a legacy, would put up with almost any humiliation to achieve a deal. Do you really believe they would try the same thing today?
Yes, Obama was mellifluent, but he was often clueless (he could not pronounce corpsmen, thought the Maldives were the PC name for the Falklands, and often as a candidate and as president resorted to tribal provocations (“get in their faces,” “take a gun to a knife fight,” “punish our enemies,” “typical white person,” “clingers,” etc.). He could be as crude as Trump, though refined his crudity with a more sober and judicious veneer.
Trump is a flawed individual, but he is hardly the near-sadistic womanizer as was JFK. Nor has he used coercion to force himself on women as did Bill Clinton on numerous occasions—still a feminist hero. I did read in the autobiographical Dreams From My Father and from other biographies, how Barack Obama habitually used “blow” and decided at one point not to date “white” women any longer. You are familiar with the racist, anti-Semitic, and crude career of his personal pastor of two decades, the right Rev. Wright. Duces sunt homines, non di.
So I conclude that many of our presidents and presidential candidates (cf. Gore was the alleged “sex poodle,” or so accused by a purported victim of his sexual aggression) were often problematic. The most sterling of candidates was probably Mitt Romney, a fine and decent man who was nevertheless reduced by the Left in 2012 to a sexist, racist, vulture capitalist.
I make a small prediction, Ms. Jacobs: When the present lengthy review is finished, the story will not be Trump’s purported collusion with Vladimir Putin, but rather the lengths to which the Obama administration went to reverse-target political opponents and to leak monitored conversations illegally to the public—an Obama administration trait of abusing constitutional rights unfortunately not confined to Trump alone, but apparent earlier also with the Holder/AP, Lois Lerner/IRS, and Brennan/Senate computer scandals.
Finally, the only thing riskier than restoring deterrence is losing it in the first place. We were headed for a war in 2016, precisely because Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China all believed that the U.S. was receding and that they would fill the void on the world stage, often in reckless fashion and in a manner threatening to our interests and allies.
Sincerely,
Victor Davis Hanson
