Victor Davis Hanson // Private Papers
Part One
The two-parties used to have coherent, if antithetical, agendas. The Left believed foremost in equality of result (now renamed “equity”), the Right far more in an equality of opportunity. The former distrusted individuality and considered liberty problematic; the latter even more so feared government and its plan to reengineer income, and the daily lives of Americans.
Often on matters of defense, building infrastructure, and public education they used to agree—somewhat. So America prospered, given it was the freest nation on the planet, and its singular idea of a multiracial consensual society, based on a constitutional republic, worked well enough where it had usually failed both in the past and in the contemporary world.
In other words, both the in-party and the opposition were often coherent, whether in pursuit of a left or right agenda. But what we see in the Biden administration’s first six months today makes no sense; there is no logical agenda except apparent chaos and year-zero nihilism, or a Samsonite notion of toppling the temple down upon us all.
The world hinges upon viable citizenship, security, and prosperity; why then undermine all three essentials?
Item: Why would any sane person welcome in an envisioned two-million illegal aliens over 12 months in the midst of a resurgent pandemic—all entering from COVID-19 variant hotspots, the vast majority untested, and unvaccinated?
Yes, I know: altering the demography of the US is the Left’s way of promoting an agenda that 51 percent of Americans otherwise will never support. And yes, I accept that the more naïve believe that poverty and injustice anywhere in the world indict America. And, of course, I concede elites believe in abstract social justice whose consequences in the real world usually fall on someone else (e.g., in a nation of 330 million, the odds are good for the liberal elite that 2 million will not move into their neighborhoods.)
But all that said, why try to roust out unvaccinated Americans, door-to-door, while luring in 2 million who will only fuel the pandemic? What is the Leftist logic, other than chaos, given that an open border undermines the inoculation program, spreads the plague, and alienates the public (well over 60 percent of voters now oppose open borders)?
Item: The perfect storm of defunding the police, the Soros-subsidized district attorneys’ dropping charges, and the media’s embrace of critical race theory has destroyed classical law-enforcement deterrence.
Crime, especially its most violent types, is soaring. The surge accounts for anti-Asian hate crimes, attacks on Jews, and a new acceptable venom against so-called “white people.” Looting is now defended as a non-crime. The perpetrators are disproportionally (as in 6 percent of the population committing 30-50 percent of violent crime depending on the nature of the offense) young African-American males, who rightly have little fear of the police, less of arrest, even less of indictment, and even less still of conviction and confinement.
But why would the Left destroy deterrence, when the most prominent victims will certainly be inner-city elderly, poor, and those often most vulnerable non-white residents? Why at a time when the Left has embraced Kendi’s ‘discrimination to end discrimination’ crack-pot theme, would it excuse or contextualize the breakdown in civil order and society? Is the assumption to appeal to the suburban swing voter that crime is no big deal, to get the youth vote out, on the premise that college campus safety is a construct, to ensure solidarity of the non-white by appealing to Latinos and Asians, or to remind the black inner-city dweller that the neighborhood assaulter is not responsible for his violence? Or is the logic simple pandemonium and bedlam, as if the “system” stands indicted of something or other?
The Democrats are committed to loading the dice so that they are never out of power; Democrats have become criminals: Examples – The Russia Hoax, the sham impeachments, the voter illegalities in several blue states, etc. What to do? 1776 Redux and 1861 Redux together. Then establish military tribunals and depending on the offense: Capital punishment, prison, deportation – and loss of all wealth. Then, the establishment of a “Continental Congress” to re-establish the Constitution.
The Left has not abandoned deterrence. They have weaponized it and apply with great relish before a compliant media. Their targets are those who oppose them politically. The Milwaukee County Attorney General used a “special prosecutor” in 2013 to wage an illegal, state-wide war on conservative donors relying on terror and intimidation to silence the victims and weaken Governor Walker. More recently, the 29 agents (supported by aircraft and amphibious vehicles) who stormed Roger Stone’s house in the pre-dawn hours were basically performance artists and CNN provided live coverage to a stunned audience. The same show-trial abuse has now been applied to Rudy Giuliani. And the Jan. 6th Capitol riot has been the source of a massive and ugly over-reaction, including the solitary confinement of suspects who voluntarily turned themselves in and are still awaiting their day in court for what amounts to a trespassing charge. In support of the false narrative that this riot was an insurrection, SWAT teams have been freely deployed across the country, including breakfast time raids on misidentified citizens in places as distant as Homer, Alaska. This latter event was apparently justified by the mistaken belief that facial recognition from crowd photos is now the equivalent of finger prints. This is intended to frighten ordinary Americans who have no reason to think that the same sort of abuse won’t be inflicted on them should they come to the attention of the woke thugs now employed in federal agencies. If the thought of 12 armored SWAT thugs smashing in your front door, potentially shooting and killing family members and pets, then you have a better sense of humor than I do.
The Democrat Party has become the “Marxist Party of America.” Those who mindlessly call themselves “Democrats,” and that’s most of them, are often unwilling, if not actually unable, to analyze critically that which the Democrat Party has now become.
My very liberal niece at her Bat Mitzvah on Cape Cod this summer asked in her Drash why Seattle, the third wealthiest city in America, still has an ever increasing homelessness problem, despite the good intentions of local politicians and the well-meaning programs they endlessly put forth to cure it. Will she be able to critically analyze why that is? If she can, there is hope. However, with today’s media being as agenda-driven and co-opted, if not corrupted, as it has become, and cancel culture and social ostracization now what it is, that search for truth utilizing critical thinking skills, instead of rote repetition of “critical race theory” diatribes, is now even more elusive today than anything I have ever experienced in my entire lifetime.
America’s relatively short experiment as a Constitutional Republic, with freedom and justice for all, certainly hangs precariously in this balance.
PS: Please join my crusade by referring to the Democrat Party correctly, as just that, and not the “democratic” party, which it definitely is not. Because if the Democrat Party is the “democratic” party, then all others cannot be, when just the opposite is the truth. Words do matter, as does freedom of speech. Won’t you join me and be a leader in my crusade?
Ira Gould (circa 1952)
Lancaster, MA
I love the way VDH lays it out, he is so eloquent. Each day something anti-liberty or anti-freedom happens in America. Someone like VDH may call it out. But then the sun comes up the next day and nothing has changed. It just gets worse, and anti-American sentiment becomes more emboldened. From what I see, the subjects of the grievances are not based in fact.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, it feels like there is an underlying force driving this intended chaos. I suspect it’s always been there, but when Trump showed up, the “underlying force” came out in the open. Now, they don’t care what you say or how many times they are called out for what many see as anti-American. I suspect a lot of our so called “freedoms” were an illusion all along. Sadly, I do not think the Executive Branch is running this country.
I totally agree with you. Trump pulled back the curtain revealing that OZ was just a man behind a curtain. Our OZ (OZs) however are nothing like the man in the movie. Ours seems to be the devil himself.
Answer to VDH’s first item about chaos at the border during Covid paranoia:
Strike while the iron is hot! “Bold, ceaseless experimentation,” like FDR, even if you don’t have his majorities. The function of power is to change facts on the ground. Put one election in jeopardy in order to lock up ten future elections. (Who is Pete Wilson?)
Answer to the item on crime that asks,
“Why would the Left destroy deterrence, when the most prominent victims will certainly be inner-city elderly, poor, and those often most vulnerable non-white residents?”
Because like the Jews and Asians you waste your time worrying about, those inner-city residents voted for the conditions you described, and will continue to vote for Democrats forever, as they have for decades.
The GOP is the White Christian party. 95% of its voters are white, and Christian by heritage. (There’s a little empirical data for you.) The non-white and non-Christian have always been and still are more concerned with hurting and getting even with white Christians than anything else.
It may not make sense to you, but it does to them. They think differently.
O wish
I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the individual people that are illegal aliens flooding borders. What is wrong is that they are breaking our countries laws to get here. I believe that the vast majority of these people are making the choice between having their basic human needs met here and not having them met at home, the decision for them (or anyone else) is clear. I also quite firmly believe that their ability to live here will require services that must be paid for such as health, education, shelter and much more. The present Federal administration is going to provide what is needed by the illegal aliens to them at little or no cost, the government does not have any money, the taxpayers do and that is who is going to pay, but how many of us actually know that?
Add this condition, “Any one who has entered our country illegally can not vote in a federal election for 20 years”
And just to add: how does running out those in the military who have right wing political/traditional beliefs dovetail with defunding the police and installing George Soros’ DA’s?
Hmm, If I were a hard left Maoist revolutionary wouldn’t I want every legal and institutional obstacle either removed or replaced?
I don’t think I’v ever been more afraid for my self and my country.
swell. well said.
thank you.
And to what end is this destruction of a free society? Does the world really need another Socialist country? Without our freedoms for creative thought, who will invent the internet, the computer, the light bulb, the airplane, the automobile, the space program, the medical equipment, and so much more? Think of what we could accomplish by working together in lieu of working to overpower another.
My heart is heavy. My prayers are plenty. My hope is that those of us who enjoy our life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, our unalienable right, will stand strong against all tyranny as the Founders did centuries ago. That we will still believe in our vote as our strongest power.
Thank you, Mr. Hanson, for sharing your words, thoughts, and belief that America is great. And, that all that this country has to offer is worth fighting for now!
Chaos and panic invites authoritarian measures to “solve” things. The riots are the chaos; the pandemic the panic. Both are being used by the Biden administration overwhelmingly supported by traditional social and print and electronic media; this allows the left to weaponize everything against the conservative, largely Republican but considerably among the independents as well, and conduct a virtuous campaign of intimation and financial coercion to shut the opposition up. Kerry said it’s the new “reset”. Well it’s a reset thats for sure —like Russia in 1917, Germany in 1933 and Orwell’s 1984.
My wife and I went to pick up our Boxer puppy 2 weeks ago in rural North Carolina.The area has limited cell service, no broadband internet.
The first thing we see in the breeders house is an AR-15 with optic, flash light and loaded magazine. They live 15 miles from the nearest town and have been broken into by intoxicated prowlers dumb enough to approach a house full of big Boxers.
I nodded to his rifle and said that is a great accessory, and our breeder said, “it’s a necessity”.
I believe vigilance, a good rifle and dogs are more useful than politicians, governments or police right now.
Thank you for your wisdom and articles.
The entire goal of an open border, CRT, the military supremacist purges, and the FBI pursuit of white supremacists, is to propagandize the country for the 2040s when whites become a minority. Everything that came before will be declared as imperfect and worthy only of the dustbin, and everything after as the perfect product of “The World’s First Multicultural Nation.” The country will be “re-born” and wipe away its “original sin.” In the meantime, the border remains open so that Latinos grows to such numbers that by the 2040s, through intermarriage, everybody will seemingly have “Native American DNA” and liberals can claim the USA has been restored to “real” Native Americans, the way environmentalists rescue habitats through re-population schemes.
Here is a related topic that VDH might address – the topic itself but also how it is that well meaning, intelligent people fall into the perspective described.
I just listened to a Neil Degrasse Tyson podcast on the topic of gender and sports. The tone was breathless and it was obvious to the speakers that gender is a continuum, athletes all along this continuum have a right to compete, and differences among individuals are much greater than differences between two (alleged) genders. But the various comments, if you listened for content instead of tone, seemed to indicate just the opposite of what concluded so breathlessly. The discussion seemed so inauthentic that I turned it off after half and hour. That is the usual result when I sample left leaning or “mainstream” content.