Things to Watch?

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The Corner The one and only.
By Victor Davis Hanson// National Review

Trump by intent has ignited the Left. But diverse criteria will determine to what degree it can do him damage:

1) Will his reforms kick-start the economy? If Trump reaches even 3 percent real GDP growth over a year — Obama was the first president since Herbert Hoover not to achieve that modest goal — much of the fury will die down.

2) Does the news cycle play into Trump’s notion of pulling the country back from the extreme to the center, or repudiate his efforts? So far, daily events, such as violence at the Louvre, the hysteria over the Gorsuch nomination, the latest Iranian missile launch, the Berkeley rioting, the second-look examination of Australia’s quite restrictionist immigration policy in comparison with the U.S., the latest celebrity outburst, etc. seem to amplify Trump’s message of a need for long overdue corrections.

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Postmodernism by Another Name

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02/03/17

From an Angry Reader:

Re: Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name

 While I thought the article was well written and cited several good specific examples. I find is a bit disingenuous that only the progressive movement is called out. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the “Swift Boat” stories that were promulgated against John Kerry. The concept of fake news is used by both sides of the political spectrum for the purpose of “flash blinding” the masses in the middle to move them to be more in line with the agenda of the author of the false narrative. A story is created to convince the general audience that there is an “outrage” that must be addressed. One of the more recent was of a Muslim Arab immigrant who had four wives and 24 children living on welfare that amounted to more than $300,000 in cash per year. Now we have shut down immigration. If that was the goal of the “fake news”, to confuse the issue by fostering “outrage”, it seems to have worked. Continue reading “Postmodernism by Another Name” →

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02/02/17

From an Angry Reader:

Dear Victor:

 I have long been a reader of your essays. I am befuddled by your steady defense – or at least by your stayed hand of criticism – of Donald Trump.

I sense – and share – your glee about the comeuppance that the Democrats received in this past election.

 But the rotted and soulless character of Donald Trump concerns me far, far more than any feelings of schadenfreude I feel about the Democrats. His degree of intellectual incuriosity is alarming.

 Your kid-glove approach to Trump (especially when those gloves are actually petting him) is surprising and disappointing.

 Thanks.

 Loren

Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:

Dear Angry (Sort of) Reader Loren Thacker,

Donald Trump was not my favorite in the primaries; but once he was likely to win the nomination (April 2016), I simply went to his website and collated his positions with Hillary Clinton’s on sanctuary cities, illegal immigration, defense, foreign policy, taxes, regulation, energy development, the EPA, the 2nd Amendment, the wall, school choice, and a host of other issues. The comparison supported my suspicions that he was more conservative and would not lose the Supreme Court for a generation to progressive massaging of the law, which was inevitable under Hillary Clinton. I think his appointments, Supreme Court pick, and executive orders have supported that belief that he is far more conservative than Hillary Clinton’s agendas. Oh, I came to another conclusion: I initially thought Trump might be the only nominee who would lose to Hillary Clinton; soon, however, I began to believe that he might be the only one who could beat her, given he was the first Republican to campaign in the Lee Atwater-style of 1988 and actually fought back against the WikiLeaks nexus of the media and Democratic Party. Continue reading →

When Normalcy Is Revolution

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by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review

Trump’s often unorthodox style shouldn’t be confused with his otherwise practical and mostly centrist agenda.

By 2008, America was politically split nearly 50/50 as it had been in 2000 and 2004. The Democrats took a gamble and nominated Barack Obama, who became the first young, Northern, liberal president since John F. Kennedy narrowly won in 1960.

Democrats had believed that the unique racial heritage, youth, and rhetorical skills of Obama would help him avoid the fate of previous failed Northern liberal candidates Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and John Kerry. Given 21st-century demography, Democrats rejected the conventional wisdom that only a conservative Democrat with a Southern accent could win the popular vote (e.g., Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore).

Continue reading “When Normalcy Is Revolution” →

Our Game of Thrones

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The Corner
The one and only.

by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review

The Trump administration’s flurry of reversing the earlier flurry of Obama executive orders and the Left’s hysterical response is proving a sort of strategic Game of Thrones.

Trump’s opponents believe that they are bleeding him from a thousand nicks. Without the requisite political clout, their ultimate goal is to drive crazy uncomfortable Republican establishmentarians and force them into a fetal position where they beg for it all to just go away, turning on their own first rather than their adversaries. Or they wish to create such universal chaos that bend-with-the-wind federal judges go with the flow and start issuing endless injunctions in a way they rarely did with Obama’s executive orders. Continue reading “Our Game of Thrones” →

The Democrat Patient

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by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review

Ignoring the symptoms, misdiagnosing the malady, skipping the treatment

If progressives were to become empiricists, they would look at the symptoms of the last election and come up with disinterested diagnoses, therapies, and prognoses.

Although their hard-left candidate won the popular vote, even that benchmark was somewhat deceiving — given the outlier role of California and the overwhelming odds in their favor. The Republicans ran a candidate who caused a veritable civil war in their ranks and who was condemned by many of the flagship conservative media outlets. Trump essentially ran against a united Democratic party, the Republican establishment, the mainstream media (both liberal and conservative) — and won. Continue reading “The Democrat Patient” →

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Four Fonts
for Victor Davis Hanson

When young I thought all wealth came from the soil,
forests, seas and mines.
My finest early lines
were blessings on our farmers and their toil.

I’ve praised the fishermen, the loggers too.
Noble, the miner’s soul
digging the earth for coal,
for iron ore that builds a penthouse view.

I’ve praised the trees for papers that we read,
much credit to him too
machining every screw
that knits together everything we need,

the roughneck drilling for our gas and oil.
I still think all our wealth comes from the soil.

Great essay, Tim Murphy

Trump and Mexico

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The Corner
The one and only.
 by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review
I think concerns expressed that Trump treat Mexico and President Peña Nieto with dignity and respect are well-taken and wise.
But part of the problem inherent in Trump’s pushback is that the present relationship has become asymmetrical for so long that merely returning to a normal 50/50 give and take will inevitably cause hysteria. Given political realities in Mexico, Peña Nieto must push back, but such natural patriotism should not disguise the fact that Mexico depends on the U.S. far more than the U.S. on Mexico — a fact privately conceded by all leaders on both sides of the border.
For decades Mexico, a country richly endowed with natural resources, climate, weather, and geography, has failed to make necessary reforms that might have offered its own citizens the security and prosperity that would have made their emigration unnecessary. This lapse most recently was largely because a ruling aristocracy saw advantage in seeing mostly impoverished and indigenous citizens from Oaxaca and southern Mexico, at great risks to their persons, leave their country.

Continue reading “Trump and Mexico” →

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From an Angry Reader:

Angry Reader Bill Anderson

Hi
I know it is a job but ….
He is awful. Why he writes this tosh and why anyone would read it is beyond peculiar, Try to get him seen. Even for bozo right wing ideologues there are limits.

Best Wishes 

Bill Anderson

Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:

Dear Angry Reader Bill Anderson,
You do not specify a particular column, but apparently are just angry in general at “right wing ideologues.” Also please define “awful”—as in you do not agree with the conclusions, or you find the argument illogical?
Again, the problem with the Left (cf. the latest rants of Madonna, Ashley Judd, the SNL writer, etc.) is that in place of an argument we get only invective (“tosh,” “bozo,” “awful,” etc.). Worse still is the thematic condescension, as if being for “equality” and “fairness” ensure virtue and thus allow the writer like yourself to indulge in cheap smears and to vent rather than reason. Using archaic Anglicisms like “tosh” is not a good way to reach the proverbial masses, your apparent constituency.
As for you other two points:

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