The Tangled Web of Race

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

A number of commentators have openly sympathized with multi-murderer Christopher Dorner, who shot seven innocent people, killing four of them. Apparently, the late Dorner was a voice in the wilderness crying out against the racist injustice of the “system.” Continue reading “The Tangled Web of Race”

It’s a Mad, Mad World

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

Dorner Debacle

It is hard to remember worse coverage of a catastrophe than what we are given about the ex-cop Christopher Dorner’s murdering rampage. Some reprehensible pundits, ever so easily, fall into blaming LAPD and its “history of racism,” in a sorta, kinda contextualizing of Dorner’s brutal killing of innocents by the specter of Rodney King. Continue reading “It’s a Mad, Mad World”

The Confessions of a Confused Misfit

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The Rich

I confess I never admired John Edwards — and used to argue with the late Christopher Hitchens[1] about the blow-dried lawyer’s suitability for president. I didn’t think much of Al Gore or John Kerry, well before the “he lied!” vein-bulging fits and the wind-surfing spoofs. I was not surprised when Susan Rice just disclosed that she is worth considerably over $30 million[2] — and has money in Keystone[3] no less. Are they all part of the “one percent”? Did they pay “their fair share”? Do they “spread the wealth”? At what point in his life did Al Gore know that he had made enough money (before barreling ahead and making more)? Continue reading “The Confessions of a Confused Misfit”

Everyone’s a White Male–But Me

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

When 40%, not 97%, Is Illiberal

One of the legacies of the Obama presidency is that “white male” as a term of embarrassment has now transcended the hothouse of the campus and gone mainstream. We are lectured by media figures, celebrities, and politicians ad nauseam that the November election is really about a new America of diverse minority groups, gays, feminists, and green pitted against a dying and shrinking number of old white guys. Sometimes that narrative requires absurd assumptions. Continue reading “Everyone’s a White Male–But Me”

‘White’ on the Brain

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The election of the biracial Barack Obama was supposed to usher in a new era of racial harmony. Instead, that dream is becoming a tribally polarized nightmare — by design, and intended to assist in the reelection of Barack Obama. Continue reading “‘White’ on the Brain”

Who Gets a Pass?

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently said of the Chick-fil-A fast-food franchise that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago’s values.” Why? Because Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy is on record as being opposed to gay marriage — as is close to half the US population, according to polls. The mayors of Boston and San Francisco also suggested that the company isn’t welcome in their cities. Continue reading “Who Gets a Pass?”

In Praise of Polarization

by Bruce Thornton

Defining Ideas

As the presidential campaign intensifies, we are sure to hear more and more complaints about the “polarization” of the electorate and the increasingly bitter divide between the two major parties. “It’s worse now than it’s been in years,” the Brookings Institution’s Darrell West said recently. “Our leaders are deeply polarized, and ‘compromise’ has become a dirty word.” Continue reading “In Praise of Polarization”

The Media’s Racial Prison

by Bruce Thornton

Frontpage Magazine

Two incidents last week suggest once more that our confused, hypocritical, and politicized notions of race and relations will play a huge role in the presidential election. In the first, Virginia state senator L. Louise Lucas, part of Obama’s “Truth Team” campaigning for the president in Virginia, told a radio interviewer, “Mitt Romney, he’s speaking to … a segment of the population who does not like to see people other than a white man in the White House or in any other elective position. Continue reading “The Media’s Racial Prison”

Beware the Idea of October

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

What should we expect as the campaign heats up in the final four months? Continue reading “Beware the Idea of October”

Barack the Healer

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Barack Obama, both substantively and symbolically, ran in 2008 as a much-needed healer. He was to bring the nation together as never before — a vow taken to heart by millions of voters of all backgrounds who ensured Obama’s 2008 victory. Continue reading “Barack the Healer”