<\/p>\n
Rarely have I read such infuriating nonsense as intellectual outlier Victor Davis Hanson spouts in his thoroughly delusional commentary about Trump. I know he\u2019s been a blind Trumpeter since the con artist\u2019s campaign began, and he remains steadfast in defending the indefensible. His pack of fraudulent claims, gross exaggerations, evasions and bizarre compliments should make us wonder what kind of mind is needed to get into a \u201cthink tank\u201d these days. A mind with the ability to think clearly, marshal cogent arguments and use critical faculties would be excluded, I take it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Even the part about Trump having superior \u201cbare-knuckle\u201d skills is laughable both in fact and in analogy. I guess what he means is the narcissistic blowhard and rank vulgarian has become adept over the years at using crude forms of bullying, belligerence, intimidation and insults in an attempt to cow the opponent. We see how much good those professed negotiating skills have been for him. No significant legislative accomplishments in his first year, despite him bragging that he\u2019d do many big things quickly and all by himself.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What he has supported in the way of legislation was almost entirely devoid of the content he promised\u2014healthcare that would cover everyone for less and be \u201ceasy\u201d to accomplish–and he clearly didn\u2019t know a thing about the bills a Republican congress fashioned to fulfill Trump\u2019s exaggerated boasts. The man is an ignorant, incompetent, reckless and deranged demagogue, but Hanson remains a rube on the bandwagon sucking dry turnips. Such is the blissful state of \u201cwinners\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dear Angry Reader TR Jahns,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On a scale of angry reader absurdities, yours ranks a 9 out of 10. The key to criticism is the avoidance of emotional jargon (nonsense, laughable, gross, delusional, etc.) that always appears in lieu of an argument. And imagery and metaphors must be consistent, not incoherent and mixed: what exactly does a \u201crube on a bandwagon sucking dry turnips\u201d mean exactly?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nonetheless here goes the refutation of your meltdown.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1) I was not a \u201cblind Trumpeter\u201d since the time Trump ran for office; check the record before making unsubstantiated accusations. In fact, I opposed Trump in the early primaries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2) Instead of citations, you use inflated phraseology like \u201cfraudulent claims, gross exaggerations, evasions and bizarre compliments\u201d; specify rather than allege what bothers you about Trump; e.g., Is he more divisive than was Obama? Does he comment too much about ongoing court cases? Is he without basic knowledge such as the number of states or the correct pronunciation of corpsman? Are his IRS, GSA, VA, Secret Service, and EPA riddled with scandal? We need detail, not redundant exclamations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3) You equate \u201cfirst-class mind\u201d with anti-Trump fervor, but then fail to demonstrate (rather than rail about) why this is so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4) I was empirical and thus not always laudatory about Trump\u2019s skills; yet he dismantled a quite qualified field of 16 more experienced and sometimes better funded Republican rivals, and often outdebated those with far more experience and rhetorical training. To deny that is to let emotions get the better of logic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5) In fact, Trump\u2019s team has passed lots of legislation, even as we hear only of stalled Obamacare and tax reform. At six months Trump had signed over 50 legislative bills, comparable to or greater than the record of the first half year of previous presidents.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Given the Obama precedent, he also issued a flurry of executive orders that, like it or not, have redefined energy production, regulations, immigration, and the administrative state. The furor at Trump from the Left is not that he is stalled and impotent, but that he is in a variety of ways reversing the Obama legacy. Does your anger arise because as a supposed incompetent Trump has done nothing and is merely idling on the job? Or that as a liberal partisan, you are furious that in breakneck fashion he is reversing the Obama agenda, from illegal immigration to deterrence abroad to EPA regulations at home?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6) Trump cannot be faulted for failing to enact health care or tax reform\u2014given that his proposals are still stalled before the Congress and await either congressional ratification or recalibration or rejection. He still may get both tax and health care reform by the end of 2018.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7) You misrepresent, of course, what I wrote. My argument in the Los Angeles Times<\/em> was that despite his often-alienating tweets and controversies, Trump remains about as popular as he was on Election Day (46% approval in the November 13th Rasmussen poll). And I noted that his success hinges on avoiding what are seen as costly optional wars and restoring economic growth. Should he do either he will be reelected; if not, he won\u2019t.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 8) I think part of your anger is not because Trump has failed (you wish him, after all, to fail), but because in some ways he is succeeding to your chagrin\u2014record stock market levels, 6 months of 3% GDP growth, low unemployment, improving labor participation, near record consumer and business confidence, record coal\/gas\/oil production, upswings in manufacturing and service industries, etc.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In terms of foreign policy, Haley, Mattis, McMaster, Pompeo, and Tillerson are slowly restoring deterrence and reassuring allies in the Middle East that Iran, and in Asia, that North Korea and China, are not the predestined new hegemonies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 9) If a writer is to ascend from letter-to-the editor harangues to analytical commentary, then the key is to avoid hyperbole, remain capable of detecting the mistakes of friends and successes of enemies, and try to cite examples rather than offer bluster.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unfortunately, you fail on all these counts and thus cannot be taken too seriously. Again, you score 9.0\/10.0 on our newly inaugurated Angry Reader Emotional Harangue scale.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n V.D. Hanson<\/p>\n 11\/27\/2017 From an Angry Reader: Rarely have I read such infuriating nonsense as intellectual outlier Victor Davis Hanson spouts in his thoroughly delusional commentary about Trump. I know he\u2019s been a blind Trumpeter since the con artist\u2019s campaign began, and he remains steadfast in defending the indefensible. His pack of fraudulent claims, gross exaggerations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Nu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11242,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/06-25-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":0},"title":"06-25-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: What is wrong with you? You see what Trump is doing over 3000 lies and yet you still can condemn Hillary! \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 Dear Angry Reader Rhonda Welsch, First, congratulations. You get only a 1 out of 10 on the Angry Reader Scale (for silly exaggeration [e.g.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12220,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-02-28-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader 02-28-20","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: Gray Matter Your articles are so offensively lacking in context, thoughtfulness, and reflection on history--basically simpleminded attack ads-- that I am going to erase the National Review\u2019s bookmark from my browser. And there is no case for Trump any more than there was a case\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12471,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-07-06-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":2},"title":"Angry Reader 07-06-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Professor Hanson: In your recent article Class, Not Race, Divides America, you said: Whatever Trump was, he talked to blacks just as he talked to everyone else\u2014same accent, same mannerism, same vocabulary. He was not going to feign a black patois and pander in the Joe\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10974,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-14-2018-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":3},"title":"02\/14\/2018 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader From SM: Your article sucks. What if CNN didn\u2019t hate FDR? You can\u2019t debate a hypothetical situation. Trump is probably going to prison. Have fun. _________________________________________________________ Dear Angry Reader SM, 1) Define \u201csucks.\u201d 2) It is called counter-factual history and offers food, however unwished, for thought.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10180,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/from-an-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":4},"title":"From an Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"DR HANSON. \u00a0TRUMP TRAITOR IS A RUSSIAN SPY. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING HIM IN JAIL WITH THE ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION. THE TRUMP JOKE PRESIDENCY IS GOING DOWN IN FLAMES. TRUMP FIRED COMEY TO CONCEAL HIS RUSSIAN CONNECTIONS. DEMOCRATS WILL BE IN POWER FOR 30 YEARS AFTER THE TRUMP DEBACLE. \u00a0-HEIN\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11357,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-08-22-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 08-22-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: Treasonous Historians You are liar like Trump and you and your fellow Comprotnik should be breaking rocks in Leavenworth... Trying to undermine Mueller won't work, the report will be devastating. You will be shown just as treasonous, and obviously racist, as the Putin puppet....For memory,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10757,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10756\/revisions\/10757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"