{"id":11453,"date":"2018-10-16T15:01:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T22:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11453"},"modified":"2018-10-16T15:01:15","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T22:01:15","slug":"the-origins-of-progressive-agony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-origins-of-progressive-agony\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origins of Progressive Agony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"drop\">W<\/span>hat has transformed the Democratic party into an anguished progressive movement that incorporates the tactics of the street, embraces maenadism, reverts to Sixties carnival barking, and is radicalized by a new young socialist movement? Even party chairman Tom Perez concedes that there are \u201cno moderate Democrats left,\u201d and lately the rantings of Cory Booker, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez confirm that diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Obama, the Fallen God<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Paradoxically, Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 and 2012 and yet helped to erode the old Democratic party in the process. He ended up in opulent retirement while ceding state legislatures, governorships, the House, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court to conservative Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Obama had promised leftists \u2014 in his prior brief tenure in the Senate he had compiled the most partisan record of his 99 colleagues \u2014 that his social-justice methods and agendas would lead to a proverbial \u201cpermanent Democratic majority.\u201d Do we remember the February 2009\u00a0<em>Newsweek<\/em>obsequious cover story \u201cWe Are All Socialists Now\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Supposedly, changing demography, massive illegal immigration, and identity politics had preordained a permanent 51 percent \u201cOther\u201d whose minority statuses, as defined by gender and race, had now become a majority, given the destined demise of the white working classes. If Obama had not existed, someone like Corey Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, or Kirsten Gillibrand was supposedly foreordained to be president anyway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/10\/progressive-agony-democrats-brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review What has transformed the Democratic party into an anguished progressive movement that incorporates the tactics of the street, embraces maenadism, reverts to Sixties carnival barking, and is radicalized by a new young socialist movement? Even party chairman Tom Perez concedes that there are \u201cno moderate Democrats left,\u201d and lately [&hellip;]<\/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":[1199,1167,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2YJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10142,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-the-obama-precedent-empowered-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":0},"title":"How the Obama Precedent Empowered Trump","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness.com April 27th, 2017 Donald Trump was elected president by sizing up the Electoral College, and the voting public, and then campaigning accordingly. A number of the things that explain Trump\u2019s election also point to unique opportunities to overturn the Obama legacy. This, in turn,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10330,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-is-the-alternative-to-trump-derangement\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":1},"title":"What Is the Alternative to Trump Derangement?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review If they weren\u2019t trying to destroy the president, Democrats would have to focus on an agenda most Americans don\u2019t support. By 1968, voters had tired of the failed Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. Four year later, the 1972 Nixon reelection re-emphasized that a doubled-down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bill Clinton&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bill Clinton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/bill-clinton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12020,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-strategies-of-targeting-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":2},"title":"The Strategies of Targeting Trump","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness There is no logical Democratic explanation for impeaching Donald Trump. The various factions within the Democratic Party calling for impeachment are united only by their loathing of Donald Trump, the person, and his systematic repeal of the Obama progressive project. After failing with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8089,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/epitaph-for-hope-and-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":3},"title":"Epitaph for Hope and Change","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama has fundamentally transformed America, all right \u2014 but not as he intended. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online A perfect storm brought into power Barack Obama, a previously little-known Illinois community organizer. He had at best a mediocre record as a state legislator and rookie senator. Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Obama Administration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Obama Administration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alex Wong\/Getty","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/pic_giant_121614_SM_Barack-Obama-G-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8466,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-three-obamas\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":4},"title":"The Three Obamas","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hope and Change was left behind long ago. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online The public has come to know three Obamas. But which, if any, of these portraits is real, and which are fantasies? Aside from those who automatically support Obama because he is a redistributionist Democrat, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Obama Administration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Obama Administration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/whats-the-three-headed-monster-challenging-obamas-foreign-policy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9605,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-trump-won\/","url_meta":{"origin":11453,"position":5},"title":"Why Trump Won","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Defining Ideas \u00a0 Throughout the course of the 2016 election, the conventional groupthink was that the renegade Donald Trump had irrevocably torn apart the Republican Party. His base populism supposedly sandbagged more experienced and electable Republican candidates, who were bewildered that a \u201cconservative\u201d would dare to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11453"}],"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=11453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11454,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11453\/revisions\/11454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}