{"id":13208,"date":"2021-04-23T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=13208"},"modified":"2021-04-22T18:31:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T01:31:53","slug":"angry-reader-04-23-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-04-23-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry Reader 04-23-2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From\nA Polite and Ernest Semi-Angry Reader:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Mr. Hanson,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a senior woman from\nMichigan, snowbird over the winter in Florida. I am so sad these days that\nanything written by either side is vituperative, mean spirited, and anger provoking.\nYour 10 new rules by radicals could have had a much nicer tone. Frankly, I\nthink you are way off base by taking such an exaggerated view of all your\nbeefs. It irritates the left and inflames the right. Ugh. I would appreciate it\nif you would rewrite that article with a gentler approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have grown up\nrespecting the two party system, and want it to survive in the most healthy\nfashion. My husband and I have great friends on both sides of the aisle, but it\nis not easy these days to have a civilized conversation, so we just avoid\nanything political. That is very sad, because growing up in a \u201cmixed\u201d family,\nwe had wonderful disagreements, and we chewed on lots of issues without drawing\nblood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully that will\nhappen again. Please help that happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Roberts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\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\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear\nPolite and Earnest Semi-Angry Reader Anne,<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think my 10 rules\nare \u201cbeefs,\u201d but simply descriptions of a new America, in which debt is not\nreally considered debt; whether laws are enforced fully depends on the\nsocial\/cultural context; and wokeness is a new religion. Do you disagree? If\nso, please explain where and why. When we owe $25 trillion in national debt and\nborrow $5 trillion over 2 years do you think it is more important to warn the\ncountry about the danger of insolvency or to keep silent so as not to \u201cirritate\nthe Left\u201d or \u201cinflame the Right\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You and I grew up with a\nconventional two-party system, I in a Democratic household of the JFK brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 8-hr work-day, Social\nSecurity, civil rights, disability insurance, meritocratic admissions to\npreclude racial prejudice, secure borders to ensure entry-level good wages,\nfair housing\u2014all this was the Democratic Party until the 1970s\/1980s. And even\nin the 1990s a radical child of the 1960s, Bill Clinton, could at times be\nreasonable (see the Democratic 1996 convention platform on illegal immigration\nand speeches on it by the like of Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.) He was\nresponsible with Newt Gingrich in working out a way to reduce budget deficits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we have now two new\nparties: a hard left socialist\/progressive movement that appeals to the very,\nvery wealthy, the corporate elite, woke minorities\u2014versus a middle class,\npopulist working-class party that wishes to retain traditions and customs and\nseeks to appeal by class rather than racial interests. The former Party has\ncreated the cancel culture, the boycott culture, and the transformation\nculture. It is at war with the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and the\nFourth and Fifth Amendments. The ACLU is not the ACLU of the 1960s but\nsomething quite different. The Left, not the conservative party, wants to alter\nthe Constitution and ancient customs, by ending the 9-Justice Supreme Court,\nthe filibuster, the states\u2019 laws concerning national voting, a 50-state nation,\nand far more\u2014largely because it feels its agendas do not win 50 percent\nsupport, whether the Green New Deal, open borders, reparations, or changes to\nthe Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my experience,\nconservatives usually don\u2019t bring up politics, or like to argue; theirs is more\na live and let live attitude. In most families with political tensions, the\nmore leftward demand \u201cdiscussions\u201d and seek to prompt political debate, and see\npolitics as more important than friendships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politics is part of life\nnot an end in itself. Traditionalists don\u2019t hunt down officials at their homes\nto \u201cget in their faces\u201d or metaphorically \u201cbring a gun to a knife fight.\u201d So I\ndon\u2019t think your admonition is quite as symmetrical as you think. Look at the\ncampaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney; both were reduced to caricatures of\ngreedy, white capitalists. Trump was a creation of pent-up anger, it is true,\nbut the anger was that of taking punches in a world where the Left had\nweaponized Wall Street, Silicon Valley, professional sports, academia,\nfoundations, Hollywood, entertainment, and the corporate boardroom, etc. What\nis the political message you receive before a NBA game, or from a new Hollywood\nmovie, or within a new commercial, or in a college president\u2019s letter, or from\nFacebook\u2019s rules?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do think we can all\navoid unnecessary animus. I try not <\/em>to attack any writers\/thinkers in\npersonal terms and avoid naming them wherever possible, but do<\/em> insist on replying to those who\nengage in attacks. Otherwise, the untruth is never addressed, much less\ncorrected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish a return to the\nold bipartisan give-and-take, but whether we like it or not, the country is\nmoving in one direction of massive debt, larger government, less personal\nfreedom, more tribal tensions, open borders, less meritocracy, and less\ncivility\u2014and most important, as I pointed out, a general decline in knowledge,\ngiven the watering down of K-12 curricula. Consensual government will not work\nwhen citizens do not know much at all of their nation\u2019s origins and history,\nand feel their country is sinful and innately flawed at its beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I appreciate your kind\nadvice, but beg to differ this time. I try to give rational spirited critiques\nthat can remind people of what is going both well and poorly. Simply hoping for\nthe good times to return if we all forget our differences won\u2019t work. If history\nis any guide, the smiling ostrich with his head in a hole will only empower\nthose who have very focused and quite dangerous agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Hanson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From A Polite and Ernest Semi-Angry Reader: Dear Mr. Hanson, I am a senior woman from Michigan, snowbird over the winter in Florida. I am so sad these days that anything written by either side is vituperative, mean spirited, and anger provoking. Your 10 new rules by radicals could have had a much nicer tone. […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3r2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11298,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/07-27-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":13208,"position":0},"title":"07-27-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Your article\u2026about NATOs challenge is Germany, not America. Sir, With all respect but before you write any article you should learn about history. Germany did not start both World Wars. You might want to do some research before writing anything. Very sad how little people here\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9501,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":13208,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader","author":"Megan Ring","date":"October 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Comment from a Reader: Dear Mr. Hanson; I left the Republican Party soon after watching eight years of ineffective \"leadership\" by Mitch McConnell, John Bohner, and now Paul Ryan. But the tipping point came when Trump was nominated for president. I cannot belong to a political party that would nominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10822,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10822-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":13208,"position":2},"title":"From An Angry Reader: You\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: You live in an alternate universe, silly clown, silly institute, silly magazine. But the article was funny so congrats. Sincerely, Bruce Patten ___________________________________________ \u00a0 Dear Angry Reader Bruce Patten, \u00a0 I congratulate you on your succinctness and your use of anaphora (\u201csilly\u201d\u2026\u201dsilly\u201d\u2026\u201dsilly\u201d) but otherwise your note\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":6531,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-9-a-facebook-comment\/","url_meta":{"origin":13208,"position":3},"title":"Angry Reader #9 — A Facebook Comment","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I will concede that you are almost always right (no joke). However, I don't agree that a year from now the \"American public will have a vague idea that about a year earlier something happened sometime to someone in Syria, but what and when and where and why they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11650,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-02-05-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":13208,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader 02-05-2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: You, sir, are a traitor, To call the FBI and the representatives of the United States \"Bolsheviks\" when the POTUS you seek to defend consistently lies about contacts with GRU officials; whose chief strategist Stephen Bannon claimed to be a Leninist because he was advocating the\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":13208,"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\/13208"}],"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=13208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13209,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions\/13209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}