{"id":13752,"date":"2021-07-19T07:16:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=13752"},"modified":"2021-07-19T07:17:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:17:04","slug":"the-american-descent-into-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-american-descent-into-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"The American Descent into Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ <em>American Greatness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"806\" height=\"403\" data-attachment-id=\"13753\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-american-descent-into-madness\/portal-to-madness\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?fit=1265%2C632&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1265,632\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Getty Images\\\/iStockphoto&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Portal to madness&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1508457600&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Portal to madness&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Portal to madness\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Portal to madness&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?fit=500%2C250&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?fit=806%2C403&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?resize=806%2C403&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?resize=1024%2C512&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?resize=500%2C250&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?resize=768%2C384&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Maddness.jpg?w=1265&amp;ssl=1 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Jerca Zagorc \/\/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nations have often gone mad in a matter of months. The French abandoned their supposedly idealistic revolutionary project and turned it into a monstrous hell for a year between July 1793 and 1794. After the election of November 1860, in a matter of weeks, Americans went from thinking secession was taboo to visions of killing the greatest number of their fellow citizens on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Mao\u2019s China went from a failed communist state to the ninth circle of Dante\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Inferno<\/em>, when he unleashed the Cultural Revolution in 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last six months, we have seen absurdities never quite witnessed in modern America. Madness, not politics, defines it. There are three characteristics of all these upheavals. One, the events are unsustainable. They will either cease or they will destroy the nation, at least as we know it. Two, the law has largely been rendered meaningless. Three, left-wing political agendas justify any means necessary to achieve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2021\/07\/18\/the-american-descent-into-madness\/\">CONTINUE READING&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Nations have often gone mad in a matter of months. The French abandoned their supposedly idealistic revolutionary project and turned it into a monstrous hell for a year between July 1793 and 1794. After the election of November 1860, in a matter of weeks, Americans went from thinking secession [&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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3zO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4482,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/merchants-of-despair\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":0},"title":"Merchants of Despair","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Sort of for the war, sort of... by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Much of the recent domestic critique of American efforts in the Middle East has long roots in our own past \u2014 and little to do with the historic developments on the ground in Iraq 1. \"It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;February 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"February 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/february-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3286,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-nervous-breakdown-and-the-worlds\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":1},"title":"America&#8217;s Nervous Breakdown&#8211;and The World&#8217;s","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Ancient thinkers from Thucydides to Cicero insisted that money was the real source of military power and national influence. We've been reminded of that classical wisdom these last three weeks. In a manner not seen since the Great Depression, Wall Street went into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;October 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"October 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/october-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9480,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/from-greek-tragedy-to-american-therapy\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":2},"title":"From Greek tragedy to American therapy","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Town Hall | \u00a0 The Greeks gave us tragedy -- the idea that life is never fair. Terrible stuff for no reason tragically falls on good people. Life's choices are sometimes only between the bad and the far worse. In the plays of the ancient\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Europe&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1714,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thoughts-on-allies-gone-by\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":3},"title":"Thoughts on Allies Gone By","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Whatever the protestations of the Obama administration, many in both Britain and Israel feel that 2009-10 marked a watershed, the beginning of an era in which America was no longer a special friend to either \u2014 whether gauged by serial symbolic snubs or real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;April 2010&quot;","block_context":{"text":"April 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/april-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13219,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/optimism-inc-part-4-blm-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":4},"title":"Optimism, Inc. 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But it then simply went mute when it was a matter of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tree-and-sun.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11248,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mexico-what-went-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":13752,"position":5},"title":"Mexico \u2014 What Went Wrong?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Mexico gets a massive cash influx in remittances, American corporations get cheap labor, Democrats get voters . . .Mexico in just a few days could elect one of its more anti-American figures in recent memory, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador. Obrador has often advanced the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mexico&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13752"}],"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=13752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13755,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13752\/revisions\/13755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}