{"id":9652,"date":"2016-12-05T11:23:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T19:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9652"},"modified":"2016-12-05T11:23:37","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T19:23:37","slug":"9652-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9652-2\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

From an Angry Reader:<\/h3>\n

Clinton lost because of Republican voter suppression, Comey and Russian hacking. Trump is the establishment. He Pence and his appointments will cripple America for years. You should remove your head from Trumps ass. People like you are the problem.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n

Dear Repeat Angry Reader Raye Harper,<\/p>\n

You cite 3 reasons for Hillary\u2019s electoral loss: 1) yet there is no evidence of voter suppression. The Pew Foundation in 2012 suggested that voter registration is unsupervised and leads to voter fraud. Their drift was probably not focused on golf course-Republicans. The President assured Latinos that there would be no scrutiny of immigration status connected with voting; again, his subtle subtext was not election reassurance to the VFW or NRA to not worry about coming out in force at the polls.<\/p>\n

2) Comey was a neutron bomb who radiated everyone: most dramatically acting improperly as a federal attorney in stating Hillary should not be prosecuted, then again improperly that she might be, then again improperly that she wouldn\u2019t be\u2014all predicated on his perceptions of his own political viability and keeping his job amid rising anger in his ranks. Two of the three times, he gave her a favorable nod\u2014but never should have given a single press conference in the first place. AG Loretta Lynch prejudiced her position by meeting stealthily with Bill Clinton, and in response she outsourced Hillary\u2019s case improperly to Comey, who was an investigator, not a prosecutor who weighs investigatory evidence. He should be fired for malpractice.<\/p>\n

3) As far as Russian hacking: we have as yet no proof who hacked what. But so far no one has questioned the authenticity of the hacked materials. If Clinton, Inc. had not engaged in surreal machinations like attempts to leverage Haitian relief, or ridiculed Latinos, Catholics, or blacks, or outlined to donors pay for play rules, or not had a stable of fake journalists who weighed in with everything from leaking debate questions to requests for free anti-Trump research, the leaks would have been irrelevant, or merely embarrassing like Colin Powell\u2019s emails, but not incriminating.<\/p>\n

Of course, Trump is part of the establishment. That is a banal statement. The mystery is how he appealed to those who are not the establishment that he was their anti-establishment paladin. No candidate in American history has won the presidency without prior political or military experience. He destroyed 16 fine primary candidates, the Bush, Clinton, and Obama dynasties, and brought with him a Republican tsunami\u2014all without much spending, ground game, ads, or political help from the establishment. You need to study how that happened rather than bark at the moon that it did.<\/p>\n

We have no exact idea about what the Trump appointments will do; I doubt a Jim Mattis at Defense will cripple anyone other than our enemies. I hope you were as worried about the actual circumstances of so many of Mr. Obama\u2019s departing (and mostly discredited and shamed) appointees at the VA, HHS, NSA, IRS, FBI, EPA, CIA, Labor, Justice, etc. as you are about hypotheticals. Using fake email names at the EPA, screwing up the ACA website and delivery, leaving veterans without adequate care, using tax returns as political leverage or allowing the Secret Service to become Keystone Cops are not small things.<\/p>\n

Why the vulgarity? I\u2019m not the problem. If I were, my absence would remedy the problem. Unfortunately America’s dilemma is far more fundamental, in part reflected by a certain sort of zealot, who in rage writes profanity to strangers, rants banalities, and apparently believes that his vulgarity can substitute for an idea. Sadly, it just cannot.<\/p>\n

Sincerely, VDH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an Angry Reader: Clinton lost because of Republican voter suppression, Comey and Russian hacking. Trump is the establishment. He Pence and his appointments will cripple America for years. You should remove your head from Trumps ass. People like you are the problem. Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply: Dear Repeat Angry Reader Raye Harper, You cite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2vG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11181,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/5-09-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":0},"title":"5-09-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Wow. You are a moron. How is it, that Comey\u2019s memos, which were his that he wrote, as an FBI agent, which were still his, once he was fired from his FBI job, by an obstructing president, \u201cleaking of classified material\u201d?? How can the man\u2019s own\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":9652,"position":1},"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":10974,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-14-2018-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":2},"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":11555,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/11555-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":3},"title":"Angry Reader 12-04-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Since you never state that POTUS lies 80-85% of the time when he speaks publicly, what are some examples of his fake news. Who has discredited the main stream news other than POTUS? On a scale of 1 to 10 just how right wing is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11220,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/06-11-2018-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":4},"title":"06-11-2018 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: 1972 REDUX....The carnivores of civil liberties. \"You talk like a man with a paper ass\". Someone needs to enlighten you about the need to cite examples. How did you ever get your job at Stanford? Gary Seager \u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013 Dear Angry Reader Gary Seager, In such\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10386,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10386-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9652,"position":5},"title":"From an Angry Reader: Hello\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: Hello Dr. Hanson, While it's hard to argue with \"be happy day by day\", our current form of capitalism - which Hoover seems to endorse - makes that near impossible. Over the last 30 years, Friedman's nutty idea of maximizing shareholder value as the only responsibility\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9653,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652\/revisions\/9653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}