{"id":9895,"date":"2017-02-23T08:19:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T16:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9895"},"modified":"2017-02-23T08:19:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T16:19:12","slug":"9895-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9895-2\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

02\/23\/17<\/p>\n

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

Prof. Hanson:<\/p>\n

First, as an aggressive moderate, I believe any talk of California secession is simply a waste of time and idiotic.\u00a0 But saying \u201cCalifornia\u201d supports secession is equally absurd.\u00a0 One third of the population reflects nothing close to a majority, not to mention the small poll sampling, and it does not compare to Virginia in 1860, where fewer than 2,000 people voted for Lincoln (as a historian, I\u2019m sure you know Lincoln wasn\u2019t even on the ballot in South Carolina).\u00a0 This secessionist garbage is not close to getting on the ballot yet, but, of course, if there is sufficient funding, anything can hit the ballot.<\/p>\n

Further, as I live in Silicon Valley (and I am aware you are at the Hoover Institution), the majority here do not believe that these tech companies are \u201ca world unto their own.\u201d\u00a0 Quite the opposite, they believe that they are part of the world, with a powerful global view that great companies throughout our history have held.\u00a0 My office sits between Oracle and Electronic Arts, and, frankly, I find the population of these organizations essentially the same as those who populated the Engineering Quad at my college 35-40 years ago.<\/p>\n

More locally, I live in Redwood City, and to say it is \u201cmostly poor\u201d is abundantly absurd.\u00a0 Go to downtown Redwood City for dinner.\u00a0 Before, drive through Redwood Shores and anywhere west of El Camino.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had people knock on the door of my 3+2 home and offer to pay me over $1.3 million in cash for it\u00a0without even coming in the door.\u00a0 Yes, there are some lower income areas, but even the majority of those are safe and filled with good, hard-working people.<\/p>\n

Finally, please do not compare\u00a0any\u00a0state in this country to a Confederate state.\u00a0 Texas\u2019s secessionist movement would have been a more comparable example, but still not even close.\u00a0 Nothing now compares to those troubled times, even with our current divisions.\u00a0 As the namesake of a Sergeant in the Union Army who was at Appomattox and saw his dead brother go by on a stretcher three days before the signing of the surrender of Lee\u2019s forces, let me say these comparisons are apples to bullets.<\/p>\n

Wardell Loveland<\/p>\n

Redwood City<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n

Dear Somewhat Angry Reader Wardell Loveland,<\/p>\n

First, I did not write that all of California supports secession, but was careful to qualify with terms such as \u201cCalexit supporters\u201d or “some California officials\u201d and \u201cliberal California,\u201d at least enough so to note that the entire state does not advocate such nonsense. Unfortunately, you never refute my arguments, which reviewed all sorts of neo-Confederate ideas from federal nullification to sanctuary cities to Calexit to a King Cotton like economy. Incidentally, even \u201cone third\u201d of California represents 13 million people, a number which would make it the fifth largest state in\u00a0the union.<\/p>\n

\u201cA world unto their own\u201d refers to Big Tech\u2019s public progressive facade and its private embrace of outsourcing, offshoring, and, yes, a \u201cglobal view\u201d that I am not sure is either what companies quite held in the past or is of reassurance to Americans in this age of borderless globalization, in which it is hard to calibrate sometimes what exactly are multinational affinities. When programmers in Silicon Valley currently cannot afford housing it makes no sense for tech companies to lobby for greater numbers of immigrant computer people. That is certainly a\u00a0\u201cglobal view\u201d but to\u00a0many it reflects a\u00a0\u201cworld unto their own\u201d blinkered self-absorption.<\/p>\n

In any case, such worries resonated in the last election and perhaps explain the implosion of the Democratic base by those who felt globalization was a problem not the solution and benefitted inordinately global elites, particularly those in high tech, law, finance, and government at the perceived expense of the hinterland.<\/p>\n

Comparing the poverty of Redwood City to nearby tony Atherton is not \u201cabsurd\u201d but true. Of course, gentrification spikes housing prices as those forced out of Menlo Park seek enclaves in Redwood City and East Palo Alto, but to walk through much of Redwood City is not the same experience as doing the same a few miles away in Menlo Park and Palo Alto and you of course must know that. The per capita income of Atherton, referenced in the essay, is about $144,000; that of Woodside is $125,000. Compare that to next-door Redwood City at $42,000. That seems to substantiate my point in a way your anecdotes sadly do not.<\/p>\n

You seem confused about the nature of poverty when you state of areas of Redwood City that “even the majority of those are safe and filled with good, hard-working people\u201d\u00a0as if that proves that they are not poor in comparison to those living a few thousand yards away. Being poor and hard-working as well as good are not\u00a0antithetical\u00a0concepts as you seem to imply. My larger point again was that like the Old South, California is a society of two rather than three classes, with a ruling elite that seems to prefer a lifestyle and culture not conducive to the prosperity of a middle class,\u00a0especially\u00a0in terms of affordable highways, good highways, and competitive schools.<\/p>\n

Your letter fails for two reasons. One, you fail to note that I early on noted the differences between a modern state and the Old South (“Of course, this is 2017, not 1860, and California is super-liberal, not an antebellum slave-owning society.\u201d); two, you did not refute any of my points about infrastructure (written before the Oroville dam catastrophe), the state’s high taxes and poor services, the effect of boutique\u00a0environmentalism upon the working classes, and the strange paradox a high basket of taxes combined with the nation\u2019s near last infrastructure and schools.<\/p>\n

I am a great, great grandson of a Union soldier from Missouri and my own uncle and namesake died on Okinawa with the 6th Marine Division, so I do not need lectures about family lineages. The point of the essay was not to caricature California, but to warn of the dangers of nullifying federal laws,\u00a0talking of\u00a0secession, withholding federal revenues, and gravitating to an antebellum culture of a small class on top with a service class on the bottom. We know where that eventually leads.<\/p>\n

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

02\/23\/17 From an Angry Reader: Prof. Hanson: First, as an aggressive moderate, I believe any talk of California secession is simply a waste of time and idiotic.\u00a0 But saying \u201cCalifornia\u201d supports secession is equally absurd.\u00a0 One third of the population reflects nothing close to a majority, not to mention the small poll sampling, and it […]<\/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],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2zB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12536,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-08-01-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":0},"title":"Angry Reader 08-01-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I was really impressed by the article you wrote that was published in the east bay times today. Mostly impressed by the enourmase size of the piece of shit that you are. Inciting violence from the \"silent majority\" is one of the most irresponsible things one can possibly publish. FUCK\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9839,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/california-goes-confederate\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":1},"title":"California Goes Confederate","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Threatening secession is far from the only thing that the Golden State has in common with the Old South. Over 60 percent of California voters went for Hillary Clinton \u2014 a margin of more than 4 million votes over Donald Trump. Since Clinton\u2019s defeat,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Business"","block_context":{"text":"Business","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/business\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9900,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9900-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":2},"title":"From an Angry Reader: You\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: You are most definitely wrong, California could go it alone. They are after all the sixth largest economy in the world. If secession is in their future the US Federal government would be more likely to fall into chaos than California. We need them more than\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":10586,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10586-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":3},"title":"09\/15\/2017 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/15\/2017 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Sam Davidson Victor, I enjoy reading your articles in the National Review. I never understood why this country has statues that honor people that took up arms against the United States. I do not think there are any statues honoring Lord Cornwallis, General\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":10580,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10580-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":4},"title":"09\/14\/2017 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/14\/2017 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Wes Bridgeman Dear Mr. Hanson, My father, Lt. Col. William Bridgeman (Retired), sent me the attached links and quotes that I would like to bring to your attention. This features the words of the figures themselves (Forrest and Lincoln), and I will let\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":368,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9895,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader #2","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Angry Reader #2\u00a0writes: Typical crank piece by the professor, full of crap that people who don\u2019t know California (but loathe it anyway) will eat up. Fact: \u201cLiberals\u201d did not let illegal aliens flood California. The federal government did, by not policing the border. Rich\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\/9895"}],"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=9895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9896,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895\/revisions\/9896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}