Filed under: Blogging, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Foreign Polidy, Freedom, Immigration, Israel, Latin America, Mexico, Middle East, Progressives, Regulation, The Constitution, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Explaining The Politics, Trump's Accomplishments, Victor Davis Hanson
This was first posted in May, this year. I think it’s time to review it once again, because there is so much here and it is so valuable. Please watch the whole thing, you’ll be glad you did. It’s a long conversation, but you can spread it out over several days if need be.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, China, Domestic Policy, Economy, Election 2020, Energy, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Immigration, National Security, Taxes | Tags: The American Media, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson takes on President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. So what about the Trade War, impeachment, China, oil and gas, climate change, the economy?
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Energy, Foreign Policy, Immigration, Junk Science, National Security, Progressives, Regulation, Science/Technology, Taxes, The Constitution, Unemployment | Tags: Explaining Trump Voters, For Progressives, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson has a particularly interesting column today at CNN, of all places. It is titled “What progressives should know about Trump Voters.” CNN may just be the perfect place for that.
1. Voters appreciate that the economy is currently experiencing near record-low peacetime unemployment, record-low minority unemployment, and virtual 3% annualized GDP growth. Interest and inflation rates remain low. Workers’ wages increased after years of stagnation. The US is now the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. And gasoline prices remain affordable. The President continues to redress asymmetrical trade with China, as well as with former NAFTA partners and Europe. He jawbones companies to curb offshoring and outsourcing. The current economic recovery and low consumer prices have uplifted millions of middle-class Americans who appreciate the upswing.
2. Trump does not exist in a vacuum. Many supporters turned off by some of his antics are still far more appalled by an emerging radical neo-socialist Democratic agenda. If the alternative to Trump is a disturbing tolerance among some Democrats for anti-Semitism, the Green New Deal, reparations, a permissive approach to abortion even very late in pregnancy, a wealth tax, a 70-90% top income tax rate, the abolition of ICE, open borders, and Medicare for all, Trump’s record between 2017-20 will seem moderate and preferable. Progressives do not fully appreciate how the hysterics and media coverage of the Kavanaugh hearings, the Covington teenagers and the Jussie Smollett psychodrama turned off half the country. Such incidents and their reportage confirmed suspicions of cultural bias, media distortions, and an absence of fair play and reciprocity.
Do read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you did. Ignore CNN’s cute inserts.
Filed under: Capitalism, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, Environment, Immigration, Politics | Tags: Bad Management, The State of California, Victor Davis Hanson
From American Greatness: From Victor Davis Hanson’s post there. Dr. Hanson is committed to California where his forbears settled early, and built the house where he still lives. He commutes to Stanford each week as a member of the Hoover Institution. The contrast is notable, and gives him something of a broader view of the state and its problems.
I lived in California several different times, in different parts of the State, and, with apologies to Californians, loathed the place.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Education, Foreign Policy, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Immigration, Latin America, Law, National Security, Politics, Progressives, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Mark Levin, Today and Tomorrow, Victor Davis Hanson
I particularly enjoy listening to these two men separately, to have them together is a real treat. Two of our most valued intellectuals, talking about their concerns, which are my concerns as well, and perhaps yours as well. Enjoy.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Europe, European Union, Foreign Policy, Islam, The United States, United Kingdom | Tags: History Updated, The New World Order, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson had a new column up yesterday at the Hoover Institution’s “Defining Ideas” in which he explains our history in statecraft and diplomacy, and what he calls the Old-World Order, since the end of the Second World War, He explains how we got here and where we are today, and what the Trump administration is doing about it. It’s not long and I found it fascinating to have it all put together so concisely.
The present continuance of institutions such as the EU, NATO, UN, and others suggests that the world goes on exactly as before. In fact, these alphabet organizations are becoming shadows of their former selves, more trouble to end than to allow to grow irrelevant. The conditions that created them after the end of World War II, and subsequently sustained them even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, no longer really exist.
The once grand bipartisan visions of American diplomats such as Dean Acheson, George Kennan, George Marshall and others long ago more than fulfilled their enlightened promises. The U.S. in 1945, unlike in 1918, rightly stayed engaged in Europe after another world war. America helped to rebuild what the old Axis powers had destroyed in Asia and Europe.
At great cost, and at times in both folly and wisdom, the U.S. and its allies faced down 300 Soviet and Warsaw Pact divisions. America contained communist aggression through messy surrogate wars, avoided a nuclear exchange, bankrupted an evil communist empire, and gave Eastern Europe and much of Asia the opportunity for self-determination. New postwar protocols enforced by the U.S. Navy made the idea of global free trade, commerce, travel, and communications a reality in a way never seen since the early Roman Empire.
Do read the whole thing, you’ll be glad you did.
