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The Classicist, with Victor Davis Hanson: “The Cooling Of The Melting Pot”
Victor Davis Hanson looks at why America has been the historical exception to the failure of multiethnic societies – and examines the trends threatening to undo that accomplishment.
Published in General
Marvelous. A modest, sane voice offering historical perspective on a nation well on its way to dissolution. I detect, perhaps, a sadness in Victor’s voice. Of all people, he has the perspective to know that something once great – the noble, if imperfect experiment which was America – is without a doubt failing before our eyes.
Switzerland seems to be doing OK. I’m not too sure how well the US is doing.
VDH , as always, is dead on right. Well done Mr H.
As usual, he’s brilliant. I think he’s saying today’s political climate is a strong reaction to Black Lives Matter, La Raza and similar racial/cultural movements of the past few years manipulated and encouraged by the political left in an attempt to stay in power. Millions of us are beginning to feel like we don’t count and realize White Lives/American culture matters too. As a result, we feel a strong need for a politician unafraid to say it. Obama has stirred the the bee’s nest.
Thank you, Professor Hanson, for your perceptive analysis of the roots of the alt-right, which is in our elites’ promotion of affirmative action, victimology and multi-culturalism, while holding themselves harmless.
For decades assimilation was demanded by our elites; but starting in 1965 a New Elite pushed a now-diffident Old Elite into identity-style politics. Lead by Negroes, minorities claimed justified demands on the greater society. But the elites who acceded to those demands did not pay the price themselves; they opted to pay with OPM and OPL – other people’s money and other people’s lives.
So affirmative action, set-asides, court-ordered busing and diversity requirements were born. Immigration became massive, continuous and predominantly from communities outside the Western philosophical tradition. “All-white” became a pejorative. Our leaders consciously tossed their own principles aside to placate, and unfortunately encourage, a cult of victimization and separation.
After decades of living with the hypocrisy of our elites, of generously trying to make allowances and be fair, while being the subject of more and more race hatred, the white majority of this country got sick of this and sought out anyone who was willing to say that Americans are not villains, and that those who do are liars.
(Continued)
Those on the Right who loudly profess adherence to American principles continue to make the same mistakes that led to the rise of the man they call a demagogue. Example:
A mass-murder by an unassimilated son of Muslim immigrants occurs. Immediately, the Democrats commence a filibuster for gun control – a political action (we have been told since 2010) that should be futile in a Congress the Democrats do not control.
What happens? Do the Republicans commence a filibuster against immigration to curb the continuous massive inflow even temporarily? No. Instead, they lend enough support to the gun controllers and lose the narrative, plus they infuriate their own base of support.
Having proven themselves to be blind, stupid and unreliable protectors of their own values and voters, the part of the elite which calls itself conservative – Ryan, Kristol, French, Goldberg, Shapiro, Lowry, Kirk, Portman – then berates its voters and readers for abandoning conservative principles and supporting a demagogue.
Professor Hanson, let me know the day the Republicans begin a filibuster against affirmative action. Let me know the day impeachment articles are entered and hearings are scheduled for judges who overturn legitimate referenda. Tell me the day that a Republican Congress refuses to appropriate money for a defense bill that includes a provision for drafting women into the army in wartime. Such gestures aren’t useless; the Democrats disproved that notion this week. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Until then…Trump or somebody like him.