Tag: Victor Davis Hanson

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We forget that knowledge can be found at all ages, and in all places. And ethics has nothing to do with degrees or pedigrees. Victor Davis Hanson Although this is an old observation by the master, this year and last perfectly illustrates what he meant. Education has ceased to become a marker of competence or […]

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The Downfall of the Ivy League

 

What do I find in my evening bookmark collections but a podcast hosted by one of my favorite public figures, interviewing my all-time favorite public figure. I hereby present Victor Davis Hanson on the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast:

Victor Davis Hanson: We’ve Never Had a Presidency Like This; Predicts a Reckoning in 2022

 

A recent stay at my sister’s home presented a microcosm of American life under the Biden regime — the new normal.

My niece told me that some of her unvaccinated friends had dined outdoors at a Manhattan restaurant. One young man entered the restaurant to use the restroom only to find an employee stationed outside the door asking patrons to show proof of vaccination before they could use the facilities.

Bill Maher: ’10 Years Ago … the Left Did Not Have a Crazy Section’

 

On a recent episode of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s podcast, comedian Bill Maher said that the political diversity of his audiences was changing.m”For the first time in my life, I am playing to a mixed audience,” Maher said. “I was in Nashville about a month ago, and the audience was about 60-40 liberal to conservative.”

“That never used to happen — never — I think it’s because 10 years ago, in my opinion anyway, the left did not have a crazy section,” Maher explained. “There was no such thing as woke, and now they do have a crazy section, which I call out as a liberal. I think I’m kind of one of the only people doing that, so there’s a hunger to hear that.”

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This from Victor Davis Hansen is a must read for both those who were loyal to the president and Republican nominee and those traitors often referred to as NeverTrumpers.  Let me preface it by saying if you didn’t like Trump and quietly didn’t vote or support him, I can understand.  You’re not a traitor, and […]

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Hoover Institute Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson sits down with our own Dave Carter to explore the similarities of today’s revolutionary zeal which seeks all encompassing power to dictate every phase of life with various events in history. In those who wan to dictate everything from our leisure activities to a newly-minted phraseology, our culture and statues, our approved political beliefs, Professor Hanson finds disturbing commonality with the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution in which culture and people were purged in what became known as the Reign of Terror. For that matter, there’s a whiff of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the air, and the fear of baseless accusations that came to define the Salem Witch Trials.  It’s a fascinating discussion which culminates in Professor Hanson’s description of what lax immigration laws have done to the home and property of five generations of his family, the home from which Professor Hanson talked with Dave.

Dave also welcomes back onto the program Ricochet Member Jenna Stocker, whose recent piece, “Minneapolis Isn’t Lost – Yet,” describes what life is like among the “smoldering embers” of what she describes as a city, “…once at the threshold of vibrancy and decency and opportunity – now at the edge of the morass.”  The cameras have moved on from Minneapolis, leaving the residents to try and put life back together again. A native of Minneapolis, Jenna Stocker’s perspective is vital to understanding what happens when the platitudes of politicians give way to reality.

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Victor Davis Hanson: The media, the punditocracy, the universities, the political establishment, Wall Street, the big banks, the mega-wealthy, even the Koch brothers and Hank Paulson, former head of Goldman Sachs, can’t get near the taurean Trump’s china shop. Trump should have been down by 20 points. Preview Open

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A Fine Whiskey with Victor Davis Hanson

 

In this great interview with Victor Davis Hanson, Dave Sussman makes a startling observation of Donald Trump and the erudite classicist Victor Davis Hanson, two men who would seem to differ as much as any in the public sphere in their character, background, and intellect, that each is “the everyman,” someone who speaks clearly to everyone and evinces a plainspoken authenticity.

He’s right. I think that, in Trump’s case, it is a matter of confidence and a willingness to engage any opponent. In Hanson’s, I suspect it’s an expression of deep integrity and a desire to understand and communicate carefully considered truths. But the impression is the same: an appealing lack of pretense, a blunt and compelling frankness, and a sense that the chaff of political correctness and poll-tested caution has been brushed aside in favor of simply telling it like it is.

[Member Post]

 

A couple of days ago, Victor Davis Hanson published a piece about white privilege, and how some people (particularly politicians) try to avoid it by changing their identity (the comparison between Rafael “Ted” Cruz and Robert “Beto” O’Rourke was especially interesting). I didn’t see any posts here about it, so I thought I’d do my […]

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Our Conversation with Victor Davis Hanson

 

Professor Victor Davis Hanson discussed his prescient contribution to Vox Populi: The Perils and Promises of Populism with our own Ben Weingarten. You can listen to their interview right here on Ricochet. What follows is a full transcript of their discussion, slightly modified for clarity.

Ben Weingarten: The term “populism” has been thrown around repeatedly throughout history and it’s often used pejoratively to put down one’s political opponents. How do you define it?

Seventy-six years ago, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America went to war. Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover senior fellow and author of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, discusses lessons learned from that conflict’s successes and failures and how they apply today.

This Week’s Book Review – The Second World Wars

 

Books written about World War II fill libraries. Can anything new be said about that war, especially in an overview book? The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won by Victor Davis Hanson proves there is. A one-volume look at World War II, it offers surprising conclusions.

The surprises lie in Hanson’s presenting conclusions, which seem obvious once stated, but overlooked until Hanson highlights them. One example: Germany and Japan started wars they could not finish.

Germany lacked the capability to occupy Britain. After May 1940, Germany needed a seaborne invasion, which they could not do. Similarly, Germany could have occupied European Russia, but were incapable of occupying all of Russia. Japan’s situation was even worse. They could not reach the United States.

VDH on DJT

 

For those of us who are not followers of National Review, NRO currently has a fascinating article titled “The Endless Ironies of Donald J. Trump” by Victor Davis Hanson, as sensible a commentator as can be found anywhere. I don’t recall whether he was a never, or a reluctant Trumper, but his current observations are really a must-read. His concluding paragraphs:

Never have so many bright people proved so dense. Never have polls and politics proved so unreliable or partisan. Never have unintended consequences so replaced predictable results.

Donald Trump Is Not a Conservative, But …

 

TrumpClinton_1458169673550_976759_ver1.0In an article published yesterday, Victor Davis Hanson agues that “Politics, Not Personalities, Will Likely Determine the Presidential Election” and advances several important policy distinctions between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I believe these distinctions are real, important, and can help guide conservative voters to use politics (logic) more than personalities (emotion) in making a difficult decision in this crucial election.

In several recent Ricochet threads, many members have stated that they believe Trump is just as “scary” or “dangerous” as Clinton, or that he will be just as liberal as her. Others have argued that he will “set back” conservatism more than Clinton, and that we should just write-off this cycle and try again in 2020. I think Hanson debunks these ideas with several points regarding the likely policy distinctions under each administration. Regarding their foreign policies, he writes:

Trump is a Jacksonian nationalist who likely would choose America’s friends and enemies solely on the basis of perceived national interests. Clinton presumably would continue Obama’s lead-from-behind foreign policy. Trump would be blunt about the connection between terrorism and radical Islam. Clinton likely would mimic Obama’s policy of not referring to Islam at all in such a context.