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| Victor Davis Hanson Credit:National Review |
Hanson is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and is actually a lifetime registered member of the Democrat party (proving my bipartisan bona fides).
That does not mean that Hanson is happy with the state of his party these days.
This is what he said about the state of American politics in an interview in 2012.
The Democratic Party reminds me of the Republicans circa 1965 or so—impotent, shrill, no ideas, conspiratorial, reactive, out-of-touch with most Americans, isolationist, and full of embarrassing spokesmen.
Hanson has an article that came out today in the National Review that is one of the best pieces I have read from anyone this year.
And I read a lot.
It is titled "PC Suppression of Public Concerns Fuels the Trump Phenomenon". I urge you to read the whole thing if you are still wondering about the "Trump Phenomenon."
I gave my take on Trump's unexpected rise in the polls in July in my blog post, "Will Trump be a Trumpet Call to the GOP?"
I believe that it is Trump's straight talk that has been most responsible for his rise in the polls.
There is a substantial part of the electorate that are fed up with Washington, politics as usual, and political correctness. They are tired of our borders being overrun with illegal immigration while nothing is done by either the Republicans or Democrats. They are tired of the United States being the world's policeman and getting spit in the face. They are tired of seeing every trade agreement resulting in job losses for Americans. They are tired of seeing Islamic extremism being called workplace violence or the acts of lost souls. They are tired of lousy laws and terrible treaties being sold as "good as we can get."
However, Hanson does a much better job of describing how political correctness gone wild has fueled the political machine's worst nightmare.
I thought his best line in the piece was this one.
The world that we are told about by our government bears no resemblance to what we see and hear every day.
For those who don't think they have the time to read the entire article, here are a few more highlight quotes.
The more analysts try to figure out Donald Trump’s appeal, the more they sound baffled.
Pundits cite Trump’s verbal sloppiness and ridiculousness as proof that he must soon implode. But Trump sees his daily bombast as an injection of outrage for a constituency now hooked on someone who finally voices their pent-up anger. The more reckless Trump’s doses of scattergun outrageousness, the better the fix for his supporters.
Trump’s vague “make America great again” was the natural bookend to Barack Obama’s even more vacuous “hope and change.” The popularity of such empty slogans reflects a culture in which no one any longer trusts institutions, the media, government, or politicians.
The public no longer respects U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the IRS, the VA, or the GSA. Even the once-hallowed Secret Service has become a near laughingstock of incompetency, corruption, and politicization. Is the purpose of NASA really Muslim outreach, as NASA chief Charles Bolden suggested in 2010?
It may or may not have been wise for the Supreme Court to sanction gay marriage, or for the Pentagon to allow women in the military to join all combat units, or for the president to tacitly end border enforcement.
But these changes were not made by majority legislative decision. And they have come thick and fast without time for the public to digest their consequences. Instead, if a new idea or agenda lacks majority support, then activists can confidently look for a court or bureaucracy to implement change by top-down order.
In short, millions of citizens think the nation is headed for a financial reckoning. They feel threatened by radical Islamic terrorism. They sense that cultural and social stability has disappeared. And they know that expression of these worries can be a thought crime — hounded down by politicians, media, universities, and cultural institutions that do not enjoy broad public support and are not subject to the direct consequences of their own ideologies.
Amid these crises and the present absence of responsible leadership, if there were not a demagogic Donald Trump ranting and raving on the scene, the country would probably have to invent something like him.
I could not say it better than Victor Davis Hanson.
So I did not even try.
By far, the easiest blog post that I have written this year.
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