FJAG
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QV said:Victor Davis Hanson writing in the National Review writes:
VDH asks a question on just about every topic you can think of in this election.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/vote-no-on-1984/
VDH is a military historian at Stanford University, I'm surprised more people on here don't follow his writings.
Maybe this is why:
Political views
Hanson is a conservative who voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections.[17] He defended George W. Bush and his policies,[18] especially the Iraq War.[19] He vocally supported Bush's Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, describing him as "a rare sort of secretary of the caliber of George Marshall" and a "proud and honest-speaking visionary" whose "hard work and insight are bringing us ever closer to victory".[20]
Hanson is a supporter of Donald Trump, authoring a 2019 book The Case for Trump.[21] Trump praised the book.[21] In the book, Hanson defends Trump's insults and incendiary language as "uncouth authenticity", and praises Trump for "an uncanny ability to troll and create hysteria among his media and political critics."[21] According to Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada, the book "focuses less on the case for Trump than on the case against everyone else," in particular attacking Hillary Clinton.[21] According to Lozada, Hanson indulges "in casual sexism, criticizing Clinton’s “shrill” voice and her “signature off-putting laugh,” and inexplicably suggesting that while “Trump’s bulk fueled a monstrous energy; Hillary’s girth sapped her strength.”"[21] Hanson praises the Trump administration for its "inspired" and "impressive" Cabinet members.[21] In the book, Hanson blamed Barack Obama for "deliberately [whipping up]" "much of the current division in the country", while ignoring Trump's birtherism or attacks on Muslims.[21] The book likens Trump to a hero of ancient literature, sacrificing himself for the greater good.[21] Hanson expressed support for Trump's proposed border wall on the Southern border, saying that walls around houses deter criminals.[21]
Neoconservative views
He has been described as a neoconservative by some commentators, for his views on the Iraq War,[22][23] and has stated, "I came to support neocon approaches first in the wars against the Taliban and Saddam, largely because I saw little alternative."[24] Hanson's 2002 volume An Autumn of War called for going to war "hard, long, without guilt, apology or respite until our enemies are no more."[25] In the context of the Iraq War, Hanson wrote, "In an era of the greatest affluence and security in the history of civilization, the real question before us remains whether the United States— indeed any Western democracy—still possesses the moral clarity to identify evil as evil, and then the uncontested will to marshal every available resource to fight and eradicate it."[26]
Race relations
In July 2013, then-Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech where he mentioned that as a black man the need to deliver "the Talk" to his son, instructing him how to interact with police as a young black man. In response to Holder's speech, Hanson wrote a column titled "Facing Facts about Race" where he offered up his own version of "the Talk", namely the need to inform his children to be careful of young black men when venturing into the inner city, who Hanson argued were statistically more likely to commit violent crimes than young men of other races, and that therefore it was understandable for the police to focus on them.[27][28] Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic described Hanson's column as "stupid advice": "in any other context we would automatically recognize this 'talk' as stupid advice. If I were to tell you that I only employ Asian-Americans to do my taxes because 'Asian-Americans do better on the Math SAT', you would not simply question my sensitivity, but my mental faculties. That is because you would understand that in making an individual decision, employing an ancestral class of millions is not very intelligent. Moreover, were I to tell you I wanted my son to marry a Jewish woman because 'Jews are really successful', you would understand that statement for the stupidity which it is ... There is no difference between my argument above and the notion that black boys should be avoided because they are overrepresented in the violent crime stats. But one of the effects of racism is its tendency to justify stupidity."[29]
British-born American journalist Andrew Sullivan called Hanson's column "spectacularly stupid", writing: "Treating random strangers as inherently dangerous because of their age, gender and skin color is a choice to champion fear over reason, a decision to embrace easy racism over any attempt to overcome it".[30] American journalist Arthur Stern called "Facing Facts About Race" an "inflammatory" column based upon crime statistics that Hanson never cited, writing: "His presentation of this controversial opinion as undeniable fact without exhaustive statistical proof is undeniably racist."[31] Anglo-American journalist Kelefa Sanneh, in response to "Facing Facts About Race", wrote "It's strange, then, to read Hanson writing as if the fear of violent crime were mainly a "white or Asian" problem, about which African-Americans might be uninformed, or unconcerned—as if African-American parents weren't already giving their children more detailed and nuanced versions of Hanson's "sermon," sharing his earnest and absurd hope that the right words might keep trouble at bay."[32] Hanson, in response to Sanneh's essay, accused him of a "McCarthyite character assassination" and "infantile, if not racialist, logic".[33]
Obama criticism
Hanson was a critic of President Barack Obama.[34] Hanson criticized the Obama administration for engaging in "appeasement" of Iran,[35] and "appeasement" of Russia. Hanson blamed Obama for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2014.[36][37][38][39] Hanson has argued Obama failed to maintain a credible threat of deterrence, and put the world on the precipice of another war comparable to the Second World War.[40]
:cheers:
