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Victor Davis Hansen
This is unconstitutional. Have you heard some biased journalists, maybe on a podcast or a YouTube show say this? Probably. Do you just take their word for it? Which begs another question. Have you ever taken the time to read and understand for yourself the meaning of the United States Constitution? Most haven't. That's why I'm excited that Hillsdale College is offering a brand new free online course called the the Federalist. This terrific course explains how the United States Constitution established a government strong enough to secure the rights of citizens and safe enough to wield that power. And today it's our responsibility to pay attention, to be vigilant, as our founders might say, in order to preserve and protect Republican self government. Hillsdale's online course, The Federalist includes 10 lectures, each about 30 minutes long. You can take the course at your own pace. There's no cost to sign up. They're remarkably well produced and engaging and a must for anyone like me who's never really delved into the Federalist papers. Enroll here at no cost. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll again. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale Eduardo VDH to enroll for free Hillsdale Edu VDH hello ladies. Hello, gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I am Jack Fowler. You are here to listen to and get wisdom from the great Victor Davis Hansen, who is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marshabusky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. He's a best selling author, he's a farmer, he's a philologist, a classicist, military historian, so much else. And he's the possessor of a website, the blade of Perseus. VictorHansen.com is the address. Later on in this episode, I'll tell you why you should be subscribing. We are recording on Tuesday 15th July. This particular episode will be up on Thursday the 17th. You notice Victor looks his background. If you're watching this as opposed to listening, Victor's in a seat. He's in a safe house somewhere.
Jack Fowler
Hey, I'm more dedicated to never missing a podcast for our listeners than I am a podcast about the scenario which is hotel mode or motel mode. Victor. Victor.
Victor Davis Hansen
From an undisclosed.
Jack Fowler
What did Rush Limbaugh always say from an undisclosed place somewhere?
Victor Davis Hansen
From undisclosed Motel 6. I just want to explain to our listeners before we get into the show when we have several topics. We're going to begin with Barack Obama telling the Democrats to toughen up, but this I know the great Sammy Wink and Victor have recorded some topics. Also, our schedules are out of whack. We're going to get everything pretty syncopated soon and we will be recording closer to the actual airing dates. But you guys just hang on you listeners and viewers. The Victor Davis Hansen roller coaster ride is always, always fun. Nobody gets sick and there's no height requirements. So anyway, we are going to talk about Barack Obama. We what the heck else? Victor Vilcer Where'd that come from? Woke Journalists attacking JD Vance Catch and release. Adios. That and plenty more when we come back from these important messages. Folks, I don't know how anyone can get a restful night's sleep with a CPAP mask strapped to their face all night. Even with it, breathing is disrupted and we all know how important a a restful night's sleep is for our health. If you snore now, you're at a heightened risk of requiring a CPMAP machine later. Now is the time to stop snoring. One of the smartest, fastest, easiest ways to stop snoring is zipa. XIPA is the comfortable doctor designed mouthpiece that can stop snoring as fast as the first night. Don't be fooled by imitators. ZIPA was proven in a 600 patient clinical clinical trial and with over half a million units sold, XIPA is the stop snoring device I trust. No more being nudged awake for snoring. No more sleeping in separate rooms. No more feeling tired and foggy all day due to lack of sleep. Look, this may be your last best chance to solve your snoring problem now or face having to wear a CPAP mask later. Zipa that's happy Z spelled backward. I want you to try it with our special discount. Get 20% off and free shipping. Visit Zypa Z Y p p a h.com and use the promo code Snore again. That's promo code snoreepa.com Shopify helps you.
Jack Fowler
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Victor Davis Hansen
Let's put it online and see what happens.
Jack Fowler
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Victor Davis Hansen
We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, I gotta tell you something quickly I was today, earlier in the day. One of the reasons we're recording Cockamamie. It's my fault. When I had a meeting in Uncasville, Connecticut, which is where the Mohegan Sun Casino is. Huge casino, one of the first in the Northeast. And the Sons of the American Revolution were having a conference there, and I was meeting with some of the officials, and John Dodd, one of them. He's a past president general, great guy. A fan of yours. He actually told me he worked with your mom at the Fresno courthouse when he was just out of law school. On the way home, my sister lives in a town called Old Saybrook. So I was driving through and I had to stop and see her. And my niece was there. My niece is 23. She's lovely, Mel. And Mel tells me, oh, Uncle Jack, her boyfriend, they're very much in love. She was with his family. So Grandpa is asking Mel, okay, tell me about your family, aunts and uncles and all this. She says, oh, yeah, my. I have an uncle and Jack, and he does this or that. And he hosts this podcast with this guy. I forget. I think his name is Victor. And Grandpa goes, well, she's not one.
Jack Fowler
Of us politically, to be a compliment.
Victor Davis Hansen
No. Grandpa says, victor Davis Hansen. She says, oh, yeah. Oh, he is a fan. He's a huge fan. So I think if there's a wedding here, eventually, Victor, the fact that there's three degrees of separation from you. My niece may have made it.
Jack Fowler
I was in an event, and people came up, and they were very friendly, but they don't mention Fox News. They mention this podcast. So I think it's working. And then I had a nice procedure about a week ago where they put things way up here. Cameras vacuum, and I got to watch it live with a local anesthesia. And I can see why I was whining so much, because you can actually see where they cut the bone spurs, big sores. And I could see the whole thing. And then you can see the surgery. And then rather than. I was kind of blaming myself. I'm so fatigued. It's been a month. And the surgeon was really good. He said, take a look at that. That's what we had to do. And once I saw it, you know, it's like a canker sore, 30 times the size. It. It made it all sense. So I'm kind of actually, in a weird way, I'm still wiped out, but I'm enthused that it's not abnormal to feel like.
Victor Davis Hansen
I think when you started talking about this in the Surgery makes it seem like, okay, it's in the nasal system, but it sounds. It could be like removal of a mole or something like that. But this was kind of not unserious surgery. Right.
Jack Fowler
In fact, just going up there, the first thing I noticed was my eyeball was really freezing cold. Oh, wow. And then the next thing I noticed, the top of my palate was freezing when he injected water, you know, and vacuumed to get all the. Whatever was still there infected. But it's really amazing to be talking to the surgeon and you can see what he's doing and he's up near your brain, you know, in the sinuses. But I'm glad that I did it because he said, you've got a clean bill of health. We really redid them and we board big, big this and big that and cut that and cut that. I know it's going to kind of be rough for a couple months, but you're going to really appreciate it.
Victor Davis Hansen
So if they were up near your brain, Victor, they would have needed a wide lens camera because it's so big.
Jack Fowler
You're welcome.
Victor Davis Hansen
Here's a headline, Victor. Barack Obama, Dems just need to toughen up. This is from Red State. Let me read the first sentence or two here. Former President Obama's message to Democrats is to, quote, just toughen up, end quote. Amid frustration with the political landscape under President Trump. I think it's going to require a little best, little bit less navel gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions, and it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up. Obama said in remarks he was in New Jersey at a fundraiser. Don't tell me you're a Democrat, but you're kind of disappointed right now. So you're not doing anything. No. Now is exactly the time that you've got to get in there and do something. He said, I don't know what the something is, Victor. If I was a Democrat, I think doing something would be in a fetal position.
Jack Fowler
What's your take on that? I don't know what he's been doing. He's been out of office for eight years. He has a foundation. They destroyed a park in Chicago. And it looks like. I don't know what it looks like. It looks like Stonehenge or something. It's just the most ugly. It's the ugliest building that's half built. It's a complete overrun. It's kind of like his administration. Other than that, for the eight years he runs off to people's yachts he goes, I don't know where he spends his time. He goes, I don't know if he goes to his Chicago 2 million dollar home or he goes to Martha's Vineyard 14 million dollar home or it goes to his Kalorama Washington D.C. 9 million or his 15 million dollar Hawaii home. I don't know what he, I took him at his word when he said he was president and global warming was going to destroy the seashore and then he buys two homes on the coast, but. Or he's talking to African American men about Marxist false consciousness. You don't know what's really in your interest. He, you don't know what you're doing. Let me tell you as the authentic black man. And then the only other thing he's done is basically say that he and Michelle are having all these problems. Her podcast is going nowhere. It's, I think everybody's tired of him. You know what I mean? They just think, okay, it was all rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric. If you want to think about it, the puppeteers who ran the four years of Biden did a lot more leftist damage than he tried to do, you know what I mean? Because he was compared to those guys, he was incompetent. Those guys were full Marxist and they took that wax and effigy and they destroyed the border. They did all that was what his agenda was. And he couldn't finish it because he was lazy. He said, I'm not saying, I'm not stereotyping anybody. He said that he was in an interview and they said, what's your greatest deficit? What's your greatest vulnerability? What's your greatest flaw? I'm lazy. That's what he said. So I, I don't know why he thinks that that's successful when he has no record of these last eight years of doing anything for anybody. When he was on the campaign, it was a negative effect. He didn't get. He, if you look at the polls when he got active versus on election day, there was no movement at all. In fact, you could argue that he hurt people. Just don't want to be lectured. That, and he always lectures people, you know that don't do it. And then I say, Barack, what do you want to do? Tell us what you want to do. You say, don't sit on your duff. Well, they're not. Barack, your party is throwing tear canisters at ice people. They are trying to shoot ice people. They are going after Jews at Columbia, at Harvard, destroying cities. They've destroyed Chicago. They did a good job on Los Angeles. They did a good job on San Francisco, Washington, Minneapolis. They gave us a third sex. Since you've been in office, they've been doing everything. They destroyed deterrence. They had a great. If their agenda was to destroy America like yours was, they did a good job in Afghanistan. So don't tell me they haven't been doing anything. The problem has been they've been doing too much. And if you say they should be resisting Trump, they tried to kill him twice and they tried to shoot ICE people. So what do you actually mean by resistance? The LA Resistance? Tell us what you mean. Otherwise it's just, I don't know. They impeached him twice the first term. They're going to impeach him again if they lose the House. Everybody knows that.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, if one big change, shift of voters. If you take Trump's own personal appeal to certain segments, the biggest shift is white, young white men. And Barack Obama was integral to that by telling them they suck, that you clingers, et cetera. So when he opens his mouth, he has done more harm to the Democratic.
Jack Fowler
Party by he lost 1400 state and local seats during his eight years. He destroyed the Democratic Party. He paved the way for Donald Trump and the MAGA revolution. One of our favorite websites, John Henninger Kenrecker and Scott Johnson. Johnson, yeah, Powerline blog, powerlineblog.com they have a really good analysis of why Donald Trump won the 2024. And you're right about white males. If you look at from 2017 to 2024, he made enormous gains with white males from the old. But after he. He reached a maximum level around 2023 and that he didn't lose that margin, they were overwhelmingly for him. But what won the election, if you go to that website and you look at people, it's black males, 23 or 24%. And then it's black people in general going up, I think the 13 or 14%. It's Hispanics in general, right? About 50, 50. It's Hispanic males. And what I'm getting at is this was the person of color, this was the dei. This was the guy. And he did more, or he either did more to help Donald Trump gain his constituency or he was not able to stop it. So he was a total zero. If you think that we had the first president person of color, and we had the second would be person of color, Kamala Harris. And we had the first vice president person of color. And in that interregnum, that period between those two bookends, there was the greatest affection of people of color to a white orange man from Manhattan. Then you've got to ask yourself why? And the answer is, they were so fixated on race that people, quote, unquote, of color were screaming to them, crying out, I'm worried about the price of gas. I want to be able to buy a house like everybody else. I wanted to be able to turn on the air conditioning in the summer. I want to go down, walk down the street without being mugged. I don't care about who gets that solution. I don't care about race. I just want to have the same life as other people. And they didn't get that message. They said, no, no, no, no. You're suffering from false consciousness. You don't know in your ignorance what's good for you. And what is good for you is, is voting for elite multimillionaires like Carmela and me. And we live in mansions, they live in Brentwood. Camilla does. And we are never subject to the consequences of our ideology. So you vote for us because we're the same color as you. And they said, you know what you can do with that? Blank, blank. I think the black for Trump.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah. I have a sense the black vote is going to continue to move away, especially now. I know you've talked about this in the the past with Sammy and Will again on the next podcast, but this New York City election is exposing that the center of the Democrat Party is not poor people who need to be helped. I'm a significant part of that. Inner city blacks, and it's as you call them, the spaghetti armed progressives of Brooklyn. This is not what the Democrat Party is.
Jack Fowler
I told you, Sammy, I thought if you wanted to insult all the important constituents and show you what the Democratic Party is like, then you would say, we're going to go after richer, whiter people. We're going to flip the finger. I'm going to have a picture of me flipping the finger to Columbus statue. I'm going to make fun of and spread around the Internet an anti Semitic caricature of Hanukkah. And I'm going to let it be known that I felt, or that's going to be known that I faked a black American identity to get into college. And I thought, wow, when does the Hispanic thing come where he insults the Hispanics? And then I'm going to. And then this is a guy who's from the wealthiest ethnic group in the United States and he's blaming all these other different ethnic groups. So, you know, I saw a. Right before I Left. I stopped for this trip. I stopped in the market and talked to a Hispanic guy, came up to me and he said, I'm not going to yell at you. You know, he came up, oh, yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
Don'T worry, I'm a friendly.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. And I said to him something, you know, I hadn't thought about that. It's very rare when people do it, but they always fit a profile. If I could be so bold, a stereotype. And he said, I know who they are. And he said, I think I know who you're talking about. I think that what you guys call the Karens. And I said, yes, it's a white professional woman between the ages of 55 and 70. They give you that long stare from 10ft away. They walk up to you and they go like this, you are doing a lot of damage. I just wanted to let you know that I know you're doing damage. How is that? And before you can imagine, I know I don't want to. And they store. That's happened to me about 20 times.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, well, they've been the great beneficiaries of. What do you call, civil rights, affirmative action have been these women, older now, but younger, they cashed in on that.
Jack Fowler
Yeah. So basically, what the minority communities are saying to America is the minority middle class blacks are saying, I have about as much in common with Don Lamone or Whoopi Goldberg or Hikem Jeffries or Spartacus. And the Hispanic community says I have about as much in common with the Castro brothers or any of these as you white people do with Chris Matthews or Joe Scarborough or. Or Hunter Biden. You know what I mean? They've all come to that consensus that our elites live one way and talk another, and they're sick of them. And they're just interested in a middle class agenda that promotes class instead of race. And the Democratic Party can't do that because it's a party of the very wealthy and pampered.
Victor Davis Hansen
I want to call you out for not including Juicy Smollett in that list of names, by the way.
Jack Fowler
You know what it is? When I. When I was not happy with Republicans, it was when all they talked about, I like George H.W. bush, he was a good guy, but all he talked about was, we got to get those capital gains taxed down. Get those capital gains taxed down. Remember that? We got a privatized Social Security. I understand that. But the Democratic equivalent of that is we got to get the Green New Deal. We got to ban natural gas stoves, we gotta ban the internal combustion we gotta turn down your air. You know what I mean? It's that same top down lecturing about what good. What is good for America. It's never. We gotta find a way, you know, to make sure that every. That we balance a budget or we can afford a house. All those practical questions. Right.
Victor Davis Hansen
But it's not, it's not all economic. You know, America is not cultural.
Jack Fowler
Right.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah.
Jack Fowler
And it's. The Republican Party's attitude was, I'm not going to get near that transgender issue. Oh, no, no, I'm not going to talk about Di. No, no, no, no. I can't close that border. No, no, no, not me. I'll pass it on to the next guy. And then you've got this disruptor that comes in and says, me.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, it's going to be me. Boy, oh boy, is he.
Jack Fowler
He.
Victor Davis Hansen
Victor. I don't know how anyone can get a restful night's sleep with a CPAP mask strapped to their face all night. Even without it, breathing is disrupted. And we all know how important a restful night's sleep is for our health. If you snore now, you're at a heightened risk of requiring a CPAP machine later. So now is the time to stop snoring. Okay? One of the smartest, fastest, easiest ways to stop snoring is. Is zipa. XIPA is the comfortable, doctor designed mouthpiece that can stop snoring as fast as the first night. Don't be fooled by imitators. ZIPA was proven in a 600 patient trial, clinical trial, and with over half a million units sold, XIPA is the stop Snoring device. I trust. No more being nudged awake for snoring. No more sleeping in separate rooms. No more feeling tired and foggy all day. Do lack of sleep. Look, this may be your last, best chance to solve your snoring problem now or face having to wear a CPAP mask later. Zipa. That's happy Z spelled backward. That's kind of cool. I want you to try it with our special discount. Get 20% off and free shipping.
Jack Fowler
Visit zipa.
Victor Davis Hansen
Z, Y, P, P a H. I'll spell that again. Z Y, P P A h dot com. Use the promo code Snore again. That's the promo code. Snore@zepa.com and we thank the good people of ZPA for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, next up, what shall we get your wisdom on? Oh, headline woke Journalists make sick remark about J.D. vance's young children after this one. She previously had scolded some flight Attendant. This is Mother Jones Editor in Chief Clara Jeffrey on the what this article in the Daily Mail calls the woke X alternative Blue Sky. She heckled the second family who, as you know, Victor, see the headlines. They were out at Disneyland. People who feel bad for J.D. vance's kids as family gets booed at Disneyland. I get it. But better those kids now know what their father is about. Other kids are watching their parents get shipped off to gulags, blah, blah, blah. What a clown.
Jack Fowler
Victor, let me deconstruct that. Other kids are seeing the Gulag. The Gulag is Mexico. If you came illegally, then you're calling Mexico what Micho can. I don't know. Chiapas, Oaxaca. That's a gulag, because that's where you're going to go very quickly if you came in here illegally. So why are you deprecating these people's homelands for gulag? Gulag. Do they really think that you're going to go 30 years into something like Solzhenitsyn suffered? Or do you just pathologically lie like that? And I always thought that Nancy Pelosi told us, it's the children. Remember, Hillary Clinton Takes a Village. It's the children. We're doing this for the children. And yet you're attacking children because of what? The sins of their parents? You think Gavin Newsom jumped into this? He said, it's very ironic. They were critical of California then and now they're not going to Disneyland because it's in California. Gavin. Ms. Mother Jones. They're not doing that. They would prefer it would then be anywhere else. They were doing it because they happened to be in California or they had to make a trip there and it was there. Disneyland. People go to Disneyland because it's Disneyland, not because it's in California. Other than the climate, the only reason it's in is because there was a great man named Walt Disney who worked in that area. And it has a good climate, just like Disney World. That's why they're not in Wisconsin or Michigan where it's cold and you couldn't go there during the winter. But I don't understand this. Gavin went after J.D. vance. And think of all the things that Mother Jones could say. They could say, wow, we've got $1.1 trillion trade deficit. What are we going to do? Or here's a plan to balance the $2 trillion deficit. Or here's something to get rid of the $37 trillion national debtor. I have a plan how to address 50 million people who were not born in The United states, about probably 35 are here illegally. I'll have a plan. They don't propose anything. It's like Gavin Newsom. He just, all he can do is call Trump. Get down with Trump and He's scum. And J.D. van, he. Gavin, why don't you just give us a plan? Here's my plan for all the freeways with three lanes each direction. Here's how I'm going to solve the high speed rail boondoggle. I can get gas from 550A gallon, which I filled up today. 550A gallon when everywhere else it's going down, I can get it down. Here's how you're going to turn on your air conditioner, not have to pay 35 cents a kilowatt. Nothing. It's down to J.D. vance's children. Or it's Hikem Jeffries with a baseball bat or eight hour filibuster trying to emulate Spartacus, who did what 25 hours. Or it's the smutty videos. S word, F word or you know, you name it.
Victor Davis Hansen
It's just, it's creepy theater art. Pathetic theater art.
Jack Fowler
It is, it's just so. You're so Mother Jones, the cutting edge left wing magazine. You're so bereft of ideas and alternate protocols and agendas that you go attack a bunch of kids and then you say that you know who did that? The last time I heard that was remember Peter Fonda when Donald Trump inherited the so called cages that Obama built and he was trying to stop the Obama open border. And Peter Fonda tweeted something and I know our listeners remember it and they'll correct me. I'm doing this by memory. I hope that Melania and Barron are in a cage or something and people torment them. It's the same idea. That's a bad thing to do. They're not Hunter Biden, you know, 50 something. They're kids.
Victor Davis Hansen
You know how many kids have evaporated, came across the border and God knows what horror thing.
Jack Fowler
Horrible things have happened. 300,000. We can't find the left, the Mr. Farah, the left pot farm. Biggest pot farm in California. 360 people arrested for being illegally employed, violating labor laws. Some of them had raised rape and assault convictions and there were minors there that were, I guess at least 10 of them. But nobody cares about that.
Victor Davis Hansen
This is a special place in hell for these people. Really special place. Well, Victor, I'm glad you brought up illegal immigration because we're going to get your thoughts on Donald Trump's latest action, which is the end of catch and release and we're going to get to that when we we come back from these important messages. If you're running a business, you know that every time you miss a call, you're leaving money on the table. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that keeps up and helps you stay connected 247 and that's why you need OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications and it works through an app on your phone or computer. So no more carrying two phones or using a landline. With OpenPhone your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. Plus say goodbye to voicemail. Their AI agent can be set up in minutes to to handle calls after hours, answer questions and capture leads so you never miss a customer. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts, or having a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Openphone is a no brainer. See why over 60,000 businesses trust Openphone. Openphone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com Victor that's O P E N P H O- N E openphone.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over at no extra charge. Openphone no missed calls, no missed customers if you're like me, you have a lot of product on your bathroom counter. Well, I have found the secret serum and its vibrant Super C Serum. The ingredients in this one bottle can replace your day creams, eye creams, night creams, neck creams, wrinkle creams and even dark spot reducers. Made in the USA with the highest quality ingredients including vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, vitamin B5 and vitamin E, Super C Serum delivers noticeable results, simplify your skin care routine, get a healthier complexion and minimize wrinkles and age spots with Vibrance. I just began using Super C Serum last week and I love it. My skin feels so much better, soft, moist and fresh. And by the way, it smells beautiful like the orange blossoms outside my kitchen door. Give it a try and you'll love it too. And if you don't find it better than your current skincare routine, you'll get a full refund. Go to vibrance.com victor to save up to 37% off and free free shipping. That's Vibrance V I B R I A n c e vibrance.com Victor and we'd like to thank Vibrance for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Tuesday the 15th of July and this episode is up on Thursday the 17th. Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus is. The address is victorhansen.com Please go. If you're a fan of Victor and you're new to this podcast, which video or audio do check it out and you're going to find a treasure trove of stuff, links, everything Victor writes, his American greatness, essays, his weekly syndicated columns. There are the links to them, his books links, other appearances, archives of these podcasts. But then Victor also writes twice, twice a week, special articles, ultra articles exclusive for the Blade of Perseus and one exclusive video you can subscribe at $65 for the year. That's discounted from $6.50 a month. And you're going to enjoy it. So trust me. Please check it out. You can sign up for the email also. So lots of free stuff and worthwhile stuff for the price of a cup of coffee or something like that. So Victor, bye bye. Catch and Release headline. This is from Hot Air. Trump ends Catch and Release Bonds for illegal immigrants the Trump administration is attempting to make millions of immigrants living in the country legally ineligible to be released from detention on bond as they fight their deportation cases, according to an administration official familiar with the matter. The policy shift, issued under what is known as interim guidance by acting U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, will apply to all immigrants who cross the US Mexico border illegally, no matter when. Lyons told officers in a memo that such immigrants should remain in detention throughout their deportation proceedings, which can stretch for months or even years. Years, according to the official who has been briefed on the memo. Victor, I think that's a great thing to you.
Jack Fowler
Well, it's not a proactive, it's a reactive policy. And what is it reacting against? It's hey, you came in illegally. Hi, here's an app. Press a button and we'll give you a deportation hearing. Two years, three years down the road and see ya. Go ahead and do whatever you want. You're here illegally. We don't care. We don't care if you're illegally residing. We don't care if you're able to support yourself. Oh wow, 80% of them didn't show up for the deportation hearings. Why would that be? So Trump comes along and his people said, well, what would be a very conservative policy. Why don't we just say that since they don't show up in vast numbers, that we won't release them until they have their hearings. And maybe that would be a pretty conservative, fair policy. I will say one thing though, Jack. We have the left is thinking they're going to ride this attack ICE if Donald Trump really wanted to, and this is very controversial. I'm going to get a lot of hate mail from MAGA people, but I wrote about it in Mexifornia over 20 years ago. If he would do this, all the 10 to 12 million people that we saw crowding the border, if he gave a speech and said every one of those people, maybe knowingly or not knowing who broke through that border on Biden took away a slot for somebody who was waiting in line legally from Mexico, from Korea, from India, from Uganda, and they just didn't care. All they wanted to do was think of themselves. So they're not going to get any consideration now. They have a choice. They can go back voluntarily, but if we have to deport them, they'll never come back in the United States again. That's kind of what he's doing. But then if he said that's 12 million we had, according to Yale University and other estimates by FAIR and Mark Kirkorian's group, somewhere around 20 million illegal alien. But here's what we're going to do. Of that 20 million, if you came in the United States and you are here illegally for five years and you have done the fall, if you are able bodied and you are working, if you're able bodied and you're not on, I mean, if you got hit, you know, somebody ran over you and you're on, you know, medical or something. But if you're able bodied and you're not on social services, you're able bodied and you have a work. If you're able bodied and you have not committed a crime, including dui, if you're able bodied and you're willing to pay for the crime you committed as a retroactive, maybe a thousand, fifteen hundred bucks for cutting in line in front of somebody else, and if you're willing to accept an avenue to a green card, not amnesty towards citizenship, you get a green card that's renewable every year and we'll see how that works out. If he did that, you might. Of that 20 million that were not deported after we get through with this four year process of getting rid of 12 million who are here illegally or 10 million, whatever. I don't mean get rid in a mean Fashion, but deport, go back to zero and then deal with the 20 million. The left would be in a very difficult position because if they oppose that, they would say, well, we think it's fine to be an illegal alien and not working. We think it's fine to be an illegal alien that has a couple of DUIs or has a criminal record. Well, we think it's fine to be an illegal alien and taking a dialysis slot from American citizens. It would be a very good argument and it would diffuse the left fur why Tom Holman does what he has to do. But I would not apply that to the people the last four years. But I think it would be something that the American people, if you look at polls, it's about 75%. If you phrase that question that way, it would really deflate the left because they would go crazy about that and they would have to argue that that was unfair and that you had a legal right not only to come here illegally, but to break the law or not to be working.
Victor Davis Hansen
You know, you mentioned Tom Homan and I, I think my Mrs. Fowler is, is in love with him. She was watching him last night. I don't know if he was at a Charlie Kirk TP USA event or something. He got into it with someone, some loudmouth in the audience who was hustled out. But he's so good. He is, he is like the perfect yin to Trump's yang.
Jack Fowler
He's a, he's a Rock of Gibraltar. They say they, they dox him, they threaten him, they make fun of his looks, they make fun of his attitude. And he's unwavering. He's just same things like a rock. Every tidal wave that comes up just can't overwhelming. And he just says, this is the law. I am a servant of the public. I'm supposed to support enforcement of the law. This person has broken the law. I'm not vindictive. I'm going to try to get him back out where he came from as quickly and humanely as possible. And I'm going to have iterations. I'm going to start with criminals. However, if I go, if I have a warrant to get a rapist that's sitting out of home side Home Depot and there's somebody there illegally, I'm not going to break the law by not enforcing it. If I see somebody next to him, I'm going to ask him his immigration status. So he's doing a wonderful job. And he's at the, he's what the left can't stand person that doesn't cater to them to equivocate. Just simply straight up. Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
If Mitt Romney had been president, not to knock Mitt Romney, but the kind of person he might have had overseeing this department, their obsession would be what would the New York Times say?
Jack Fowler
Right. I know what they would be doing. They'd call him up and say, this platform ace, this raid. There's a CSU professor that's arrested the CSU faculty. California State University faculty is censored. What are you doing, Tom? Why did you go into the largest platform and arrest 360 illegal aliens and 10 or 12 minors that were in violation of. Why did you do that? This is just. That's what they would be telling them. Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
Victor, you have a piece called the Roots of Leftist Rage and I want to get your discussion on that. But first I want to tell our fans, our listeners, our viewers about our friends@besthotgrill.com if you're tired of replacing your grill every couple of years, you'll want to check out the Hot Fast Solaire infrared grill from besthotgrill.com Solaire makes these amazing American grills that heat up to 1000 degrees in just three minutes. Solaire infrared Grills eliminate flare ups and consistently make juicy, flavorful food. The Solaire Infrared Grills heat your food directly, not the air around the food like conventional grills do. Solaire has been making infrared grills for 20 years and has already dialed in the design experience for yourself. The Solaire Infrared Grill firsthand with the Solaire Demo Rental Program. You can try Solaire before you buy with the the foods your family enjoys without a salesman breathing down your neck and see why Solaire is the last grill you will ever buy. Learn more@besthotgrill.com that's besthotgrill.com Try before you buy with the Solaire Demo rental program@besthotgrill.com and we thank the good people from Solaire for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson Show. And I know the aforementioned Victor Davis Hansen sometimes cooks his food on a solar infrared grill. Juicy, flavorful. So Victor, the Roots of Leftist Rage is a quick line here, but say whatever you want about this piece. This time around, there are no John Boltons, no Rex Tillerson's, no Alexander Vindemans, and no Anonymouses from the inside to thwart the Trump agenda. What are the root roots of leftist rage?
Jack Fowler
Victor There are three. I think there are threefold. The most and most remarked upon and the most obvious is obviously the Democratic Party has no political power in conventional term Conventional term. They do not have the House, they do not have the Senate, they do not have the White House, they do not have the Supreme Court, they do not have the control of the bureaucratic. The heads of the cabinet seize. They do not have an edge in the issues. In other words, they don't have a 55 margin on the border or in crime or defund the police or Green New Deal. They don't. They're angry if they scream. That's why they have to take videos of hike them with a bat or Cory Booker is not even filler busting, just out there screaming and yelling to prove that he didn't have to go to the bathroom for 25 hours. It's just insane. So that's one thing. The second thing is this time around, the Trump people said to themselves, why did we have an open border? Why did we have BLM and Antifa? Where did they come from? Why do, why did they just skedaddle from Afghanistan? The greatest humiliation and probably military history of the United States? Why did, what was this transgender third sex? Where did it come from? Why did a very small percentage of the population that suffered from gender dysphoria, when did it become 20% or something? When did biological males get the right to spike a volleyball down a girl's throat? Where does this come from? These were the wilderness years, when Trump was in the wilderness. And these were Stephen Miller, Jason Miller, Susan Wiles, all of their advisors. And they came up with a second agenda. Not just what I mentioned about get political power, exercise change through the institutions, but what were the sources of all those things? Ah, I know what it was. These universities are anti Semitic, they violated the Supreme Court laws, they're racist, they have segregate and they're 95% left wings wing, they're flush with cash, they spike their tuition higher than the rate of inflation, they spike us and they cheat the federal government with these absorbent surcharges. And they don't allow fourth, fifth or sixth Amendment rights for the accused. They do not allow conservative people to speak unless they're going to be chased out like we saw at Wellesley or especially Columbia or we saw at Stanford Law School. And they said, we're going to address that, we're going to go after, we're going to tax their endowments, we're going to insist on 15%, we're going to stop the segregation and that will, that will stop a lot of this. And then they said, look at usaid. That's either a safe haven for mediocre leftists to retire to or it's a shakedown with NGOs and Stacey Abrams type stuff, stuff. And we're going to go after that. And then they said to themselves, well, you know What? NPR and PBS, this is not 1970. There's 500 channels on DirecTV or slang or Hulu, all these different. There's access to non commercial TV and it's pretty inexpensive. And these people are propagandists. Most people find out when they survey the content, it's 90. The news content, it's 95% left. We're just not going to fund it anymore. So they look, and I could go on, but they went to the sources and the left says, oh my God, we don't have political power. But you can't tell us that we can't have federal money for our left wing colleges or left wing USAID or our left wing blue chip law firms. You can't take security clearances away from our left wing retired intelligence officer so they can lie on the eve of an election. How dare you do that. So they address the sources and the third element of rage. We wouldn't even be talking today, Jack, if Donald Trump was failing. They would be so happy. They would not be protesting. Ha ha ha ha. But when you look at job growth up, inflation steady down, personal income up, no big collapse, record high in the stock market, counter revolution, everything. And they've thrown everything at him. They've called him Hitler, they've called him fascist, they've tried to stop ice. And he's still about 47, right about where Obama or most presidents are in their first term. So he's succeeding. And they say, man, he's got the political power, man, he's going after the sources are fundamental capture of the institutions. He's going after that and it's working for him. And that's the frustration. And now, you know, everything is on. It's like the whole world has been turned upside down. I've never seen anything like it in my life. The whole, it's like they're playing the world upside down after the Battle of Yorktown and you're a Brit that's been defeated. It's everything. There's suddenly, wow, men can't play in women's sports. Wow. There's not one person came across the border. Wow. There's no longer 45,000 short recruits for the army. Wow. All of a sudden you can drill oil and we're going to have coal and we're going to do all wow. And it's like wow, China's cheating and we're going to come to terms with them. How can this be? We didn't have comprehensive immigration reform. Wow. We didn't get the Sierra Club in on whether we could have a rare earths mineral mine or not. It's like it was all like a. I guess it's like the emperor, you know, the emperor has no clothes. We were supposed to believe that this buck naked progressive project Biden, Obama was fully clothed and sophisticated and successful. And then somebody said this is ridiculous. Biden is senile, everybody. Don't you understand that Obama's a big faker. Don't you understand that? And then they said, wow, he's right. They don't. They're buck naked. It's over. And that's what's happened.
Victor Davis Hansen
It's broken. If the fever of race fear has broken, I don't know if it has totally, but to me that's, that is the.
Jack Fowler
No, I think it has. I think especially on race, I think a lot of people are saying, if the MAGA and these people are such racists, why did they get a record number of minorities more than supposedly John McCain the great man and Romney the great man and the Bushes the great. Why? How did that happen? And why are you losing blacks and Latinos and even the Asians? Why are you doing that if you're so left wing? And yeah, and then I think it was also a defiance. It was like, you can call me a racist.
Victor Davis Hansen
Exactly.
Jack Fowler
From 8 o' clock in the morning to 8, I don't care. I know I'm not. And all you're doing is indicting yourself as a race baiter. Where's Professor Kendi and his $30,000 Zooms and his 50 million Boston University? And where are the architects of BLM? I can tell you where they are. They're all in their mansions after grifting, cashing in. And where's Mark Milley giving us lectures? Or Lloyd Austin, Where's Lloyd Austin saying, well, we've got to find out where the sources of white rage and white supremacy and white privilege. So we in the Pentagon are going to have an exhaustive study to find these cabal. Yeah, they didn't find anything. And now what you are, what you are, you're just like every one of these other guys. You're a lobbyist now trying to cash in on your office. And where are you, Mark Milley? Same thing. You're barking at the moon, calling Donald Trump a fascist.
Victor Davis Hansen
I wonder if they're still having those dinners. Where the white women go to get berated.
Jack Fowler
I don't. I don't think Ms. Karen is saying, I will pay. You know, I'll have a big dinner at my Hillsborough estate. And would you please come here and call me a racist? I feed you like a queen and king.
Victor Davis Hansen
I don't know. Well, that. That will lead to the next topic, which will be about the 1619 project. And then, Victor, if we have time, I want to get your take on the new issue of strategica, which you edit and oversee for Hoover. And we'll do all that when we come back from these final important messages. Feeling tired, foggy, or running low on energy lately? You're not alone. And it might be more than just stress as we get older. Our cells don't make energy like they used to. That's why more and more people are trying NAD and methylene blue. These are helping people boost energy. Clear brain fog and stay focused. You can now get both from all family pharmacy.
Jack Fowler
It's quick.
Victor Davis Hansen
The doctor's prescription is included and no insurance is needed. Plus, they carry over 200 other meds like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, antibiotics, your daily prescriptions and more. All online, shipped straight to your door. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Victor to check it out. Use the code Victor10 for 10% off. That's all familypharmacy.com Victor. Code Victor10. Take care and stay sharp. We're back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. So, Victor, there's a really good article at National Review. 1619 Project scholars found serious errors, but Academic elites promote its political narrative. That's the headline. It's by Philip Magness. But it ends with this. In the end, the 1619 project faltered owing to its lack of rigor. And this is looking at it as some scholarly thing that. Whatever that I forget her name. My gosh, the New York Times lady who put together this thing. Its own lack of rigor and its willful shirking of basic scholarly expertise. And yet its reputation thrived in the university system precisely because academic elites set aside their own expertise to promote the 1619 Project's political narrative. The answer to both is a recommitment to higher standards of scholarly rigor. Now, I have a question to ask you, Victor. Do the non Hillsdale, non Grove City, non Thomas Aquinas at other colleges, do they have the stomach to once again engage in what Philip Magnus calls scholarly rigor?
Jack Fowler
They don't have the stomach for it. But everybody has to remember the academic Mind, there is something peculiar about getting a PhD going right from graduate school into PhD. I did it. And I would have been lost soul if I hadn't a farm for five years full time and then another 15 part time. But if you go right into that rarefied atmosphere and you're with all these people who are not connected to plumbers or electricians or they have no skills other than academia. I'm not making fun of academia. It has a lot of valuable things, teaching and research, etc. But you're in that rare fight. It does not promote courage. Tenure does not promote courage. It promotes obsequiousness. It's kind of counterfactual. So no, they're not going to have the stomach. But this is the point. The academic does like this dei. I'm all for it, everybody. I'm all for loyalty oaths, I'm all for denying accuse him of sexual harassment or being insensitive. I'm all for kicking him off campus without a hearing. Oh, Judge Duncan speaking at Stanford. Great. They disrupted his lecture. Now under Trump. Oh wow, the public, everybody's cutting down, criticizing us. I'm all for free speech, I'm all for constitution. That's how they think. And so they feel right now at this. Momentum increases and the university and they're also going to think, wow, this guy didn't back down. He's going to really limit. I gave a talk not long ago, I won't get into the details where I said this thing about 15% on surcharges. And one person got up and started screaming at me and said, you're going to destroy America, you know, if you can't charge 55%. And then, you know, there was a bunch of professors there and other people said, this guy's insane. In other words, everybody knows it's insane now to charge 55%. And so the momentum is against these people. So 1619, Gordon. I mean all the research has been done. Gordon Wood did it. Mary Grabar, that wonderful book exposing 1619. Essentially it was this racist societies that want to institutionalize slavery are not the first societies, the American Anglo societies, to outlaw slavery, which exists in parts of the world, especially in the Middle east today. And when you have a country, it was 95% European that came here and they have something called the Declaration of Independence that says all men are created equal. And you have people committed to fulfilling that ideal and are willing in less than 80 years later to have 700,000 people die for that principle. There's nowhere like it in the world. I don't see the Chinese saying let's have a declaration. We're going to say all men are equal and we're going to have open borders and have a diverse. They don't do that. You think Japan does that? Japanese said I have a declaration of all men are created equal. No matter if you're Japanese or not Japanese come on in or I don't think Uganda or Chad or I don't know Zimbabwe believe that. Oh, all men are equal. Everybody come in whether you're black or white and we'll treat you all. Exactly. Is that what South Africa is doing right now? We're going to treat everybody the same or is it birds of a feather flock together? So the United States Constitution and the declaration were an aberration. They were contrary to human nature and that's what 1619 didn't understand. And the people who wrote that document were the beneficiaries of the most tolerant, enlightened and self correcting and self critical society in the world in history. And it doesn't. You can't lie for supposed good end. That's what they thought they were doing. We're going to lie and we're not going to have footnotes. We'll go back later. We're going to twist the evidence because it's for good reasons. No, but the thing about it was that historical society the head of the ah American Historic they were timid. They didn't want to confront that because cancel culture went after and tried to destroy them. Yeah. And so it was only a few brave people like Gordon Wood or Mary Grabar that were. Or Hillsdale people like they were on the 1776 Commission.
Victor Davis Hansen
Right.
Jack Fowler
That addressed that we were meeting right after the election and man I got.
Victor Davis Hansen
You published a report Encounter published it.
Jack Fowler
We did and I got. I don't know how many times somebody would send a note to me and it said Victor Hanson Racist 1770 doesn't mean anything anymore.
Victor Davis Hansen
The timidity of the professional association in history. I mean it tracks all these in medicine. They all during COVID and they all.
Jack Fowler
I can tell you that I wrote a couple of op eds I think three on behalf of my friend but it wasn't because he was my friend Scott Atlas because I really did believe that the lockdown and quarantine of school age children would be. It would do damage for generations and putting people locked up in their homes would do something like we saw after George Floyd with all those rioting and all the dea. All that acrimony was partly because. And I really believe that we had to take all of our resources and focus on the elderly that were vulnerable. And who was the one that was saying that? It was Scott Atlas, Jay Bacharia, John Yianides, Paul Levette, and they got nothing but calumny and anger. If you walked with Scott Atlas in 2021 across the Stanford campus, and I did do that, people would turn the other way and not get near him. What they did to him was a crime. And they tried to destroy him. They tried to destroy Jay Bacharya, they tried to destroy John Ioannidis. And now pretty much the evidence from Europe, Sweden, shows they were right all along. It's going to take years to rectify the education damage, the zoom class, all of that. And yet all the heroes that they quoted against them, Fauci says this, Peter Dasak and Echo Health, they said it was a pangolin. Oh, Francis Collins says this. No, now they're all discredited. Fauci's a joke. And they don't apologize. But it takes people like that. But academics, my point is academics. One day they say Scott Atlas is an enemy of the people, the next day they think, oh, I bet on the wrong horse. And public opinion now thinks he was right. Jay is running hhs. I mean, nih. John Yannidis has always been right on everything he said. So I better. I'm too small minded and I'm such a. I'm. I have no character. So I'm not going to, you know, apologize or write him a note, but I'm not going to demonize him anymore because it's not 51% and I always go with 51% mob.
Victor Davis Hansen
I asked Jay once about his friends, I mean, true friends. What's the price of what you went through? And he said, oh, absolutely, friends, real friends. Just overnight.
Jack Fowler
So I wonder how much Martin Coulidorf, the Harvard person, they fired him from Harvard. Now he's on the NIH advisory vaccination board. I think now they try to destroy people. And you know what's so weird about it is right after that, we found that right after the COVID virus, there were those frantic emails from Francis Collins and Fauci about, oh, we got a gain of function. Uh oh, we've got to come up with a narrative. Uh oh, pangolin bat. And then there was Peter Dasick, who was funneling Fauci money to this unsecured lab. And then, oh, let's have a lancet, the most prestigious medical journal in the world. We'll go over there and investigate. And Let me stock it with all my obsequious, toadish friends. And oh, they said that I was right, that it was a pangolin or a bat. And then that's now completely discredited.
Victor Davis Hansen
I think Fauci may be the last person in the world still won't admit.
Jack Fowler
It wasn't some varmint 51 intelligence authority. Oh, this has all the earmarks of a Russian information campaign. Oh, it didn't. But we said information. We didn't say disinformation, therefore we're not culpable. But we did give Joe Biden the ammunition to call Donald Trump a liar in the last national debate and affect a national election. But we're not going to apologize because we're, I don't know, we're Mike Morale. We're John Brennan, we're James Clapper. Where Leon Panetta. We're, we're somebody. We don't have to apologize for lying to the American people and warping on the whole debate and probably affecting an election. We wouldn't do that.
Victor Davis Hansen
To quote Harry Bird. Right? Yeah, not Harry Bird. Who's Harry? Harry from, from Nevada. Who's dead now.
Jack Fowler
Harry Reid. Harry Reid. Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
We won. Right?
Jack Fowler
You know, that was, they said, Senator Reid, you said that Mitt Romney never paid his income tax. That was incorrect. We won, didn't we?
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah, that's the. Hey, Victor, let's close out by getting your take on the new issue of strategica. And since we have so many new viewers and listeners, strategica is a online journal of Hoover. And I think it's fair to say Victor's day job is the Martin and Eliana's and senior fellow at Hoover. And one of his major tasks there is to produce an oversee Strategica, which comes out every six weeks, every two months, a new issue. And there is a new issue. And it's on the impact of the latest military technologies on soldiers in a potential US China confrontation. You have several pieces here, but Miles Yu wrote the lead piece. So do you just want to tell us about this new issue, Victor? And I encourage our listeners to check it out on the Hoover website.
Jack Fowler
Well, we were looking at kind of like our version of the Spanish Civil war. So in 1936-39, Italy, actually more Italy than Germany, fed arms and tactics and new ideas about dive bombing and armorer panzers to the Spanish nationalists. And the Republicans then were supplied by the Soviet Union and International Brigades. But the point was it was a laboratory for World War II. And out of that came the idea of blitzkrieg and Close air support and everything, okay, Monoplanes, everything. Bombers, strategic bombers, high altitude bombing. The same thing is true of Ukraine and the Middle East. I think nobody in their right mind ever thought that five years ago a person in a console would be targeting a drone and it would be chasing a soldier through a trench. A drone would. And then life or death would be. Or that nobody thought that AI would be calibrating missile defense. Or you could program AI into a ballistic missile, it would change course and you would have not only drones in the air, but you would have, you could sink capital ships in the Black Sea with a drone. And so everybody was curious about how these lessons from these two ongoing wars would apply to places in the contemporary world such as Taiwan, China. And do we have enough inexpensive drones to so called flood the zone? Are you just going to take a 14 billion dollar Gerald Ford carrier and pocket off the coast of Taiwan and think it's going to survive? Because it's, you know, it's not going to happen. So Miles and others were trying to incorporate things like drones, AI, lasers. We see the Iron Dome. The Israelis, I think are about two years away from having an electric pulse, I should say laser, being able to shoot down incoming missiles at least up to 3 or 4 km or maybe a mile and a half. So all of these things are happening in real life in these terrible wars. And will the United States learn quick enough to meet these challenges? And they're very bright people. But the whole purpose of the strategic and the military, it's the largest group at Hoover of all the task forces, and it's the oldest. And I can't take credit for. I get the theme of the issue, as I said before, and I pose the question. I have the study questions, I do, I pose the. But the person who carries out is an assistant who's a research fellow, David Berkeley. And he actually calls the people up and says, this is what we want. And that's a hard task because you have to make sure there's a deadline, you have to go after them. And we pay very well. It's a very laborious process. We have illustrations. So David goes into the Hoover archives and wades through all of those, gets those weird posters, it's amazing what we can come up with. And then I have to thank the people. You know, when you have people of the caliber of Barry Strauss, the historian, Andrew Roberts, the historian, Neil Ferguson, the story, Frank, decoder the story, and you have military HR McMaster General Mattis Bing West. Yeah. Chief of Naval Operations, former Chief Gary Roughtt and then you have the most brilliant people in the world as military analysts. We have the late Angelo Cordovia. We have Edward Luttwak, we have. Gosh, one of the brightest people I've ever met is Michael Duran. He's really great. You have all those people, and to get them in one room and to get them out to California, get them, it's very hard to do. It takes a lot of time. But I. And we, you know, and they publish so much. Almost every week I get a book from one of the 30 or 40 members or the auxiliary observers that they have written.
Victor Davis Hansen
This is issue 90 something. I'm not sure exactly what.
Jack Fowler
I'm working on. The hundredth issue that was 99 was okay. And the hundredth will be an anniversary, kind of an anniversary, but it will be celebrating 100. And we're going to do the following. We're going to assess. I'm going to get. I think I'll ask Peter Mansour. He just wrote a great book on MacArthur in the Philippines. He's the head at Ohio State, has a military history program. Mark Moyer has a military history program and Hillsdale College. So we're going to get some people to contribute. What is the status academically, academically of military history and why is it important that we have it at a graduate level and undergraduate? And more important, then I'm going to also examine the status of military history in general and the popular culture. Why is it that people don't go and want to read about settler colonialism when they go to a bookstore or on Amazon? They want to buy books about war and military history. Why is the academic profession let down in general? Military history? So that if you look at the people who are writing great military history, the vast majority are not actively an academic just the way it is.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, it reminds me, and it was an academic, late William Manchester, who wrote the Just a Biography of. Oh, my gosh, why can't I think McCarthy. Yeah, I read it on my honeymoon. This 800 page. Well, I got sick, Victor. I was ill. So I read an 800 page book.
Jack Fowler
He was a brilliant prose stylist. But you go back and look at his. I'm just doing this off the cuff.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah. Was he accurate?
Jack Fowler
No. Nihil dickory malum nisi bonham de mortuis. Don't ever speak of the dead unless it's something good to say. But I got one off topic, but one of the most moving memoirs that was ever written about combat was with the old breed by E.B. sledge. About that. It was one of the most horrific accounts of Okinawa and I was very interested in it because my namesake Victor Hanson was killed there. But there was also another book written by William Manchester, Good by Darkness. And right before he died, E.B. sledge wrote me a note and said someone had said that you had praised the style, but you must know Professor Hanson. And he had all the mistakes and the things that could not be as accurate. And I went back and checked and he was right about that. It was a very moving memoir, but it was not. It's everything in EB Sledges with the Old Bead was absolutely accurate. And people that were involved there confirmed everything he said. It was one of the most nightmarish memoirs I've ever read. I've read a lot of memoirs on World War I and World War II, and that was something else. Yeah.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, Victor, before we close and as we typically do, read a comment. I want to thank folks who, who've written me about Civil Thoughts, which is the free weekly email newsletter that I write for the center for Civil Society. And you can go to civilthoughts.com sign up and every Friday you will get an email with 14 recommended readings. I know you're going to like it. Again, it's free and we do not sell your name civil thoughts.com totally non sequitur to anything. I just want to say the other night Sharon and I watched for whatever reason, Andy, my son andy, put on September 5th, the movie about ABC's coverage of the 1972 Olympics. And you know, Victor, that such. It was a really good movie. I recommend it. But man, oh man, these terrorists have been scumbags for so long.
Jack Fowler
I remember that so well. I felt really remember how, how incompetent the German security forces were. They couldn't shoot straight. I thought, wow. And it was horrible. Yeah. It's a sign of the moral depravity of this postmodern Western society that here's this little tiny Israel and these people are trying to extinguish them. And they have 2 million Arab citizens that have more civil rights than anywhere else in the Arab world. And they know it and they're treated with dignity and yet they want to kill all these people. And then this day and age, just 75, 80 years after the Holocaust, they're still doing it. They're still trying. I mean, at Harvard. Think of this. If I had said, say in 1945, as the U.S. and British armies and Russian armies liberated Auschwitz or Belsen, Belsen or Treblinka, if you said, you know what, I hate to say this, you guys, but in 80 years at Harvard University, you're going to have two students that rough up Jews. And one of them is going to be given a $63,000 honorarium and the. From, I guess from the journalism people. And the other one is going to be kind of a grand marshal at the graduation ceremony. And then you're going to have the brightest supposed of the Ivy League tough country. Hey, anti Semitic. And it depends on the context. That's where. That's what. So there we are. And it's disgusting. And everybody has to speak out against it. And it's really disgusting. It drives me nuts every time. I. I'll give you one last example. I was with my wife in Menlo park, okay? And I'm. I was getting. Actually, I had something to do. I was getting a product for nasal, you know, problem. And I'm sitting. Oh. And then we went. Excuse me. We went. We walked down the street. We went to a Starbucks. We're sitting in a Starbucks in front of everybody, and this elderly gentleman comes up and he says the following. I love your podcast. I agree with almost everything you say. I like what you say on Falk. I said, thank you. And then he looks at me again and he says, except one thing. Those Jews, you. I don't understand. I hate those people. I don't know why you're doing this. There are murders or genocide. And then he gets worked up and he gets right in my face, you know, and he starts to. And I thought, should I knock him out? Because he was all elderly. I mean, he. I'm 71, but he must have been 80 or maybe 75. But he was obnoxious. He got right in my face and I said, you know, I don't appreciate that. And he just kept doing it and doing it and doing it. And then he finally got. And everybody was. The whole. Everybody was looking at it. And I thought, wow, this is so called enlightened Menlo park, one mile from the Stanford campus. And I thought, wait a minute, Victor. One mile from the Stanford campus, which an internal committee of professors who were left wing just did a 900 page report on antisemitism and found it epidemic on the Stanford campus and the administration culpable for doing nothing. Right? So there you go.
Victor Davis Hansen
Where's the surprise at? Well, speaking of old men. And we'll close out with this. Mark HG F. Excuse me. Mark HG5FN on YouTube, commenting on one of the recent episodes, writes my wife and I are your age, Victor, and we look forward to every video. Your calm insight without any appearance of personal bias is very refreshing. We wish our grandchildren had an educator of your caliber and honesty. Thanks. And we wish you a swift and total recovery from your surgery. There are many, many, many more comments just like that. So thanks to all who do do such.
Jack Fowler
I was at a group and all of a sudden an ENT came up to me from New York York, a stranger. And he said, I listened to your podcast. It was very refreshing. And he said, you mentioned Brone and he had done that. He said, why did you ever think you were going to feel great at three weeks? And he went on and he was really good. And he said, how many rounds of antibiotics? I said, three different kinds. He said, I think it has something to do with using every type of antibiotic, destroy your intestinal. So he was really good. He was really nice. He just said, don't worry about it. In three months you'll feel well, but you're not going to feel well after four weeks. Not without many a month of antibody, three different types of antibiotics and all. So I hadn't thought of that. And it was nice of them. People are very nice. I shouldn't even say that. These Karen types come up and confront me. It's one out of 15 people. 15.
Victor Davis Hansen
Well, yeah, but you know, I don't think conservatives would go up and confront if they saw some, some lefty from msnbc, see him in the street. You know, we just have a different approach to life.
Jack Fowler
And well, I know everybody knows every. If I say the following, everybody knows it's true. You have people in your family that are angry at you because you support. Yeah. Whether you voted for them or not. And these people have said to you, let's not talk about politics, let's just get along. And you say, yes, amen. And then all of a sudden they said, but why would you vote for that? And they started, when I hear people say the country's divided, it's polarized, we all have to come along. I agree, 100 but I do believe the culpability. There's something about the heaven on earth utopian left wing. I'm more moral, give me the power and I will create heaven on earth that they live and breathe politics and they won't let it alone.
Victor Davis Hansen
Yeah.
Jack Fowler
The idea that there's somebody somewhere that voted for Donald Trump that they haven't yelled at bothers them. So they will say, can't we all get along?
Victor Davis Hansen
And then they will start on my terms. Yeah. Well, you've been terrific, Victor, and you're coming out of the tunnel. And I'm very happy for that. And you will, I guess, the next time we record, we'll be back with the usual background.
Jack Fowler
So back on the south 40, okay? The only 40.
Victor Davis Hansen
Okay, Rick, you've been terrific. Thanks for everything. Thanks, folks, for watching. Thanks for listening. We'll be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show.
Jack Fowler
Bye.
Victor Davis Hansen
Bye.
Jack Fowler
Thank you, everybody, for listening and watching.
In the July 17, 2025 episode of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show" titled "Toughen Up, Buttercup?", hosts Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler engage in a comprehensive discussion covering political commentary, media critique, and policy analysis. The episode delves into Barack Obama's recent call for Democrats to "toughen up," examines the impact of Obama's legacy on the Democratic Party and the rise of Trump/MAGA, critiques the 1619 Project, and analyzes the Trump administration's immigration policies.
The episode opens with Victor and Jack exchanging personal stories, including Jack’s recent surgery and interactions with listeners. This segment sets a personable tone before diving into the main discussions.
A significant portion of the episode focuses on former President Barack Obama's recent statement urging Democrats to "toughen up." Hanson and Fowler dissect this message, questioning its substance and effectiveness in the current political climate.
Hanson and Fowler argue that Obama's exhortation lacks actionable guidance and criticize his post-presidency actions, suggesting they have weakened the Democratic Party. They contend that Obama's legacy has inadvertently facilitated the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement by alienating key voter demographics, particularly young white males.
The hosts analyze how Obama's tenure and subsequent actions have reshaped the Democratic Party, leading to significant electoral setbacks and paving the way for Trump's resurgence.
Hanson and Fowler posit that Obama's policies and rhetoric alienated traditional Democratic bases, resulting in substantial losses in state and local elections. They argue that Obama's legacy has eroded trust among certain voter groups, making them more susceptible to Trump's appeal.
The conversation shifts to the scrutiny faced by Republican figures like J.D. Vance from "woke" journalists and media outlets, highlighting instances of personal attacks and biased reporting.
Hanson and Fowler critique the media’s tendency to target the personal lives of political figures like J.D. Vance, framing it as part of a broader trend of "wokeness" that undermines fair and objective journalism. They argue that such attacks detract from substantive political discourse.
The hosts discuss the Trump administration’s policy shift to end "catch and release" for illegal immigrants, analyzing its potential impact on immigration enforcement and public opinion.
Hanson and Fowler support the Trump administration's move, viewing it as a necessary step to enforce immigration laws more effectively. They criticize the Democratic Party for failing to address the needs of their core constituents, suggesting this policy shift aligns with conservative principles of law enforcement and immigration control.
The episode transitions to a critique of the 1619 Project, referencing a National Review article by Philip Magness that highlights errors and political motivations behind the initiative.
Hanson and Fowler argue that the 1619 Project is politically motivated and lacks scholarly rigor. They assert that it distorts historical facts to fit a contemporary political narrative, undermining objective historical analysis. The hosts advocate for a return to unbiased and factual historical scholarship.
The hosts briefly discuss the latest issue of "Strategica," an online journal overseen by Hanson at the Hoover Institution, focusing on the impact of emerging military technologies in a potential US-China confrontation.
Hanson emphasizes the importance of anticipating and adapting to modern military technologies, such as AI, drones, and missile defense systems, to effectively counter potential threats from China. He highlights the need for the US to stay ahead in these areas to maintain strategic superiority.
Towards the end of the episode, Hanson and Fowler engage with listener comments, expressing gratitude and sharing positive feedback received from their audience. They recount personal interactions with listeners, reinforcing the community aspect of the podcast.
The hosts conclude by acknowledging their listeners' support and encouraging continued engagement. They reinforce their commitment to providing insightful and unbiased commentary, fostering a sense of loyalty and community among their audience.
This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions of the episode, providing a clear and engaging overview for those who haven't had the opportunity to listen.