Youth Vote Crisis: Are Democrats Losing the Next Generation?

Summary

Podcast Title: The Victor Davis Hanson Show
Host(s): Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler
Episode: Youth Vote Crisis: Are Democrats Losing the Next Generation?
Release Date: April 3, 2025

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Introduction to the Youth Vote Crisis

In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson and co-host Jack Fowler delve into the pressing issue of whether the Democratic Party is losing its grip on younger voters. Drawing from recent polls and historical contexts, they explore the factors contributing to this potential shift and its implications for future elections.

Current State of the Youth Vote

Jack Fowler initiates the discussion by referencing a headline from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics: “Top Youth Pollster Fears Dems Losing a Grip on Key Generation of Voters.” Jonathan Della Volpe, the polling director, expressed concerns on the podcast "Fast Politics with Molly Young," highlighting that Democrats may have missed opportunities to solidify their base among young Americans.

Jack Fowler:
"The concern I have for Democrats is just a handful of years ago... every day for every thousand young people who turn 18, 700 of them have values aligned with the Democrat Party... They didn't communicate that very well."
[03:23]

Statistical Evidence and Trends

Victor responds by examining statistical data, noting that while Kamala Harris might have a slight edge in the youth vote nationally, key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin indicate a different trend.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"When you look at the individual states that matter, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, he won. Donald Trump from post polls won the youth vote in Michigan and he came close to winning in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania."
[07:59]

Factors Leading to Democratic Challenges Among Youth

Several reasons are discussed for why Democrats might be losing favor with young voters:

1. Economic Realities:
   Victor emphasizes the economic hardships faced by the younger generation, particularly in housing affordability. He shares a personal anecdote about his family's experience with housing in the 1970s to illustrate how accessible homeownership has become unattainable for many young people today.

   Victor Davis Hanson:
   "If you were a working-class kid making seven or eight dollars an hour as a union welder, you could afford a house. If that house is over a million dollars now, nobody on a middle-class wage can buy one."
   [11:21]

2. Pragmatic Voting Over Ideological Alignment:
   Younger voters are purportedly voting more pragmatically based on economic concerns rather than strict ideological lines, leading to a potential drift away from traditional Democratic values.

   Jack Fowler:
   "They didn't communicate that very well. And now we're living, you know, in what I think is the beginning of a post-ideological era with young people."
   [03:23]

3. Rebellion Against Liberal Establishment:
   Victor points out that the younger generation reacts against what they perceive as liberal indoctrination in universities and other institutions, fostering resentment towards established liberal figures and policies.

   Victor Davis Hanson:
   "Nobody wants to listen to that when you're young. And so you react against that, and they're reacting against that liberal establishment they come in contact with."
   [07:59]

Impact of Economic Disparities and Social Policies

The hosts discuss how economic disparities and stringent social policies have contributed to the disillusionment among young voters. Victor criticizes California's housing and education policies, attributing them to a decline in the state's affordability and attractiveness for young families.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"If you can't buy a house, then you're not going to get married at 23. And the age of first marriage has gone from 23 up to 28."
[14:46]

Relationship Between the Democratic Party and Billionaires

A significant portion of the conversation centers on the evolving relationship between the Democratic Party and wealthy individuals. Victor argues that while Democrats previously collaborated with billionaires, recent dissent has led to a strained relationship, affecting party support among affluent donors.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"They love billionaires as long as they are submissive. They love billionaires as long as that money goes to these crazy issues like ESG, New Green Deal."
[18:56]

Youth Activism and Anti-Capitalist Sentiments

The episode touches on instances of youth activism that verge into anti-capitalist actions, such as shoplifting from Whole Foods as a form of protest against Jeff Bezos. Victor criticizes these acts as manifestations of anarchistic tendencies fostered by liberal ideologies.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"This is anarchy. When you rationalize theft and selfishness and narcissism... they're dealing with anarchists."
[24:05]

Antifa and Left-Wing Violence

The hosts briefly discuss the longevity and impact of antifa in the United States, suggesting that left-wing groups have been allowed to incite violence for decades without significant repercussions.

Jack Fowler:
"Now how long has antifa been allowed to run amok in America? Decades now."
[26:18]

Legislation and Its Impact on Society

Victor critiques California's proposed legislation, particularly the Mangione bill, arguing that it imposes unrealistic mandates on medical procedures without providing adequate revenue channels, thereby destabilizing the insurance industry.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"The private insurance companies just think, well what if we had a public insurance where nobody was profiting... That's your socialist alternative."
[27:11]

Trump’s Executive Orders and Cultural Reversal

Towards the end, the discussion shifts to Donald Trump's recent executive orders aimed at reversing liberal policies in cultural institutions like the Smithsonian and election integrity measures. Victor defends these actions as necessary corrections to what he views as leftist overreach in historical interpretation and cultural preservation.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"He's not trying to say I'm making them right-wing conservative. He's just saying that we're going to look at classical beauty and architecture."
[61:35]

Concluding Thoughts on the Youth Vote and Future Implications

The episode wraps up with reflections on the broader implications of the youth vote crisis for American politics. Victor emphasizes the need for practical solutions to economic issues to regain the trust and support of younger voters.

Victor Davis Hanson:
"They think that if you get up every morning and you're working very hard and you're married and you have family... they hate people who just press on and don't just stop and get paralyzed."
[65:16]

Notable Quotes

• Jack Fowler at [03:23]:
  "The concern I have for Democrats is just a handful of years ago... every day for every thousand young people who turn 18, 700 of them have values aligned with the Democrat Party..."

• Victor Davis Hanson at [07:59]:
  "Nobody wants to listen to that when you're young. And so you react against that, and they're reacting against that liberal establishment they come in contact with."

• Victor Davis Hanson at [61:35]:
  "He's not trying to say I'm making them right-wing conservative. He's just saying that we're going to look at classical beauty and architecture."

Conclusion

Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler present a critical examination of the Democratic Party's waning support among young voters, attributing it to economic challenges, perceived ideological stagnation, and strategic missteps. They argue that addressing these issues is crucial for Democrats to reclaim their influence and ensure political viability in future elections.

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This summary captures the essence of the episode, focusing on the core discussions and insights shared by the hosts while omitting advertisements and non-content segments.

Transcript

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

Hello ladies. Hello gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I am Jack Fowler, the lucky hosts. Our star namesake is Victor Davis Hansen, who is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marcia Buskey Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College and the man behind the website, the Blade of Perseus. The address there is victorhanson.com you should check it out and I'll tell you why later. You should be subscribing. We are recording on Sunday, March 30th and this episode will be up on Thursday, April 3rd and on Friday, April 4th. Victor, I am going to be walking my daughter, Elizabeth.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Congratulations.

[Jack Fowler]

So I'm.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Congratulations.

[Jack Fowler]

A son in law. Son in law, Ben. Awfully nice guy. Pray for them, folks, please, good people.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Remember one thing. Daughters are always the most loyal of all children to their fathers.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, I have two daughters and I. Yeah, I think they would. I think they may beat me up, but I think they would kill anyone who tried to beat me up. I love my girl. I love all my kids. They're just one of my five. They all love each other. It's terrific. Okay, Victor, speaking of young people, we have topics on the youth vote. We have young people who are engaging in activism by shoplifting at Whole Foods. To give Jeff Bezos the middle finger, there's a new issue of strategica out and Victor is the editor and guru of Strategica which is the Hoover Institution's online journal.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

97 issue 97, I think.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, all of them. Still pretty folks should go there and delve into the archives because it's quite interesting and to some degree permanent stuff. And Victor, there's a ton of really important Donald Trump executive orders and executive actions that he's taken that deserve your commentary. So we're going to get started on the youth vote, and we'll do that when we come back from these important messages. We'll be back to our show in just a moment. But first, an important message for anyone concerned about their financial future. Have you seen the headlines? The Department of Government Efficiency has uncovered a staggering $115 billion in government fraud, with investigators suggesting this is just the tip of the iceberg. Financial analysts are now confirming what many suspected. The previous administration's economic success was largely artificial, propped up by funneling trillions through NGOs and creating an economic mirage. As this corruption is exposed, experts predict we're heading toward a short but deep recession when this false economic support evaporates. What does this mean for your retirement savings? Throughout our history, when governments manipulate economies and currencies collapse, physical gold has been mankind's most reliable store of value. Shouldn't you consider protecting part of your retirement with an asset that governments can't create with keystrokes or devalue through corruption? American Alternative Assets is offering a free wealth protection guide to help safeguard your financial future from the coming economic correction. Call 833-2-USAGOLD or visit victorlovesgold.com today for your free guide and learn why now may be the perfect time to add precious metals to your portfolio. That's 833-28-7247 or victorlovesgold.com protect what you've earned before the fraud economy collapses completely.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

Hello again. We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Victor from the Daily Caller, if I can pull these papers up in front of me, there's a headline here. Huge Concern in quotes. Top Youth Pollster Fears Dems losing a Grip on Key generation of voters. So here's the story. Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics polling director. That's a mouthful. Jonathan Della Volpe expressed worry during a podcast that Democrats may be losing ground with younger voters. This was on the Fast Politics with the infamous Molly Young. Fast or jungfast. He said he fears the Democratic Party missed an extraordinary chance to solidify its with young Americans in recent years. Bear with me here, folks, and get Victor's wisdom. The concern I have for Democrats is just a handful of years ago, just a handful of years, I would say that every day for every thousand young people who turn 18, 700 of them, 6 or 700 of them have values aligned with the Democrat Party. It was like this incredible opportunity for Democrats that cement kind of their values with an emerging generation. They didn't communicate that very well. And now we're living, you know, in what I think is the beginning of a post ideological era with young people, okay. Where because of the concerns about economics, they're voting in what they would say is a much more pragmatic way than they did, you know, in maybe 16, 18 or 20. So that's a concern. If younger people agree with Democrats on most issues, but they're not voting in the numbers that they voted with Democrats in the past, that's a huge concern because my generation is just getting more conservative.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, there's the statistics. Bear that out. I mean, I think nationwide. Kamala Harris from we usually call the youth vote 18 to 30. She may have won 53, 47. But the key thing is maybe a little 54. But when you look at the individual states that matter, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, he won. Donald Trump from post polls won the youth vote in Michigan and he came close to winning in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And why is that? Part of it is he appealed to the working class youth of the country. He and when you get Hulk Hogan or Kid Rock or Joe Rogan or Dana White, there was a direct appeal to working class people. And when you have Tim Walsh lecturing the youth about what a man is and what masculinity is no. 1, that is a counterproductive message. The other thing is people that age people are rebellious. I was. You were. So the idea that you're going to go to these indoctrination universities and you're going to sit there and you're requ ethnic studies class and the professor Some $140,000 a year gender, say person starts to lecture you and says, well, you know, the history of the United States has been one of rampant sexism, racism and all of you need and to have reparations in mind and body. Nobody wants to listen to that. Nobody wants to listen to that when you're young. And so you react against that, and they're reacting against that liberal establishment they come in contact with. The other thing is the third leg of that stool is, you know, I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. When I was 18. 17. Well, I'll preface it this way. One of the most expensive places in the United States, per square foot, is the Monterey Bay area in general and Santa Cruz in particular. Okay. They had a new university that opened. My parents, we went. I had two brothers there and a cousin living in Santa Cruz who wasn't attending university. So my dad, we were all paying the dorms. So one day we all got in the station wagon during our summer vacation. He said, I'm just curious, what if all three of you guys lived in a house and you charged rent even we don't have? And he said he had $6,000. That's what he had inherited from my grandfather. So we were driving along and there was a model home that had. The whole thing had gone under, and it was not too far from the campus, but it was 1100 square feet and three little tiny bedrooms, two baths, not very big yard, but it was brand new, no yard. And so he stopped and you know what they wanted, Jack? $23,000 at 7%. And my dad got out, you know.

[Jack Fowler]

He said, we'll buy you a tool shed now.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Exactly. And he said, if you guys put two or three people in there in the living room and everybody shared bedrooms, you could make the mortgage payment of, you know, a mortgage payment was $158 a month. The taxes were about 500 a year. This is California on the coast in 1971. And we did all the landscaping and we lived there for my whole time. And when my father passed away, I traded my brother for farmland and I got that little house and remodeled it, and my daughter lived there for 15 years. I won't tell you what it's worth now, but it's gone up in value. I don't even want to think about it. But my point is colossally exactly. So. The point was, in 1971, if you were a working class kid and you were making seven or eight dollars an hour as a union welder somewhere, and you could make $30,000, you could make annually 20 or 30,000, which was the price of the house annually. If that house is over a million dollars right now, Nobody in the working makes a million dollars. And so they understand that their generation got proverbially screwed. If I could use that profanity, excuse me, but they did. And there's no way they can buy houses on middle class wages, at least in a lot of the States. And so they look at this thing and then if you can't buy a house, then you're not going to get married at 23. And the age of first marriage has gone from 23. And I think it's up to 28 now. And the age of. I wrote this in the Dying Citizen. And the age of your first child has gone from 27. I think it's a 33. Homeownership has gone from 26 or excuse me, 29. It's up to about 38, 37. So we're just. It has terrible consequences for the demographics. And what we should be doing is telling all of these grandees, these very wealthy people that have these beautiful homes that you're going to, if you want this country to work. And maybe it's going to level out the statistics I see where 345 people, if we control immigration, it will level out about360,370 and start to decline at 1.6. But the point I'm, we have such territory and such expanses. We should be building houses and letting these young people buy a home. And it would change their entire lives. And it's very important to do that. And that's what this is all about. So we have these youth that are, what's the word for them? They're just a lost generation. You go to campus and you roll up $200,000 and you get a worthless degree, your life is over. You know what I mean? It's not going to work. And you need people to say to them, if you go to that university, do not listen to that counselor, do not listen to those professors. Just do the math. This is how much it's going to cost, this is how much the interest is. And this is what this particular major will guarantee you. And this is how many years it'll take to pay back. And if you don't do that, you're going to end up thinking that you can go into Whole Foods and steal. Right?

[Jack Fowler]

Well, let's talk about that. But I just, I do want to add to what you just said. I paid. I graduated in 1982 from college and I paid my way. It was a close call, but I don't think anyone that graduated from 1983 or after could Pay for school just by working hard.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There was no tuition at University of California, Jack. No tuition? I don't know. We only paid room and board and what they called quarterly fees. I think they were $200, no tuition and the tax rate was much less. So then Gavin should tell us why the University of California used to have no TU and it was affordable. Was it because of 10 million illegal aliens and half the people on Medi Cal? Is that part of the expense or was it we overstaffed the university? We have unions, Union, union, union. I don't know what it was. Or it was too many administrators. They grew at about 200% over 20 years at the CSU and UC. But whatever it was, there was a golden age in California and elsewhere. So and this generation, I feel really bad for them because they're not very well educated. They didn't get good education. They got a weaponized, ideological, bastardized training and they can't buy a home and they're not getting married and they're not having children. And then we'll lead to our next this story about people justifying going in and stealing from and I'm not justifying it. But why do they hate billionaires all of a sudden? They surely didn't. Five to eight years ago Obama and Clinton create, created the Democratic Billionaire Alliance. So the top 10 billionaires were all liberal, every one of them. Maybe Larry Ellison turned early, but when you look at all of them, there were things in common. Mike Bloomberg I think is number 10. He has the all time record of $1 billion he put into his own campaign. George Soros, I saw that George Soros from the moment he started giving and he's not even the top 10. He's given $27 billion to leftist causes. Sam Bankman Fried in the 2020 midterms alone gave 70 million million. Mark Zuckerberg gave 419 million to absorb the work of registrars on the 2020 election. Think of that. And they're all, they were all lined up. Jeff Bezos, he gave The Bezos award $100 million to Van Jones. He, he was beloved. So then what happened? Well, the billionaire class started to think and they realized that the left, nothing is for free with the left. And you know, as Marc Andreessen has said, they called the men and said this is the AI winner. This company, this company. This isn't. We need this amount of money to do this. And you're going to do this and you're going to do that and you can, we'll allow you to do this or we're going to have the courts go after you or have tr. And they said, these people are scary. And the alternate message from Donald Trump was, you do what you want. All I ask you is make a lot of money for the United States. You make a lot of money for the United States. And I will protect you from the European censors. And I will protect you. That was the message. So they all started to defect. Jeff Bezos did not endorse anybody at the Washington Post. So he went from beloved to enemy number one just by being neutral. That is it. Dr. Song, the head of the LA Times, he's worth 7 or 8 billion. He was a leftist, and now they hate him because he didn't endorse anybody in the election. They hate Andreessen because he flipped. They hate David Sachs because he flipped. They hate. They've always hated Peter Till. They hate Zuckerberg. Now you know that because he's neutral. Yeah. And they hate, of course, Elon Musk.

[Jack Fowler]

So they were victor at the inauguration. It was really weird to see that cast of characters standing behind Donald Trump that were four years or eight years earlier on the other political side.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And basically the message among the left is we had. We were a medieval party of the billionaire and the professional classes, and we. We lost the middle class and we had a huge subsidized poor. And then these guys bolted. So all of a sudden, we love billionaires. I get so sick of listening to Bernie Sanders and AOC talk about oligarchs. Who do you think funded the Democratic Party? And by the way, Bernie, I want to ask this question to you. Who raised more money from June. Excuse me, July 27, when Joe Biden dropped out until the election? Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? Kamala Harris raised $1 billion in that period. Trump raised 340 million. If you combined all the money that Biden and Harris and Trump. 4.7 billion. 3.7. 4.7 billion. $1 billion more for Harris Biden than for Trump. 1 billion. Where do you think that money came from? It came from Wall Street. It came from Silicon Valley, it came from Hollywood. And so my point is that when Bernie Sanders and AOC get up on the stage and they mouth off about oligarch, they are the party of oligarchs, billionaires. And they were happy with that as long as that money went to these crazy issues like woe di esg, New Green Deal. But the moment those guys bolted, then all of a sudden this party was populous and we don't like these people anymore because they don't give us all this money. Remember when Sam Bankman fried went broke after 2022 and they said let's just go back because he robbed people of about 8 to 10 billion dollars. Can we have the money back? Maxine Waters? Can we? And they went to all of them, they said, no, no, no, no, no. That money was given to us by that felon. We want it, we're going to keep it. They love billionaires. They love billionaires as long as they're submissive.

[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

One person, it wasn't one person saying that he thought he had a right to take stakes.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, that's the aforementioned.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So $33 rib steak because you're a working class persons. Yeah, yeah, I go, I go to, I go to a, a supermarket and I went there two days ago and it was like the people were gawking at the ribeyes, you know what I mean? Like touching them as if they could never afford them.

[Jack Fowler]

Soil and green.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. So I mean this, this is anarchy. It's the Italon winds civilization. When you rationalize theft and you rationalize selfishness and narcissism and Jeff Bezos, whether he's kind of like Elon Musk, I mean, I try to go in town and support local businesses, but I tell you, if I have to drive all over town to find different items or I just sit there with an Amazon prime account and go ding, ding, ding, ding, D ding. And then it says, you're an Amazon prime account. This will be delivered tomorrow at your house. And they are. I don't know how they do it. I have no idea how they can do that with regional warehouses and all these different millions of items. And I don't know how they do it, but somebody is a genius to be able to do that. And that has revolutionized, for good or bad, the entire idea of shopping worldwide. So he's not just. They're making fun of his head. Lex Luthor, bald headed villain of Superman. I understand that. But it's so funny about the left. They worship money, they worship status. And then when the status and the money doesn't go completely in their direction, then they turn on them and they try to destroy them. I wish these people would understand who they're dealing with. And they're dealing with anarchists. And why is it, you know, January 6, January 6, January 6, and no one ever talks about May, June, July, August, September, October 2020, or they don't talk about Tesla, but most of the violence, whether it's the assassination attempts or the Scalise shooting, all of that are these. They mostly come from left wing people.

[Jack Fowler]

Now how long has antifa been allowed to run amok in America? Decades now.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, I can remember. Remember the Seattle World bank or whatever it was. They went wild.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It was that famous video, do you remember during the George Floyd riots where these spaghetti arm antifa guys pull up at a tourist station and there's all the local people start to walk toward them and they just are terrified and get back in and drive out.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, the hatred of the quote unquote. Rich Victor. I just saw this headline earlier this morning that California members of the legislature are working with activists to put a referendum on the ballot. I think they're calling it after Mangione.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they are. Luigi Mangione bill.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And if you read the bill it's pretty frightening. It says that nobody who unless they have an MD can evaluate whether a medical procedure is justified. Could I just give a suggestion to you people who are glorifying a murderer, a cold blooded killer. First of all, you are discrediting your whole cause because most Americans think you're insane and to justify premeditated murder. So you had a spoiled heir to a multi million dollar inheritance who goes out and shoots a lower middle class kid that worked his way up to be a health executive. And I'm in UnitedHealth. It does a great service to people. There's times when it hasn't covered things that I've done and I've been, you know, upset about it. But basically the insurance companies operating in California can't make a profit because there's so many. If they pass that bill they're going to do exactly what the homeowners. So I just got a letter today saying that the people who helped me do the landscaping. That's not landscaping. Our yard have to raise their prices and justifiably. So insurance got up. I got one about my house, I got one about my liability insurance. They're all going sky high. Why? Because of things like this that California only thinks on one end. They always think if we pass a law we can have utopia and heaven on earth. We're just going to pass a law. Whatever medical service you need, you're going to get. But you're 8 billion. So get, get. Just think away for a minute. The private insurance companies just think, well what if we had a public insurance where nobody was profiting? We do. It's called Medi Cal and it insures one out of every two Californians. And guess what? It's $8 billion in the annual hole. It can't afford 40% of its births. 40% of everybody born in California is paid for by the state, by Medi Cal and it is broke. That's your socialist alternative. You are driving out all of the insurance companies by making mandates that they have to meet but with no avenue to get the revenue to meet them. And you really do believe this is how they think, that there's this huge pot of gold in every company and they have an obligation, Jack, to lose 8 to 10% every year because somewhere there's a big pot of gold in their basement that they stole from us and they have to lose money. We don't care about how they make money because they have it. They just have it. It grows on their trees. That's how they believe. And they're, they're, it's.

[Jack Fowler]

That's why they all want to work for non profits because they don't.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's why, you know, where did the.

[Jack Fowler]

Profits come that, yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Where did this idea come from? Where does, where does Mangione become a hero? Where does the idea you make mandates on all these insurance companies without worrying where they're going to get the revenue to meet them? I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from the university. The idea that you're going to pay these people good money to work nine months out of the year and have lifetime employment and hire only left wing people who are not responsible for the consequences of the ideas they promulgate. They mostly are bourgeois people. I know where they live. Every time I've gone to a university I've gone to what they call the faculty ghetto. It's a very nice place. It's a tree lined suburb with comfortable people with elbow patched jackets and some guys have a pipe and books and hardwood floors and so tasteful. And they're tenured and they're always yelling and screaming about the car mechanic, the plumber, the electrician. Even though they them in the abstract, they don't want to be around them in the concrete.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, someday I want you to come on this on the show in a tweed jacket and just a pipe. You don't just smoke it. I know you don't smoke, but just. It was just.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I was the only male I used to get teased from. I have two siblings and a first cousin that grew up with us and my father and I was the only one that never smoked or drank. I drank a little bit, but I haven't drunk anything in 10 years, maybe one or two.

[Jack Fowler]

You're a good boy.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, I just, I just can't do it.

[Jack Fowler]

Wash some of those pills.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Donald Trump said that not too long ago. They asked him, you remember, and he said no drugs, no tobacco, no alcohol. And I guess I I don't do. I've never done any of that. And if you do that, I suppose he's saying you can have big Macs. Although RFK Jr. The other day said that. Didn't he say that? I think he said that sugar was worse than heroin or cocaine.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. I mean you look at these breakfast cereal cereals, you think you're licking a sugar bowl.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm enjoying all of these cabinet members and all of this counter revolution because it's controlled chaos. It's really fun to watch.

[Jack Fowler]

That's the best term for it and it is. Okay, Victor, we are going to get a little heady here with strategica, the online journal you oversee. And it's got a new issue out about the Ukraine. And we'll get to that when we come back from these important messages.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Foreign.

[Jack Fowler]

We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on Sunday 30th March. Today's episode is up on Thursday, April 4th. Victor's got a website, the Blade of Perseus. Victorhansen.com do subscribe. $65 a year, discounted from 650amonth. Why are you going to do that? Because you're a fan of what Victor writes and what he preaches sometimes. Because now he's got exclusive videos that he does for the Blade of Perseus. And twice a week he writes an exclusive article ultra articles for the Blade of Perseus. And you'll find links to other articles. Victor writes weekly essays for American Greatness, his syndicated column, the archives of these podcasts. Other appearances go early, go often. Like they vote in Chicago. You're on Twitter or used to be called Twitter X. Victor's Dhanson, that's his handle. VDH's Morning cup on Facebook. This guy's everywhere on YouTube, the daily signals, Daily Daily Victor video. Not on Victor. You just can't get enough of them if you're a Victor addict. He's everywhere. Okay, Victor, now new strategic issue number 97 has a lead essay by Jacob Grazhel, you'll pronounce it correctly for me. The strategic and military pathways to a peaceful Ukrainian settlement. And this is one of several pieces in this edition. And he says in brief, the likely scenario, I'm quoting him here, the likely scenario is that the war will simply be interrupted rather than reaching a long term settlement, removing the initial causes of the conflict. That I guess seemed to be seems pretty obvious of what Russia.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know what it's point. It's just very common sense. Well written, well argued. He's a Very big supporter Ukraine. It's sort of like we just saw some other people, right, from Harvard. The guy that. I'll think of his name in a second. But it's basically, it would be nice to take back Crimea and Donbass that were absorbed by Putin. That's not going to happen. They don't have the wherewithal to do it. Putin wants the 7 or 8 million Russian speakers incorporated. It would be nice for Ukraine, they think, to be in NATO. That's not going to happen. And most NATO countries privately don't want it to happen because they're terrified of Article 5 coming to, you know, And Russia doesn't want United States. That's not going to happen. And are they going to get back all their territory that is being now fought over from the February 24, 2022 embarkation point when Putin started? No. Would it be good if they did? Yes. But they've lost 12 million that have fled the country. The country's in ruins. And the old Joe Biden strategy, we're just going to go as long, as long as it takes. So the Europeans, this mindless poor, and Jacob Greibel is basically saying, that's not going to be a strategy, whether we like it or not. He probably doesn't like it. There has to be kind of a deal. And the deal is you arm Ukraine to the teeth, you get Western money to rebuild it, you have an economic zone, a corridor near the front, like a South Korea, North Korea DMZ ball or barbed wire, and then you are internally vigilant, the way Finland was for 70 years with the Soviet Union. And you, you tell Putin and his successors, we will fight you like we did before, and you will not take Kiev like you did not. And that's the, that's the ceasefire. And I don't understand the left, they really do want to arm them, fashion that 28 million people are going to defeat 144 million people. That's not going to happen. With 10 times the GDP. And Europe talks all this great stuff. They stormed out of Trump, you know, when he temporarily suspended aid. And they got together. I did a daily. I guess it was. I don't know if it was a London Times interview. And the guy was ranting and raving. One of the guests, the host, this is a good, this is a turning point. And France and Britain are going to spearhead boots on the ground. And this is going to happen, you know, And I, I politely said, well, you're, you're disarmed. But even these disarm you have more wherewithal, Putin. So just put a thousand of your 2000 jets. I don't know, 2000 of your 3000 tanks got more than. He just put them over there. Well, you know, we need backup. Well, why do you need backup? You don't like us. So he's outlining what everybody knows. So now it's just a question of incentives. And the only thing, Trump's got to be careful. He's pushed Zelensky pretty hard, but Putin knows that. So Putin thinks that while he talks about a ceasefire, he can push more and more and more and more westward because he thinks Ukraine is. So Donald Trump is going to be in a very awkward position of having to bolster Ukraine to stop that push while they negotiate, because the border, the demarcation point, is fluid. So that's going to be a tough thing. But it's a very good article. In the same issue, there's one by Ralph Peters. And we try in Strategica in the military history. I try to get people across the political circumstances spectrum. Ralph's a great guy. He was a commentator, as you remember, on Fox. He was a lieutenant colonel.

[Jack Fowler]

What I mean, he's fury guy. Fiery guy.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He's a fiery guy, but he's also very. Well, he's very learned. He was on Fox for years. I always enjoyed his commentary. He doesn't like Donald Trump and he's critical of him. But basically his argument in that essay is Donald Trump. I mean, whether you like Donald Trump or not, and I don't, I being Ralph Peters now, Russia can no longer take all of you. Ukraine will survive. Western money will be in there. Trump, whom I don't like Peter saying, will invest money and that will be a tripwire. And 40 years from now, Ukraine will remain independent. And Jacob Greibel says it's kind of like in World War I. It's in a bad place between Europe and Russia, but it has to be internally vigilant and armed. And then there's a third essay by my new colleague, Barry Strauss, who was tenured professor at Cornell. Classical history. And he's written pretty much independently. He resonates these two different views as well, that you've got to arm Ukraine to protect what's left of Ukraine, which is most of the country. They're not going to get back what was stolen during the Obama administration, but they can deter him with their own weaponry and you need to have, you know, domestic arms. And it's a, it's a, it's. We've got, we're Starting to get to a consensus, I think, on everybody's side and all of the bluster and the braggadocio from Europe. We're going to do this and we're going to. You're not going to do anything. Anything. Promises, promises. You're not going to go into your EU parliament or your Italian parliament or your Dutch parliament and say, hey, everybody, we've got to spend 4% GDP and arm us to the teeth. And that means no more free tuition at the universities. That mean. No, they won't do that. Right. They'll talk about it and then they'll blast us for not. Not as Americans that Trump. They're just illiterate savages. They won't go over there and do what they're supposed to do and protect us from the Russians so we can be Greek philosophers and tell those Roman legionnaires how to fight. Everybody's sick. That's why they're so mad at JD Rance that every time, whether it's overt or covert, it's like a hammer and a nail, you know, don't bail out.

[Jack Fowler]

They're facing a 12 year Trump Vance potential Trump Vance reign. You think they would try to accommodate to these potential realities sooner?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't know. I don't underestimate the left. I never do the left. Every time a person has said that it's Watergate or it's Iran Contra or Iraq, George W. Bush is a Nazi or George W. Bush caused the 2008 meltdown. It had nothing to do with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and our guaranteed subprime loan. No, no, no. There'll be something like that. I wish I wasn't so pessimistic. But yeah, the left is very creative. It just can't govern. I just ate an apple. I thought I was playing Pierre Polio Polybab. What is.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, I forget when you, you know, you made a reference to.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Just off the topic. Did you see that, Trump? Two things happened in the Canadian tiff with us. One is Mr. Carney and I had said Kerry and I'm so glad somebody corrected me. But Mr. Carney, the liberal technocrat who spent a lot of time in England rather than. He was just caught in Claudine Gay fashion that he allegedly, I want to make sure I say allegedly plagiarized his thesis. But then Pulev. Ev Pullev. Puliev. Puliev. He had criticized Trump and Trump took that personally. And so then Trump, I don't know the game that Trump's playing. It's either three dimensional or just tit for tat. So he said that he gets along with Carney really well and he had a great conversation with Carney, had just said that the association is over with.

[Jack Fowler]

Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And he's up for election. You have to say that you don't like Americans right now in Canada to get elected. So I don't know if Trump is trying to help the Conservative Mr. Pierre by saying that he and Carney get along and that's the kiss of death to the liberals or that he really likes a liberal guy because Pierre made fun of him, but he was nice to him. Yeah, yeah. It's hard to know we've talked about.

[Jack Fowler]

This before, but the injection of a US President so overtly into a, I mean, I don't know from the other, we're America or there's only one America. So we have a different role with other nations. But when Obama talked about Brexit and you guys better vote for Brexit, you knew at that very moment that Brexit was going to win because he injected himself.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Same thing with Netanyahu. He sent his campaign team over there to overthrow the, to get Netanyahu. Same thing with Biden. They tried to overthrow the, the Netanyahu government. If it had been any right wing person doing that to a left wing government, they would have said that was a attempted coup.

[Jack Fowler]

I just worry if there's a similar thing with Trump and Canada on that.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't think we should get involved with Canada. I think there's zero support that Americans want anything to do with Canadian sovereignty. None of, I've never met an American yet who says, oh, I would like to absorb Canada. I like Canada. I love Canadians. They're nice people, but they have a different tradition than we do. On the scale of left to right, their Conservative Party is sort of like Obama and the left is off the charts. So we don't want to absorb that country, we want to be friends with it. All we ask is two things. Just please meet your 2% investments in military expenditures so that you can help us protect the North American and European continents. And number two, there's no reason to run up a $63 billion surplus against your own friends. Just scale it down to 10 or 20 billion. I think that's what Trump is saying to them when he said he had a great call. I think this whole thing impose a 25% tariff. What he's saying to everybody is until we get our own house in order, you can run up surpluses, but you can't do what you're doing now. So Mexico, you got to get down from 175, 177 down to 30 or 40 pretty quick as Canada. You. You get down to 20 billion. And I think if they say no, they're going to be in trouble. And anyway, I'd love to.

[Jack Fowler]

I'll do this after the show's over. I got to see what Conrad Black is saying about all this. Our favorite Canadian.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I love Conrad Conrad is. He's been working on his multi volume history of Western civilization. It's very good. I just read the chapters in the 13th to 15th century. Oh wow. And blurbed them. The ancient was very good.

[Jack Fowler]

He's a beautiful writer.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He's a beautiful prose writer.

[Jack Fowler]

One, one paragraph he could be talking about Pope Clement and then the French Revolution and disco.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't know.

[Jack Fowler]

He just. He has this ability to weave all these different.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was, you know, his whole life was. Was hijacked by Patrick Fitzgerald.

[Jack Fowler]

My high school class.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. First prosecutor who went to extraordinary links to bankrupt him and to Destro and the way that they all these special prosecutors did. Same thing with screen.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. Also Pat Fitzgerald there. Well, they have to come out with a scalp. That's the goal.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Jackson Victor we've got. Trump was the only one to stop it. Think about it. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Remember go way back. Lawrence Walsh, right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Four days. Was it five days before the election. He kept.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. He tried to war. He tried to ruin Weinberger and Donald Trump. His opponents can say all they want, but I'm writing this book called How Trump Returned. The return of Trump. And I've been going back over what people were saying Jack. Between January 6th of 2021 and the midterms of 2022. And I looked at the polls. It is the most amazing comeback in political history. I cannot. Every single pundit said the following. He has no chance of ever being nominated. I'm talking about Republican conservatives too. He will be in jail. He will be bankrupt. His family will probably be in jail. He's ruined. And every time, without exception that there was an indictment announced, he. The following happened. He went polls two or three points and then he went up three or four points and they had no idea of what they were dealing with. And he never gave up. And they kept saying if he's. He's brought it on himself and then they would issue a gag order and then they would do this and they could not. He was Nietzsche and they could not destroy him. But they tried. They did everything in the world that Mar Lago rate. I've been reading about it in detail. Gosh, 14,000 documents, 102.007 were classified. They came with little labels, prepared to scatter the thing all over the floor and then label it classified. It was disgusting. Anyway, that's off topic, but.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, I want to bring up a topic then we're going to go to a break. Then we have two more topics. When is it? What's the ballpark date of publication of that book you're working on?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The deadline is September 1st. It has eight chapters. Chapter one is the nadir, the descent. Part one is the descent. And part two, there's four chapters called the descent and four chapters called the Ascendants in the Dissent. It is the election of 2020, January 6, and the opposition to Trump from within his party and then the media, and he was just Persona non grata then. Chapter two is a hiatus. And I say this is what people did. This is why they feared Trump. This was his agenda. This is who he was. And then chapter three is these are who his enemies are. This is the antithesis to Trump. What's the left wing project? And you know, the Biden, the extremism. And then chapter four is the Ascent, how the lawfare and I go through every single case of the Mar? A Lago raid. And it's that chapter is called Nietzsche and Trump. And I finished that one as well. And the rough draft and that is about how they try to do everything. I go through the E. Jean Carroll, I go through the Alvin Bragg, the Letitia James, the Fanny Willis, the Jack Smith. They try to get him off the ballot, the Marlowe and how he endured and triumphed. I just finished chapter five. These are rough drafts with footnotes. I'm going to go back and read about a hundred. There are 200 books I have on a list to, you know, to get more information in detail. But the chapter five is the campaigns of 2024. You remember that Jack Wright from a moment after the spectacular win by Ron DeSantis, which was really incredible, 1 million vote margin and the polls had him up 8 to 10 points over Donald Trump. And they and then I go through the primaries and that primary was over by the New Hampshire. I mean, DeSantis pulled out after Iowa and Nikki Haley had lost New Hampshire and then she lost Carolinas and she was out by March. There was no he just clobbered everybody. And nobody thought that was going to be possible. There were so many people who said if he is indicted, one in Nikki Haley said if he gets convicted of one Indictment he's all through so that you know, that didn't happen. 30 and 31 indictments by a crazy Alan Bragg. So then anyway, I do that Nietzsche and then this one was on the campaign and how he beat Biden, Dash Harris, why he beat the assassination attempts, the garbage comment, McDonald. So then I only have two chapters left. One is the Trump administration at home, Trump and the Trump administration abroad. And then a short epilogue, maga after Trump. If there's going to be, you know, what happens to Trump's agenda when he's termed out. So I think I've got almost 75,000 I've been writing every day. When the flu I've been I try to write 3,000 to 4,000 thousand words a day and do 10 footnotes.

[Jack Fowler]

You're just nuts.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But anyway, it'll be anyone with your.

[Jack Fowler]

Capacity to produce so much content.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Anyway, I plan to turn it in a month earlier, but I have a research assistant, she's right now going over all my footnotes to make sure they're accurate and she's putting my chapters together. And then I'm going to try to write these next two chapters in two months. It's hard to do the last quarter of the book because how do you write about where's the arbitrary cutoff point? Because I mean, the signal thing, all this stuff happens. So it's such a turbulent time, it's hard to know what's going on. I did say, anyway, I'm really happy. I've learned a lot about it. And it just seems, gosh, when I looked at that January, I have a whole chapter on that thing. And when you look at what people were writing, what Liz Cheney was saying, and he was never going to do this. They were going to do this to him. They were going to bar him. He was a private citizen. They were going to try him, they were going to sue him, they were going to do all of this. They didn't understand a simple point. The ends never justify the means. So if you postulate that he's evil and you're perfect and you have every right to do things that are illegal and that's what they did do him. All of those loss lawfare things, they would, they all had things in common, but three of them were, they never would have charged anybody else but Trump. Number two, they would have never charged Trump if he just said, I'm not going to run again. And number three, they never had, in a disinterested fashion, one chance of convincing the public that he was guilty of any of Those charges, right?

[Jack Fowler]

Well, 12 jurors maybe, but they're not the people though.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They cherry pick judges and they cherry pick juries and every single one of those people blew up. Fanny Willis blew up with Nathan Wade and Jack Smith blew up with his own ethical problems. And Engoron had ethical and Mershon had ethical problems and Kaplan had ethical problem. The weirdest thing is on November 18th of 2022, three things happened within a 24 hour period. Number one, and remember three days earlier, on November 15th of 2022, Donald Trump declared his candidacy. One week before he declared his candidacy, Joe Biden complained that Merrick Garland had not done enough to indict Donald Trump. He said that. Then he declared his candidacy three days later. On one day, Jack, the following three things happen. The third ranking prosecutor in Merrick Garland's DOJ had come from the Letitia James New York state attorneys court. He after he got that huge fine, 400 million plus in the preliminary fine, he went to work for Merrick Garland. On November 18th he resigned and he popped up just a few days later as the federal prosecutor in charge of the state, I should say the municipal New York City Alvin Bragg suit. In other words, he came in there because he knew it was a federal offense that they had changed into a state offense.

[Jack Fowler]

And he ran job demotion.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Michael Colangelo. Michael Colangelo. And he was running the Alvin Bragg that same day that he quit to go join Alvin Bragg. And he kind of, he quit and then he, you know, three or four days later he went to work. The same day Nathan Wade was in the White House counsel's office charging the Biden administration as he was briefing them about the course of the Fanny will. The same day job, Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith special counsel to go out for Trump. All three, there was no collusion. Yeah, no collusion, yeah. Gosh, you know who found that out? Jim Jordan's committee. Jim Jordan. I read the transcript of Jim Jordan's test. It was actually very well done that committee. If he hadn't have done, if he hadn't been in charge of that oversight and government weaponization of the government committee. It was really good what he did.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, what you were saying before about what happened after January 6th reminded me a little of Thomas Becket then who will not rid me of this preacher. But if you're going to rid, that's.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

What you know, it's funny you said that. I said that in the book. I said exactly that. Biden was wandering around the halls of the White House. Who will not relieve me. And everybody knew it. He was really angry at Merrick Garland. Merrick Garland weaponized the doj. But when he left office, he gave an interview in December, remember, and he said he regretted appointing Merrick Garland. Think of this, everyone. He'd been too hard on Hunter. And remember, Merrick Garland had got his own prosecutors to overrule the IRS auditors. And if it had not been for that, Judge Hunter would have been out scot free. He was anyway, with Joe Biden's pardon, which he promised he'd never do. And then he said he was too hard on Hunter and he was too soft on Trump, even though he spent millions of dollars on Jack Smith. So it's amazing. Anyway, it'll be out, I think it'll be out in January or February, I hope, of 2026.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, it's relatively I got kind of I was going full blast and I got this creepy Influenza A. But I'm sorry, Victor, you're indestructible as I'll be back.

[Jack Fowler]

All right, you know what? We're going to end this today's episode with your thoughts on a couple of really big, I think, Donald Trump executive orders, which on the Smithsonian, on the culture, on election integrity. And we'll do all that, Victor, when we come back from these final important messages. We are back with the Victor Davis Hanson Show. This is this episode is out on Thursday, April 3, Donald Trump last week. So probably by now, when you're listening to this, maybe 10 days ago, issued as he has been doing from the beginning of just a string of like, pow kazam executive orders that, gosh, there's, there's so the writing in them, by the way, Victor, aside from the very well written. Oh my gosh, yeah, like taking them down. Actually, here's another third one that I didn't mention was making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful. But he has one Trump executive order restoring truth and sanity to American history. Which part of that. Let me encourage our listeners to visit whitehouse.gov and click on the executive actions and read these things for yourself. But for example, this one goes after the Smithsonian and how it has injected everything it does with race and dei. It also on the side mentions Restore Independence hall in time for the demisesquicentennial or whatever the technical term is. July 4, 2026, we have truly important executive order preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections. And these things all came out like one day after another after another. And he's like, wow, he said he was going to do this and he is doing it. Any thoughts on any of these actions? They're all.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They're not. I mean, they're counter revolutionary in the sense their reaction to the madness of the last 20 years, but they're pretty much consistent with the history and the traditions of the country. He's just saying this generation hijacked our country and they took it and they didn't have support for what they're doing and they renamed everything, they tore down statues, they defaced our monuments, they corrupted our institution. We're going to go back to what they were. He's not trying to say I'm making them right wing conservative. He's just saying that we're going to look at classical beauty and architecture and we're going to promote unique museums that honor the people who died in Okinawa or Iwo Jima or D Day. And we're not going to keep fixating on. World War II was more than the Japanese internment and the adopting of the atomic bombs and segregated soldiers. But what he's saying is that the left just goes into this totality of the American experience, culture, architecture, history, and they fixate on its pathologies and they apply their own postmodern standards and they retroactively apply them back in history. And then they condemn people as wanting or inferior to us. But they never ask the central question. There's two questions they never ask. Number one, Mr. Antifa, Mr. Professor, Mr. Student, Mr. Thief at Whole Foods. If somebody gave you an M1 and they put you on Iwo Jima, do you think you do a better job than the people that died there? I don't think so. Mr. Spaghetti Arms. Antifa. Would you think you could get on a B17 and fly 40 missions without fighter escorts in daylight, bombing over occupied France? I don't think so. And if you're going to say, well, I wouldn't want to do that, well, that was important so that you can do what you're doing today. That's another thing they never ask. And then the second question they never ask is, you were judging your predecessors. Do you think that your successors would judge you and apply their new standards? If they do so, do you think there'll be a time ever when people will look back at 2025 and say, oh my God, those people had a million people defecating, injecting, fornicating, urinating on the streets of the major cities like they were medieval? I don't know Paris or London. Even Dickens doesn't describe things like that. Or even Dumas doesn't. Or Victor Hugo doesn't, my God, what did they do? Or they're going to say, wait a minute, these people talked about truth and beauty and they were selling body parts of aborted fetuses and using them in animal experiments. And oh my God, they had a million abortions per year and about 15,000 were late term where the fetus was killed in the birth canal. These, these people did that. Who were they? What kind of people were they? My wait, they had 75,000 people od because the Chinese sent fentanyl to the cartels and this, this administration opened the border, let 12 million people come in and enough fentanyl to kill more people than died in Korea and Vietnam combined in a year. They, that's what they never think people are going to ask that. Never think they're going to ask. They will ask that.

[Jack Fowler]

And so this disdain for people who look at the Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty and get a lump in their throat instead of looking at some blank canvas, you know, the schmear, I obviously look down on us. But there is resentment there too, Victor, that they, some, some significant percentage of them have to look at the plumber and the steel worker and be jealous.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That they, I, I found something out in that and you know, I was given, I think I mentioned that so many times I was given a great gift that I commuted from this farm to go as an undergraduate and I came home every three weeks. Clunker car and then I did the same thing at Stanford. I came home every three weeks and worked on the farm. Then I was here all summer and then I was professor and at a behavioral science at Stanford for two years. And then I was at Hoover for the last, gosh, 22 years. So I go back and forth and you really get a snapshot of a post modern society on the California, Northern California liberal enclave and a traditional society in agrarian central California. And I've come to the conclusion that you know what they hate the most, the left? They hate people who believe, they think that if you get up every morning and you're working very hard and you're married and you have family and you're trying to, to follow the law, that you're a fool and you don't know of any alternative. They never think that the farmer or the plumber or the electrician is aware of all the alternatives to his existence, but he has systematically said I reject them because they lead to, and I would rather lead an unromantic unknown life as part of my duty for the country and the Society not break the law per day, children, buy a home, improve the community, work hard, leave an inheritance. And I don't have anything to apologize. That's what made this country. And they think these people are just clueless. They don't know anything. Jack about the Planet is doomed. And you can't have children, as AOC taught us, because you're bringing them into a hot world. They don't know anything about the history of racism. Yeah, they know all of that. And their attitude is we're better than the alternative. You don't have to be perfect to be good and press on. And that's what they hate. They hate people who just press on and don't just stop and get paralyzed and ossified and trash their society, trash their government. Side with the anarchists, defend trend, say that Mahu Khalil is a hero. All of that. That's what they don't like.

[Jack Fowler]

I just learned something here. I did not know you were. You taught behavioral science.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

In 1991. I was a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University. And I was supposed to be there for two years, but let's just say. And I was being considered for a senior appointment, but let's just say politely that I was considered too conservative or too agrarian. I just. I'd written two books. I was only 37. And let me just contextualize. I was offered that appointment in 1989 by the chairman. And he actually wrote a letter offering me tenure after, so. But I couldn't go because my mother had a meningioma brain tumor. And so I stayed for two years. And then I got a terrible case of mononucleosis. And I kept working. I got kind of really ill with complications. Anyway, that lasted for years. Yeah, it did. Four, five years. They said you wouldn't get over it. I got over it. And anyway, by the time I went up there, that department had radically changed. It was the beginning of a gender gay emphasis. I wasn't opposed to it, but I didn't think that was traditional. So let me just say that I wasn't quiet about it. So when they saw me come that year was explosive. I was also unfortunately named the outstanding teacher of Greek and Latin that year when that was not good at a research institution, believe it or not, if you were. Because I had built this Classics, because that was meant that you were a popularizer. And the book that I had written, the Western Way of War, had sold a lot of copies. And that was. So I was set. I was. It was Alfred Knapp book. So they were said he's a popularizer and he's just a showboating class and got this award and he's an agrarian military historian. He's not sensitive to gender issues. So what happened is they boycotted my class. I've never talked about it, but they. I had 16 people signed up, undergraduate and graduate. They boycotted. I had three. And then they said, you can't get students. Every time I taught a course in Aristophanes, the students went back and told the left wing faculty that I was too pedestrian. I wasn't acquainted with Lacan and Derrida. So anyway, after a year they decided to vote and they brought in all the part time and visiting so they could vote. And it was still deadlocked. And so I met the dean. I won't mention who he was because I know him today, but he had dinner with me and he said that I was an affirmative action candidate because I came from Cal State Fresno and they never hired state inferior professors. And I asked him if he'd read my file and he said no, I don't have to. I just saw the word Fresno State. So I knew you weren't qualified. So I said something I shouldn't have done. I said, you can go F yourself and take your effing department and I'm done. And then they had a problem because I had a two year contract. So then they, and I had a lease. So I called up Cal State Fresno, said, you know, I'm sick of these people commuting, I don't feel all that great, I want to come back. And they said, well, your, your replacement doesn't have my two year replacement at Cal State. So I called her up and I said, are you, you need it? She goes, no, I'm broke, I need your. I need to replace you next year. Year. So then I went back to Stanford and I said, look, I had a two year. So that year, I don't know how it happened. I know the person. Later I met him, but they only had one or two National Endowment. I won a National Endowment to write a book, the Other Greeks, about the agrarian creation of the city state. And then the powers that be at Stanford to get rid of me because I had this letter. It was very funny. One of the people who was engineering this, I said, you don't realize this is the letter you wrote, offered me this position with tenure. And they said, well, what would it take for you to go away and never come back? I said, I could go, I have a National Endowment. But it's only for, I think it was $15,000 or something. So I have three kids. And they said, well, you can go to the center for Behavioral Studies. And it was wonderful because everything works out well. If you'll just. Everything will come to a person. Just wait. You know who the visiting classicist was there? Donald Kagan. And you know whose office was right next to mine? Donald Kagan. So I got there and every day at lunch he knocked on the door and said, you're working too hard. You've been here since 6:00 in the morning. It's time for you and I to have lunch. And then he'd knock on the door at 4 o'clock and he said, you're quitting right now and you and I are going to go have tea. And I did that every day. And I got to know.

[Jack Fowler]

Did you know him at Yale when you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I didn't know him very well at all. I had reviewed his. I must confess I have never met a classicist that I admired more than him. There's something about him. He grew up in Brooklyn and he was hard nosed but he was practical and he was underestimated because he had a knack for understanding Greek politics and history. Four volume history. I really liked him. I wasn't one of his students. I knew all of the students very well. Williamson, Murray, Paul Ray, Barry, Strauss. They were all excellent students. He was very famous for training excellent graduate students and doing everything in his possibility to ensure they got a job. Unfortunately, my thesis advisor basically wrote me a note and it said, you will turn in your thesis on a Monday of every month. Each chapter I will write a one or two sentence and then you will leave. And I did. He despised me at the end. Later he kind of apologized and became cordial. But as I said, somebody said called me when I applied for like 20 jobs in 1980, I was farming. I was only 26, I had a PhD. But the weird thing was this is about academia and a guy says, hello, I'm from the university, I won't mention the university and you are not going to get a job. And I really liked you and I thought you were really. Your thesis was great, but you're not going to get a job because you don't know what's in your file and you better request it. So I had, you know, I had a sent to a business on Hanson formed and I read it and oh my God, this person looked at graduate school.

[Jack Fowler]

Thesis advisor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes. It was just the most underwhelming thing you could imagine. And the chairman was the same thing. He looked at all the. I got done at that time the quickest. I did the whole program in two and a half years. I went to American school for a year. I wrote my thesis in a year. But it was like, he is not an intellectual. He does not speak, doesn't understand the intellectual world that's offered to him. Never. He had all A's on his exam except one. Or he finished, quit. It was none of that. It was. He would be this and he would be. It was like two lines. So I was. But you know what happens when you're in that system and you speak up. You get pounded down. But there's always somebody else. There was like a guy like Donald Kagan or I went to American school. There was a guy like Colin Edmonds. They always look for people, need help. And that's the way Donald Kagan was.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, that's the way you've been through your career.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, he taught me. All those people did. My parents did that too. They were always trying to help people. But he was a wonderful person. I wasn't as close. I liked his two sons, Bob and Fred. They kind of drifted politically, but I like them both. But I really like Dawn Keg and his wife Myrna. And he was a wonderful. I was very lucky to spend that year because I was a lost soul. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had a $15,000 grant and no job.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, here you are. So.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And here we must end because we got to go. I went too long.

[Jack Fowler]

No, no, no. Victor, you were terrific. More than terrific. People rate the show on Apple. Thank you for doing that. There are so many comments now because this show is on so many platforms. I saw, you know, a standard YouTube episode may have like 400 comments of rumble as many. It's just staggering. So thanks for folks that take the time. I know I do.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Victor.

[Jack Fowler]

I'm sure Sammy. Great Sammy Wink. Try to listen or read what you're saying and pick out everyone once in a while. Pick out some. Here's one I found from on Rumble comment about the show from Olene O L E N E Oline, who wrote I totally enjoy these podcasts with Victor Davis Hansen. I moved to Kentucky from rural Fresno to be with my daughter because I needed to help her in my waning years. So it is so hard to give up the beautiful weather in California, even though Kentucky is so beautiful. But agree totally with the awful leadership there. Your review of our country and issues of today is fantastic. And I listen every chance I get. Thank you all capitalists. Thank you to BD Hansen for being one of the few people I listen to in California. Sure hope California can return to the super state I grew up in. It was safe. I went to a great school district and loved my young years and raising my children there. Thanks again Mr. Davis Hansen.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Another lost Californian we needed. But I don't blame her one bit. Not one bit.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, I write Civil Thoughts, the free weekly email newsletter for the center for Civil Society that attempts to strengthen civil society. If you'd like to get it, and I know you will like to get it, I know you will like it when you get it, go to civilthoughts.com sign up every Friday. We'll send you an email with 14 recommended readings. It's totally free. We're not selling your names. No monkey business. So thank you for that. Go to Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus. Subscribe there. Victor, you've been just terrific today. Thanks so much. Thanks folks for listening.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you for listening everybody. And viewing. Viewing too.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. And we will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye bye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Bye bye everybody. Thank you.

[Jack Fowler]

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