Episode Overview

Podcast: Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Episode: How California Progressives Created a Medieval Society
Date: November 14, 2025
Host: Victor Davis Hanson, with co-host (“B”)
Network: The Daily Signal

Victor Davis Hanson, author, historian, and Fellow at the Hoover Institution, offers sharp commentary on political and cultural news with focus on California, national politics, and broader societal trends. In this episode, Hanson analyzes recent political events—the government shutdown, the aftermath of the Pacific Palisades fire, the rise of anti-ICE activism and lawlessness in Chicago and other cities—and explores how California’s progressive policies have, in his view, created a “medieval society” divided by wealth, lawlessness, and social dysfunction. He dives into themes of political hypocrisy, the consequences of elite progressive leadership, demographic shifts, and the roots of social dissatisfaction fueling both left and right populism.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Government Shutdown and Political Strategy (03:00–09:00)

• Hanson’s Analysis:

  • The recent government shutdown was, in his view, an explicit political strategy by Democrats to derail the “Trump economy” before upcoming elections.
  • Shutdowns generate public pressure: as government services lapse and people miss checks, political blame follows.
  • Hanson points out that internal polling eventually made the Democrats shift stance as the issue started turning against them.
  • He criticizes the Affordable Care Act's “sunset” provisions as a political ploy.

• Notable Quote:

  "They were going to shut down the government anyway, by hook or crook, because they have a strategy in the next 12 months to derail the Trump economy." —Hanson [04:24]

• On Schumer and the Party’s Evolution:

  • Schumer caught between older, moderate Democrats (Durbin, Feinstein, etc.) and a new radical cohort (“the young Turks”)—he can’t hold the coalition together.
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is named as a likely successor in terms of left-wing influence.

• Quote:

  "Schumer, they're, he had to do it and he's all through. They're not going to listen to him anymore." —Hanson [07:53]

2. Pacific Palisades Fire: Bureaucracy, Priorities, and Progressive Contradictions (09:55–16:09)

• Slow Rebuilding and Political Fault:

  • Debris removal is done, but permits for rebuilding are stalled. Hanson blames Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
  • Critique of LA leaders as prioritizing “fighting ICE” and “protecting illegal aliens” over residents who lost homes.

• Elite Progressive Hypocrisy:

  • Affluent, coastal Californians repeatedly vote for left-wing policies that later harm their own interests (i.e., zoning changes, costly regulations).
  • He details how California’s oligarchy—Newsom, Jerry Brown, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Harris—enriched themselves while their policies produced high taxes, poor infrastructure, rampant homelessness, and social decay.

• Notable Quote:

  "It's a medieval society of a few very wealthy on the cone of the pyramid and everybody else below." —Hanson [15:55]

• Getty Villa:

  • The villa survived the fire due to extensive private fire precautions; symbolic of the protections available to the ultra-wealthy.

  "I think they have their own little mini fire department... their own water system... reinforced walls." —Hanson [16:25]

3. Lawlessness and Federal Authority: The Chicago ICE Crisis (19:00–24:20)

• Gangs & Political Resistance:

  • The Latin Kings gang reportedly threatens ICE agents (“shoot on site”).
  • Chicago officials, including Mayor Johnson and Governor Pritzker, openly defy federal immigration law, undermine ICE, and promote resistance.
  • Hanson interprets this as a deliberate undermining of law and order by leftist urban governments.

• Class Conflict:

  • Wealthy white leftists protest ICE, while actual ICE agents are mostly working-class minorities.

  “The irony is that most of the people who are protesting are affluent white people, and most of the people you look at ICE are Hispanic, black, or poor white.” —Hanson [22:23]

• Potential for Violence:

  • Hanson worries that sustained political resistance could lead to open conflict between federal forces and local authorities.

  “We're going to get very close to giving an order by a mayor, governor, or somebody... and then you're going to have an armed federal officer. And if the Supreme Court does not step in... we're going to have a civil war.” —Hanson [23:40]

4. Historical Parallels, Technology, and Political Polarization (25:23–32:51)

• Vigor of Political Disagreement—Then and Now:

  • Past US political eras (Revolution, Civil War, Depression) had fierce divisions, but technology wasn’t amplifying conflict instantly.
  • Today, social media and AI accelerate and magnify venom, making the stakes—and the risk of violence—higher.

• Leftist Control of Cities:

  • Most lawless protests, anti-ICE actions, and censorship of conservative speech are in left-governed cities, not rural or red areas.
  • Hanson criticizes the left’s “states rights” hypocrisy versus federal authority depending on which administration is in office.

5. Migration, Demographics, and the Blue State Exodus (32:51–36:00)

• Divergence of State Cultures:

  • Increasing divide between states like Florida/Texas and California/Massachusetts/Illinois—a different “country” in political and cultural attitudes.
  • Migration pattern: blue state residents fleeing high taxes, regulation, crime, and homelessness, but sometimes importing their politics elsewhere.

• Economic Disparities:

  • Stories of U-Haul prices illustrating demand for people moving out of California.
  • Gavin Newsom’s leadership is criticized as emblematic of failed blue state policies that can’t be defended on practical outcomes.

• Quote:

  "He would call you names, but he couldn't tell you—and yet no single person has lorded over that change. He was involved at every level." —Hanson [35:28]

6. Populist Dissatisfaction and the Alt-Right (38:25–53:34)

• Rise of Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson's Audience:

  • Hanson explains how young, disaffected white men—often unmarried, in debt, unable to own homes—have become susceptible to alt-right rhetoric.
  • Critiques both mainstream Republicans for failing to offer solutions, and new right-wing voices for giving platforms to demagogues.

  "Their way of thinking is, I'm not even going to try to get into a good college. Stanford lets in 9% white males. ...All they talk about is diversity is our strength." [41:27]

• Root Causes:

  • Economic stagnation, cultural alienation, delayed adulthood, lack of ownership fuel anger.
  • Universities and media blamed for stoking division, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israel sentiment.

• Constructive Solutions:

  • Hanson advises reformers must provide positive policies (housing, jobs, restored meritocracy) and explicitly reject bigotry on the right.

• Quote:

  "If you're not going to debate them, all you do is expand their audience. That's like taking a firecracker and lighting it and then say, I'm going to see if it blows up or not without cutting the fuse." —Hanson [47:10]

7. California’s “Medieval” Structure: Wealth, Welfare, and Dysfunction (Throughout, 10:30–16:09, 66:46–72:31)

• The New Feudalism:

  • Hanson depicts California as a state of a rich oligarchy atop a mass of poor, welfare-dependent residents—with a shrinking productive middle class.
  • Progressives insulate themselves from the policies they enact (crime, taxes, homelessness).

• Healthcare and Immigration:

  • Emergency rooms filled with uninsured and/or undocumented immigrants; taxpayers bear the costs.
  • Letter from a listener/trip8263 confirms these experiences in CA hospitals.

  "I almost wanted to jump in the screen and shout at Elizabeth Warren... I don't mind as long as you don't lie. Why don't just people say, we need to address this." —Hanson [75:20]

• Obesity and Welfare:

  • Obesity among working-class immigrants and SNAP recipients as evidence that the “calories crisis” narrative is untrue, while affluent CA suburbs prioritize health.

8. New York and Mandami’s Socialist Agenda (59:54–66:14)

• Mandami's Inner Circle:

  • As New York’s newly elected leader, Mandami staffs up with avowed socialists—a chief of staff with a background in Middle Eastern Studies (characterized by Hanson as “anti-Israel, anti-Jewish studies” in academia).
  • Predicts upper-middle-class flight or black market expansion as taxes soar.

• Quote:

  "His only question is... how quick can I socialize New York and have a communist paradigm without having it go broke?" —Hanson [59:54]

9. Miscellaneous: The Black Market, Tipping, and Health Policy (65:01–66:46, 72:31–75:02)

• Under-the-Table Economy:
  • High taxes drive vast black markets; parallels between CA, NY, and informal swap meets, underreported tips.
  • Hanson and “B” discuss the changes in tipping regulations under Reagan and cynicism about compliance.

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• On elite hypocrisy in California:

  "The people who destroyed the state and made people in the San Joaquin Valley or Inland Empire foothills have to pay these exorbitant prices never had to suffer the consequences of their own ideology. They made out like bandits and they live in splendor." —Hanson [13:00]

• About lawlessness and ICE:

  "It’s not that they don’t care about enforcing the law. They’re deliberately trying to undermine it and endanger ICE." —Hanson [19:51]

• California’s societal structure:

  "It's a medieval society of a few very wealthy on the cone of the pyramid and everybody else below." —Hanson [15:55]

• Technology fueling polarization:

  "Now you can inject your venom instantaneously. You can find everything you want on an opponent in a nanosecond." —Hanson [25:51]

• On the right’s response to alt-right frustration:

  "If you're not going to debate them, all you do is expand their audience... That’s what you do when you put those people on." —Hanson [47:10]

• Blueprint for reform:

  "We’re going to redo the military so it treats people without racial concern. We're going to address the universities... We're going to offer good jobs, we're going to protect the American worker, we're going to make you be able to buy a home. That's what you got to do." —Hanson [52:49]

• On US and Mexican health policy:

  "Mexico is exporting a million people... their attitude is, we're not going to spend money on the poor people... you’ll either join the cartels or you go to the United States." —Hanson [77:07]

Additional Memorable Moments

• Discussion of personal stories:
  • A listener comments about working in CA hospitals and the realities of uninsured immigrants; Hanson concurs, giving more personal anecdotes from ER visits.
• Fan feedback:
  • Listeners enjoy Hanson’s “funny voices and imitations,” specifically his parody of academic jargon [82:01].
• Reflections on Veterans Day:
  • Moving recollection of his father's WWII service and reflections on generational sacrifice.

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:00 – Shutdown politics and Democratic strategy
• 09:55 – Pacific Palisades fire, rebuilding and elites' hypocrisies
• 15:55 – California as a “medieval society”
• 19:00 – Chicago, ICE, and lawlessness
• 23:40 – Fears of inter-governmental conflict/civil war
• 25:51 – Political polarization in the digital age
• 32:51 – Blue state exodus, demographics, U-Haul anecdote
• 38:25 – Alt-right, populism, and roots of anti-Semitism
• 47:10 – Right-wing media responsibility and the dangers of demagoguery
• 59:54 – NYC’s Mandami and staff appointments analysis
• 65:01 – Black market growth and tipping
• 72:31 – Obesity and changing welfare dynamics
• 75:02 – Healthcare realities for immigrants in California

Recap

Victor Davis Hanson delivers a blistering, historically rooted account of how progressive policies—especially in California—have reshaped American society, creating new inequalities while failing to deliver promised improvements. He ties national political turmoil, the crisis of law and order, and the restless energy of a disenfranchised generation to technocratic and ideological overreach, and holds out hope for renewal through clarity, honesty, and a return to practical policies. The episode is replete with vivid anecdotes, historical parallels, and sharp-tongued critique.