WEBVTT - Victor Davis Hanson talks to Armstrong & Getty 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:03.920 When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.560 know we're ready for you. Here are just a few 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:08.399 of the people at Metro to tell you how we're 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.320 doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.080 novel before greatly. You've found hands out of towns and stations. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.079 No mask, no Metro need one. We have a few 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.880 extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep the 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.960 DC area moving. Find out more at welmata dot com 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:33.560 slash doing our part because four hours simply us enough. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.760 This is Armstrong and Getty extra large. It's always a 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.680 pleasure to welcome Victor Davis Hanson to the Armstrong and 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.880 Getty Show. Mr Hanson is a Senior Fellow in Residence 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.640 in Classics and Military History the Hoover Institution at Stanford, 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:52.480 among many other credentials. He has a new book out 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.560 called The Case for Trump, and he joins us now, 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.400 Mr Hanson, how are you, sir? Very good? Thank you 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:00.680 for or do you insist on being called doctor? I 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:07.280 don't recall no. Victor is actually also part of five 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:12.880 generations of farmers in Central Valley of California. Ins um 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.320 so listen question number one Immigration obviously a hot, hot 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.080 topic right now you have to vote in the Senate. Uh. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:20.800 If you followed it, you followed it. If you don't, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:22.959 I don't feel like explaining it to the good folks. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:28.319 But given how demogogued this issue is all the time, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.280 does it make a guy like you crazy? Because there 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:37.800 are really interesting and worthy of discussion angles to this 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.840 and they never seem to get discussed. Yeah. But um, 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.720 I'm looking out my window right now here on my 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.600 farm int and my complaint is that when I go 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.120 to work at Stanford and when I'm here in the 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.960 Central Valley, it kind of reflects the problem with the 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.720 whole issue, and that is people who set the policy 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.680 and virtue signal are out their outrage that separation at 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.360 the border or border enforcement. They never really experienced the 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.959 consequences of their own ideology. And by that I mean 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.639 twenty miles to the south of me in December, Mr 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:20.440 Garcia killed three people, injured, seventh, even deported twice seven 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.440 seven families up towards the northern part of the valley, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.400 and Martin officers Sing was killed by Mr Ariag or 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.800 whatever his name was, twice supported We just had this 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.040 Brandy Larson in San Jose, same thing. And I guess 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.880 what I'm getting at is that this never registers to 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.359 Jerry Brown and kind of comfortable retirement and Grass Valley 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.359 or Nancy Pelosi up Panama. I'm not trying to demagogue it. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.840 I just think that the people who don't directly experience 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.919 illegal immigration, or they feel that they have experienced only 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.560 the benefits chief labor, they don't really understand what it's like. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.800 But we had to shootout the two gay most of 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.640 whom were here illegally from Mexican Central America about six 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.400 weeks ago on our road. And when you hear that, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.360 and you get a text in the Preside County jailer 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.440 that they've let these guys out just after three hours, 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.280 even though they arrested two of them and then let 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.160 them out, it's it's a real thing. And I think 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.960 that's what that's what the issue breaks down to. Those 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.600 people who have been hit, hit and the drivers run 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:29.000 are people whose children have been encountered a gang member 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.720 versus the rest of people have no direct experience with it, 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.000 and then they have the luxury to sort of pontificate 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.560 their outrage. And everybody who's worried about it. As a historian, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:43.680 what are your thoughts on countries that get where we've 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.320 gotten where we're just growing to accept a multi lingual society. 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.040 I mean, presidential candidates didn't used to put out ads 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.320 in two different languages, and now it's just, you know, 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.520 commonly accepted that sort of thing. Have we just decided, Okay, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:04:01.839 we're gonna be multicultural. Well, two different cultures, do different wages, etcetera. Well, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.120 we've had bouts with this, the German the asp for 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.640 in eighteen forties or the Irish need in the eighteen fifties, 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.480 but they've always been one time, and they haven't been 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.160 across a physical border of the United States that came 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.360 by sea. So my worrior, I'm glad you asked that question, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.200 because whether it's the Ottoman Empire, or whether it's Late 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.680 Roman Empire, or whether it's Austria Hungary, or whether it's Rwanda. Today, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.760 there's no experience at any success in a multi racial, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:40.120 multi lingual society unless there's a massive assimilation, integration, inter marriage, 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:44.360 single culture efforts. And when there's not, you can understand 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.760 what happens. Everything balkanizes people go identify with their tribal identities, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.280 and you get something where we're going to and then 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.599 it's manipulated by politicians who always pose as the protector 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.359 of this protective victimized group or marginalized group. But called 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.800 the United States is we have too many victims and 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.919 not enough victimizers. So we end up with Jesse Small, 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.200 Josie Smollett and the Covington kids and all that. We're 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.200 desperate to find victims status for each group, and now 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.240 they're in competition with each other, so it's hard to 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.880 adjudicate when we're gonna have all these candidates are going 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.760 to be for reparations. But as soon as we go 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:29.040 down that road Asian Americans versus Latino Americans, versus Native 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.960 American versus cads versus females, there's not enough white male 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:39.320 oppressors to make the necessary compensations for all of these groups. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.359 And then people can say, well, I just came you know, 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.800 I came from Finland ten years going to even great, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:45.800 what do I have to do with the history of America? 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.360 And then you have the other question, if it's so bad, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.320 why is half of Mexico and Central America. When I 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:56.919 get into this supposedly racist Anglo Saxon Protestant tradition um 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.800 chess pool. And we have more refugees. We have more refugees, 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.440 but we also have more legal and illegal evants coming 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.200 in every year than any other country. And almost all 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.039 the countries combined, take India out of the picture, and 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.120 it's all the countries combined in the world don't accept 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.200 as many immigrants as we do. And yet we're told 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.360 that that's not enough. It's never enough. Victor Davis Hansen 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.040 is on theline. What is the cure for the Balkanization 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.640 that you fear is coming. Is it a message of unity, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.440 a rededication of the idea of assimilation? What do you 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.040 suggest that I think you have to close the border, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.640 secure it. Let in about five hundred, four hundred thousand 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:40.279 legal immigrants. Make sure they're diverse from Africa, Asia and Europe. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.320 Make sure they have amacratic basis, they have some skills, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.760 make sure that they come only legally, and make sure 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.200 they come in measured numbers so they can be assimilated. 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.839 The host has to have confidence in its own traditions. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.040 We're in a schizophrenic situation right now in this society 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.679 where we tear down statues of Columbo US or Father Sarah, 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.080 and we do all these things, and we judge all 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:08.480 these supposed horrible people that came to North America on 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.000 the standards of the President. We never asked ourselves, well, 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.800 if they were so bad, how did this country become 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.040 so good that you and your parents at you're Acasio 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.680 Cortez or elan Olmark, Why did you want to come here? 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.480 Because they the traditions of the founders are uh, the 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.720 industrialists or the scientists, or what we did in World 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.240 War One on World War Two, all of that is 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.080 baked in or bound up or embedded with what the 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.440 United States is today. And yet you you say it's 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.640 a garbage country or it's almost worse than nothing, And 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.800 yet you want to be here, and you don't want 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.120 to be with your traditions that your championed in the 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:52.680 abstract tourist where that's Puerto Rico or Somalia or parts 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.520 of Asia. What if that, if that alternate tradition is 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.600 so much better than the western salivation, why aren't people 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.240 flocking to join it? And the answer is they know 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.840 it's not They want to be here, but they feel 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.360 that there's careers advantages in this time and space for 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.559 trashy the very hosts that accepted their parents. Victor Davis 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.680 Hansen has a book out called The Case for Trump. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.600 You know what you laid out there in terms of 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:21.240 an immigration policy polls really well, like really well, with 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.360 everybody that it's too bad we don't have the politics too, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.000 you know, reflect that you could get that past. The 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.880 idea of that number based on meritocracy spread to a 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.840 bunch of different places. I mean that that's all popular stuff. 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:38.720 I don't think you could get it though, because for 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.480 all the talk about Republican obstructionism, they would go for it. 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.240 Republicans were, but the Democrats in the last twenty years 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:51.559 have flipped California with illegal immigrants, sometimes becoming naturalized to 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.839 the amnesty, sometimes with their children. They flipped. They flipped 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.760 California and Nevada, probably Colorado and New Mexico, maybe yours 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.240 on next. And they feel that it's a very successful 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.920 electoral formula in some sing swing states when you get 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.280 sev sev the Latino vote, and then you cater to that. 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.640 And when you when you mentioned that maybe Hillary Clinton 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.360 was pretty reactionary, she was reactionary at the time when 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.960 the Latino population was not a factor in electoral politics. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.920 Now it is. They've made the necessary adjustment, so they'll 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.480 never let it happen. It has to be done despite 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.680 them all over their objection, because they do want a 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.000 new constituency to vote for an agenda that they were 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.640 afraid maybe the people had rejected. Americans do not want 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.600 this two thousand and twenty trajectory of reparations, New Green 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:51.840 Deal permissible and fantaside uh SEV, wealth tax, uh income tax, 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.040 a wealth tax, Medicare for all, cancelation student We could 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.720 go on. But it's more than just socialism. It's a 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:03.680 holistic effort of quality mandated a quality result. And I 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.440 don't think most people would vote for it, and so 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.640 they know that, and so they're trying to get braining 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.000 as many people in the next twenty years so that 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.439 type of agenda will be palatable. And they can't change 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.360 people's minds. They want to change the electorate. You know. 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.360 I in a couple of minutes, we have left with 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:23.760 Victor Davis Hansen, your book is the case for Trump. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.360 We know you're you're thinking man, You're a scholar, you're 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.840 a history in the Peloponnesian War book. I haven't read 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:34.080 this one. Well, good Braggart anyway, Um, you're a thinking man. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:39.360 Donald Trump is a rather colorful character. He The two 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.440 of you don't occupy the same space in my head. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.960 And yet you've written a book called The Case for Trump. Briefly, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.120 what's the book about. Well, it's trying to be it's 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.320 not a raw ro. Trump is a saint. It's not, 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.400 of course that he's the center. I just tried to 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.760 be analytical. I said, how did somebody with no experience 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.359 political military defeat six seen pretty good candidates in the primaries. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.079 He had this weird add on to the traditional message. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:10.880 Not just tax cuts, judge constructions, judges, not just smaller government. 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.840 But China is not fated to take over the world, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.959 and we can stop it. The interior of America is 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.640 not written off as a the industrialized, opiate place. You 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.400 can save it with smart trade policy. The border doesn't 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.040 have to be open. We don't have to always go 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.520 on optional interventions abroad where we don't translate tactical battle 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.800 success into strategic advantage. And that when it was geared 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.120 toward these eleven or twelve swing states got him elected, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.280 and then it wasn't just Trump and the general election. 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.480 It was never illry for a lot of people as well. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.280 Once he got in, people said he'll either be a 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.040 liberal or he will be incompetent. He was neither, and 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.319 there was an I talked in the book about the 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:57.680 unprecedented effort of the deep state opposition to sue under 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:03.200 the moments clause the twenty fifth Amendment impeachment Muller try 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.839 to warp the electoral College voting, this constant effort to 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.640 aboard his presidency, and why they hate him so much, 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.640 both his message and his background, his demeanor and crafts 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.120 and callous a lot, and then finding what's the prognosis 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.120 for both Trump and two thousand and twenty and Trump 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.280 is him after he's gone. So I tried to be analytical, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.960 and I know that the publisher wanted an edgy title. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.920 My title was a Case for Trump or Trump Examined, 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.600 but they thought, well, you know what, that's not going 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.280 to get people motivated to buy it. And they were 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.480 very they were very progressive. My editors at Basic Books, 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.760 and their attitude was, write something that's dispassionate and analytical. 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.560 Let me see if I would ever consider voting for him. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.080 That was a hard challenge. But then they prostituted themselves 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:56.720 by insisting on the definite articles. Yeah, exactly. Come up 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.920 to me and they'll say, I read the book. It 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.000 was really fair. It wasn't uh, you know some of 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.360 these books that are out that he's the greatest things 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.520 in slidespread Why did you call it the Case for Trump? 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.040 And I said, I didn't make the title, but I'm happy. 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.640 I was on a plane yesterday and a guy looked 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.000 over at me and he said, did you write this book? 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.160 And I said, what book? And he opened up this 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.360 computer and you brought it out and he said, this 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.600 is like a maga hat. I wouldn't there be seen 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:26.040 on this plane meeting that with a cover? Wow, that 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.600 was pretty strange, beautiful Victor Davis Hansen. The new book 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.280 is The Case for Trump? Sounds really really interesting. It's 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.440 always a pleasure when we get to talk. Thanks million, 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:39.640 Thank you for having me. It's our pleasure. Thanks extra large. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.599 When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.240 know we're ready for you. Here are just a few 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.079 of the people at Metro to tell you how we're 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.000 doing our part to keep writers safe. We're cleaning like 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.960 never before. Half build greatly. You have found hair stand 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.040 of Tis of stations all over the Metro. No mask, 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.880 no mad stron One. We have a few extras at Metro. 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.760 We're doing our part to keep the DC area moving. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.400 Find out more at will mata dot com, slash doing 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:08.920 our part.