Victor Davis Hanson talks to Armstrong & Getty

This is Armstrong and Getty extra large. It's always a pleasure to welcome Victor Davis Hanson to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Mr Hanson is a Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History the Hoover Institution at Stanford, among many other credentials. He has a new book out called The Case for Trump, and he joins us now, Mr Hanson, how are you, sir? Very good? Thank you for or do you insist on being called doctor? I don't recall no. Victor is actually also part of five

generations of farmers in Central Valley of California. Ins um so listen question number one Immigration obviously a hot, hot topic right now you have to vote in the Senate. Uh. If you followed it, you followed it. If you don't, I don't feel like explaining it to the good folks. But given how demogogued this issue is all the time, does it make a guy like you crazy? Because there are really interesting and worthy of discussion angles to this

and they never seem to get discussed. Yeah. But um, I'm looking out my window right now here on my farm int and my complaint is that when I go to work at Stanford and when I'm here in the Central Valley, it kind of reflects the problem with the whole issue, and that is people who set the policy and virtue signal are out their outrage that separation at the border or border enforcement. They never really experienced the

consequences of their own ideology. And by that I mean twenty miles to the south of me in December, Mr Garcia killed three people, injured, seventh, even deported twice seven seven families up towards the northern part of the valley, and Martin officers Sing was killed by Mr Ariag or whatever his name was, twice supported We just had this

Brandy Larson in San Jose, same thing. And I guess what I'm getting at is that this never registers to Jerry Brown and kind of comfortable retirement and Grass Valley or Nancy Pelosi up Panama. I'm not trying to demagogue it. I just think that the people who don't directly experience illegal immigration, or they feel that they have experienced only the benefits chief labor, they don't really understand what it's like.

But we had to shootout the two gay most of whom were here illegally from Mexican Central America about six weeks ago on our road. And when you hear that, and you get a text in the Preside County jailer that they've let these guys out just after three hours, even though they arrested two of them and then let them out, it's it's a real thing. And I think

that's what that's what the issue breaks down to. Those people who have been hit, hit and the drivers run are people whose children have been encountered a gang member versus the rest of people have no direct experience with it, and then they have the luxury to sort of pontificate their outrage. And everybody who's worried about it. As a historian, what are your thoughts on countries that get where we've gotten where we're just growing to accept a multi lingual society.

I mean, presidential candidates didn't used to put out ads in two different languages, and now it's just, you know, commonly accepted that sort of thing. Have we just decided, Okay,

we're gonna be multicultural. Well, two different cultures, do different wages, etcetera. Well, we've had bouts with this, the German the asp for in eighteen forties or the Irish need in the eighteen fifties, but they've always been one time, and they haven't been across a physical border of the United States that came by sea. So my worrior, I'm glad you asked that question, because whether it's the Ottoman Empire, or whether it's Late

Roman Empire, or whether it's Austria Hungary, or whether it's Rwanda. Today, there's no experience at any success in a multi racial, multi lingual society unless there's a massive assimilation, integration, inter marriage, single culture efforts. And when there's not, you can understand what happens. Everything balkanizes people go identify with their tribal identities, and you get something where we're going to and then it's manipulated by politicians who always pose as the protector

of this protective victimized group or marginalized group. But called the United States is we have too many victims and not enough victimizers. So we end up with Jesse Small, Josie Smollett and the Covington kids and all that. We're desperate to find victims status for each group, and now they're in competition with each other, so it's hard to adjudicate when we're gonna have all these candidates are going

to be for reparations. But as soon as we go down that road Asian Americans versus Latino Americans, versus Native American versus cads versus females, there's not enough white male oppressors to make the necessary compensations for all of these groups. And then people can say, well, I just came you know, I came from Finland ten years going to even great, what do I have to do with the history of America? And then you have the other question, if it's so bad,

why is half of Mexico and Central America. When I get into this supposedly racist Anglo Saxon Protestant tradition um chess pool. And we have more refugees. We have more refugees, but we also have more legal and illegal evants coming in every year than any other country. And almost all the countries combined, take India out of the picture, and it's all the countries combined in the world don't accept as many immigrants as we do. And yet we're told

that that's not enough. It's never enough. Victor Davis Hansen is on theline. What is the cure for the Balkanization that you fear is coming. Is it a message of unity, a rededication of the idea of assimilation? What do you suggest that I think you have to close the border, secure it. Let in about five hundred, four hundred thousand legal immigrants. Make sure they're diverse from Africa, Asia and Europe.

Make sure they have amacratic basis, they have some skills, make sure that they come only legally, and make sure they come in measured numbers so they can be assimilated. The host has to have confidence in its own traditions. We're in a schizophrenic situation right now in this society where we tear down statues of Columbo US or Father Sarah, and we do all these things, and we judge all these supposed horrible people that came to North America on

the standards of the President. We never asked ourselves, well, if they were so bad, how did this country become so good that you and your parents at you're Acasio Cortez or elan Olmark, Why did you want to come here? Because they the traditions of the founders are uh, the industrialists or the scientists, or what we did in World War One on World War Two, all of that is baked in or bound up or embedded with what the

United States is today. And yet you you say it's a garbage country or it's almost worse than nothing, And yet you want to be here, and you don't want to be with your traditions that your championed in the abstract tourist where that's Puerto Rico or Somalia or parts of Asia. What if that, if that alternate tradition is so much better than the western salivation, why aren't people

flocking to join it? And the answer is they know it's not They want to be here, but they feel that there's careers advantages in this time and space for trashy the very hosts that accepted their parents. Victor Davis Hansen has a book out called The Case for Trump. You know what you laid out there in terms of an immigration policy polls really well, like really well, with everybody that it's too bad we don't have the politics too,

you know, reflect that you could get that past. The idea of that number based on meritocracy spread to a bunch of different places. I mean that that's all popular stuff. I don't think you could get it though, because for all the talk about Republican obstructionism, they would go for it. Republicans were, but the Democrats in the last twenty years have flipped California with illegal immigrants, sometimes becoming naturalized to

the amnesty, sometimes with their children. They flipped. They flipped California and Nevada, probably Colorado and New Mexico, maybe yours on next. And they feel that it's a very successful electoral formula in some sing swing states when you get sev sev the Latino vote, and then you cater to that. And when you when you mentioned that maybe Hillary Clinton was pretty reactionary, she was reactionary at the time when the Latino population was not a factor in electoral politics.

Now it is. They've made the necessary adjustment, so they'll never let it happen. It has to be done despite them all over their objection, because they do want a new constituency to vote for an agenda that they were afraid maybe the people had rejected. Americans do not want this two thousand and twenty trajectory of reparations, New Green Deal permissible and fantaside uh SEV, wealth tax, uh income tax, a wealth tax, Medicare for all, cancelation student We could

go on. But it's more than just socialism. It's a holistic effort of quality mandated a quality result. And I don't think most people would vote for it, and so they know that, and so they're trying to get braining as many people in the next twenty years so that type of agenda will be palatable. And they can't change people's minds. They want to change the electorate. You know. I in a couple of minutes, we have left with Victor Davis Hansen, your book is the case for Trump.

We know you're you're thinking man, You're a scholar, you're a history in the Peloponnesian War book. I haven't read this one. Well, good Braggart anyway, Um, you're a thinking man. Donald Trump is a rather colorful character. He The two of you don't occupy the same space in my head. And yet you've written a book called The Case for Trump. Briefly, what's the book about. Well, it's trying to be it's not a raw ro. Trump is a saint. It's not, of course that he's the center. I just tried to

be analytical. I said, how did somebody with no experience political military defeat six seen pretty good candidates in the primaries. He had this weird add on to the traditional message. Not just tax cuts, judge constructions, judges, not just smaller government. But China is not fated to take over the world, and we can stop it. The interior of America is not written off as a the industrialized, opiate place. You can save it with smart trade policy. The border doesn't

have to be open. We don't have to always go on optional interventions abroad where we don't translate tactical battle success into strategic advantage. And that when it was geared toward these eleven or twelve swing states got him elected, and then it wasn't just Trump and the general election. It was never illry for a lot of people as well. Once he got in, people said he'll either be a

liberal or he will be incompetent. He was neither, and there was an I talked in the book about the unprecedented effort of the deep state opposition to sue under the moments clause the twenty fifth Amendment impeachment Muller try to warp the electoral College voting, this constant effort to aboard his presidency, and why they hate him so much, both his message and his background, his demeanor and crafts and callous a lot, and then finding what's the prognosis

for both Trump and two thousand and twenty and Trump is him after he's gone. So I tried to be analytical, and I know that the publisher wanted an edgy title. My title was a Case for Trump or Trump Examined, but they thought, well, you know what, that's not going to get people motivated to buy it. And they were very they were very progressive. My editors at Basic Books, and their attitude was, write something that's dispassionate and analytical. Let me see if I would ever consider voting for him.

That was a hard challenge. But then they prostituted themselves by insisting on the definite articles. Yeah, exactly. Come up to me and they'll say, I read the book. It was really fair. It wasn't uh, you know some of these books that are out that he's the greatest things in slidespread Why did you call it the Case for Trump? And I said, I didn't make the title, but I'm happy. I was on a plane yesterday and a guy looked over at me and he said, did you write this book?

And I said, what book? And he opened up this computer and you brought it out and he said, this is like a maga hat. I wouldn't there be seen on this plane meeting that with a cover? Wow, that was pretty strange, beautiful Victor Davis Hansen. The new book is The Case for Trump? Sounds really really interesting. It's always a pleasure when we get to talk. Thanks million, Thank you for having me. It's our pleasure. Thanks extra large. When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to

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