by Victor Davis Hanson
Hardcover- $20.49
From an award-winning historian and regular Fox contributor, the true story of how Donald Trump has become one of the most successful ...
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Although, as the title suggests, it is somewhat more positive in its approach to the description of Donald Trump, Hanson has meticulously analyzed the man and his behavior, warts and all. Unlike the plethora of “hit” books that have been published on Trump by his enemies, the press, the entertainment world, the tech sector, the never-Trumpers, the Democrats, extreme Progressives and Republicans who dislike him, this one also exposes the cruelty, contempt and violence associated with these extremists, since before and after his election, and couples it with an analysis of Obama’s errors and the animus that is directed towards him by those that yearn for a return to the politics of the Left, or better still, another election or nullification of the previous one so they can install Hillary to her rightful place on the throne.
Hanson cites specific examples and quotes to support his arguments. He explains why the left wants to stack the Supreme Court if elected, why they want to nullify Trump’s appointments to the courts and other posts, why the left wants to abolish the Electoral College giving a vast amount of unfair advantage to just a few, huge, liberal states, but most important, he exposes the method to their madness. There are no anonymous sources in the book, as there are in most of the negative books about Trump. There is little innuendo and few opinions. Everything is fact based, backed up with evidence and supported by documents or statements that can be checked out for accuracy and veracity by the reader with a little effort.
The elite liberals are still angry about the loss of the election by Hillary Clinton. Her minions in the entertainment world and media are actively making statements that are out of character when compared to what used to be the typical political scene. These angry partisans have multiplied their efforts so that it is a tsunami of hate directed toward the man, in far greater proportion to his own foolish remarks, and they are also far more violent and far less humorous. The left has not gone higher, as they said, but rather far lower, in the show of contempt and in the exhibition of fury and poor sportsmanship. In some cases some on the left are advocating for the White House to be blown up, the President to be assassinated and his family to be dragged through the mud, and his supporters to be annihilated. Unable to accept the loss, some will do anything to overturn this President, use any means and say anything, regardless of its lawfulness, its lack of decency, or its relationship to the truth. They accuse him and his followers of acts never committed. They simply want to turn the clock back and defeat him, at any cost, even their own honor and dignity.
Hanson analyzes both the behavior of those on the right and those on the left with regard to racism, equality, honesty, socialism and capitalism, among many other topics. The left has bullied the public and spread information that is only one-sided which helped skew the 2018 elections in their favor. A lie told often enough is eventually viewed as the truth by those who don’t check further. They engage in obstruction while accusing Trump of just that. They fight the immigration policy, although it is a security risk for the country and unsustainable at the numbers today. They lie to the public even as they accuse him of the same. They know this, but they have only one interest, defeat Trump, allow no success, smear his supporters as in the case of Brett Kavanaugh, and shame his followers. They have taken Trump’s immature name calling and turned it into an art form of their very own.
The better course of action would be to accept the successes of this President, the one that they did not vote for, the one they did not think could win. He is a man who is unskilled in the ways of politics. Would it not be better to work with him to make the country successful? Would it not be better to help him learn how to behave more diplomatically? It makes no sense to call him names, to lower themselves to using unacceptable behavior, under any circumstances, just because they want to retaliate against him for his insults. If we learn by the example, they are setting a poor one, as is evidenced by the rash of hateful behavior toward the right.
Trump’s insults pale, in the light of theirs on the left. In a less chaotic, oppositional environment, perhaps Trump’s twitter and crude behavior would ebb. Perhaps Americans would see some real reforms and progress in our government; perhaps our elected officials would govern and not behave like spoiled brats.
With the cards of hatred stacked so high against him and his administration, Trump has no choice but to use whatever avenue is open to him, to send his message, to reach those who support his policies, and even to reach some who do not support him, but who recognize that the alternative with their policies, is far worse. It is becoming more and more of a possibility that we will lurch to the left and take a violent turn towards socialism as our young people believe that government should provide for them, not that they should assist their government. They are inclined to throw away their freedom in support of “greed and weed”.
While the left idolized Obama, often unrealistically, and demanded little from him regarding information on his background, while the left hardly judged and largely excused his past behavior with the likes of Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright, they despise Trump with such venom that they want to destroy him without reason or cause and seek to find out information they have no legal right to have, simply to search for a reason to trap or smear him. They even tried to make up accusations in order to secretly investigate him, ad nauseum, in order to hopefully find a crime where none existed. They insist that he prove his innocence under an opaque cloud of guilt, although a guiding American principle had always been before, that a man was innocent until he was proven guilty.
Although the left disliked Mitch McConnell for wanting Obama to be a one-term President, they don’t even want to allow Trump to complete his first term. They predicted horrific outcomes if he was in charge, yet none have come to fruition. The opposite has often been achieved with successes in the economy and in foreign policy. Still, they have tried to thwart his every effort, even going so far as attempting to sabotage it, as with Kerry’s interference in Iran. With McConnell and Obama, it was one person largely leading the opposition. With the left, Pelosi, Schumer, Waters, Perez, Castro, Jackson, Hirono, Warren, Harris, Biden, and so many more, have doubled down with hateful remarks, even advocating violence against Trump and his family, down to his grandchildren; insisting that the opposition get in their faces to show they are unwanted. When will they realize that they are provoking an atmosphere encouraging the violence we are experiencing far to often, with their vicious rhetoric, even as they unfairly accuse the other side of doing it?
The left has attacked those in the administration without reason and used tactics against the right that would never have been accepted had they been used against the left, nor would they have been tolerated had they even been directed toward Obama, his family or his minions, as is evidenced in the extreme with what happened to Roseanne Barr. The charge of racism would have been loud and clear, among others, and it would have silenced any opposition to the left and their policies. Appealing to the angry emotions of supporters, regardless of the validity of the complaint, has become their norm. The right would have been described as heartless, at the very least, and yet this despicable behavior, largely by the left, is now lauded by them, when it is directed toward the right, whom they denigrate and despise. With a complicit press and the liberal towers of learning on their side, they are gaining ground..
Social media algorithms unfairly targeted the right as politics was turned on its head during Obama’s administration; now it continues to be abused by both sides! The hypocrisy exposed in this book, is exposed logically and gently, without the anger or hatred largely exhibited by the left, in their books, but with a clear-eyed look at the evidence that has been presented over the last two years, like the outrageous preponderance of negative news, in the 90th percentile. Hanson offers an eye-opening view of the political stage today as he completely disarms the argument that Obama’s reign was scandal free by citing specific instances that prove otherwise. Who can forget the mechanization of the IRS against the conservatives or the pretense that it was a video that caused riots in Benghazi and the death of the Ambassador and others or the middle of the night, secret flight of a plane filled with cash for Iran?
Although, at times, it is a bit repetitious, because a topic is sometimes mentioned early on and not fully explored until further on in the narrative, it is for the most part, a book that should be widely read, not because it supports Trump, but because it exposes his failures with the failures of the left and society. We have raised a future generation, not of mature adults, but of adults with arrested development, adults who cannot lose gracefully, who have forgotten the meaning of good sportsmanship, compromise and compassion. The ability to regroup and learn from one’s mistakes is what made America so resourceful, successful and strong. Rational rather than irrational responses were the norm. Instead, today, we have people needing safe spaces for ridiculous reasons and adults screaming inside closets because they can’t cope with the realities of life. We have an opposition party that is engaging in a horrific amount of unfair and unnecessary bias expressed toward those on the right, toward those who won. They are advocating violent behavior toward those they call “deplorables”. While all this is going on, the left is turning a blind eye to its own disgraceful behavior and is projecting it on innocent people who have done nothing to offend them, except to have won. How will this end?
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