We are in a Jacobin Revolution of the sort that in 1793-94 nearly destroyed France. And things are getting scary.
The Democratic Party vanished sometime in 2020.
Hard-left ideologues absorbed it. They were bent on radically altering, or hijacking, existing institutions to force radical, equality-of-result agendas that otherwise do not earn majority support.
The American people want affordable power and fuel, and energy autonomy. They do not want a Green New Deal that results in dependence on the Middle East.
They want fiscal sobriety, not a permanent stagflationary economy marked by bank failures, soaring interest rates, crony capitalism, and subsidies for those who choose not to work.
They know no country can exist without a border, much less while offering blank checks to foreign cartels that kill 100,000 Americans yearly.
They demand realist deterrence abroad, not the current woke military whose erosion is spelling the end to American credibility and global stability.
Racialists are eerily embracing discredited Neo-Confederate notions of racial chauvinism, discrimination, segregation, and the old one-drop rule of racial obsession. They are turning America toward a Balkanized war-of-all-against-all.
To implement such an unpopular program, the new Left must radically alter our institutions.
So the “Democrats” periodically threaten to pack the courts, end the filibuster, destroy the Electoral College, and override the states’ prerogatives to establish balloting laws.
They deny the committee assignments of the House minority leader. They engage in stunts like tearing up the State of the Union address on national television. With impunity, they mob the homes of Supreme Court justices to leverage their decisions.
Elites run this revolution, and is a top-down operation.
University deans all but prompt students to disrupt invited campus speakers. District attorneys release violent arrested criminals without bail. Woke generals call their Chinese counterparts to warn them against their own commander-in-chief.
The Pentagon lectures the country on its supposed innate racism – even as the United States continues to lose wars abroad, abandons billions of dollars of equipment to terrorists, and allows communist China to surveil domestic American military bases with impunity.
Words change their meanings. “Racist” now means “don’t dare object.” “White” became the pejorative stereotype used by racists. “Diversity” means tired orthodoxy. “Equity” is a synonym for bias. “Inclusion” ensures exclusion.
Institutions are no longer recognizable. The FBI as we knew it no longer exists. Three former FBI directors either lied under oath to federal investigators or pleaded amnesia in congressional testimonies.
Our highest former national intelligence officers lied under oath to the Senate. The IRS is weaponized against political opponents of the Democrats. The Department of Justice is more likely to send the FBI after grammar school parents than mobs threatening the homes of Supreme Court justices.
Still, to thoroughly erase America, our Jacobins must radically alter our customs and traditions.
So under the cover of the COVID-19 quarantines, Election Day was made irrelevant. In the new America, 70 percent did not vote on the designated day but, fueled by third-party vote harvesting and relaxation of audits of non-Election-Day ballots, extended the vote over a period of several weeks.
Like the Jacobins, names, and dates had to be radically transformed. 1619, not 1776, is now America’s birthdate, and, we are told, it was an ignominious one.
Statues are toppled, and careers Trotskyized.
Biological males suddenly have hijacked women’s sports – destroying five decades of women’s hard-won efforts to achieve equal treatment and respect in athletics.
What triggered the collective madness and this Jacobin takeover?
The Left’s perfect storm of the 120 days of riot, death, arson and looting of 2020? The COVID-19 pandemic? The disastrous two-year lockdown? The 2016 election of the outsider Donald Trump?
All those catalysts and more.
As the country collapses under leftist nihilism, the revolution’s last gasp is to destroy Trump – by empowering him. That is, the leftist legal vendetta is designed to win him just enough empathy to be nominated the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, but then to keep on indicting, gagging, and hemorrhaging him legally until Election Day 2024.
Trump was the first president to be impeached twice, to be tried by the Senate as a private citizen, and to have his private home raided by the FBI. Now he is the first president to have been indicted, effectively ending America’s moral authority abroad.
America now has three potential futures and two are bad.
First, the Jacobins have two more years to finish what they started as the founders’ dream descends into our worst nightmare.
Second, the revolution has so warped our legal system, our voting on Election Day, and the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, and the IRS that even a despised, unpopular Left will “win” elections.
The third is that New York Prosecutor Alan Bragg has jumped the shark.
His pathetic prosecution is so patently incoherent, illiberal, and in spirit anti-American that two-thirds of the country will soon conclude the center is not holding. The Jacobins’ reign of terror is unsustainable. And so in 2024, the Left will not be defeated but so defeated that it will be utterly discredited.
The choice is ours.
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won” from Basic Books. You can reach him by emailing authorvdh@gmail.com.
Spurwing Plover says
So just when will they send us who refuse to abide by their restrictions to the Guillotine?
Cat says
Most people don’t want to accept that totalitarians of today can ultimately only hold onto power through mass murder and will do so.
The bioweapon release in 2019-20 was election interference and mass murder, in my view.
Some don’t want to see it that way.
victoryman says
The “Bioweapon” release was only a test. The worst is yet to come.
The next war will NOT be atomic. It will be biological.
Joe Biden says
We got a list of everyone that is anti-vax we know who you are man, we’re coming for you magas.
Ugly Sid says
And they are coming.
One might consider avoiding tattooing. Queequeg [ as in Moby Dick ] was easy to spot.
Jim says
Well, they have already set up virtual guillotines all over the country, trying to demoralize Americans and intimidate them to the point that they do not have to be executed, their spirit is defeated. Like Winston Smith in Orwells novel. If you kill the spirit, you do not have to kill the man.
ProudPagan says
Victor Hanson is right except in his defense if Trump bthe liar. That so called conservatives stand up for this charlatan says much about their morals.
Ugly Sid says
Whom are you accusing? What is the accusation?
Tionico says
I have adopted a strong policy of NEVER taking a pagan’s words at face value, nor of trusting such words.
Goodnight Irene says
One good thing. We have guns.
David Ray says
Having been viciously targeted by leftist mobs, Andy Ngo & Bret Weinstein now also have guns.
Leftist scum are no longer satisfied with a compliant press & rigging elections. They demand that we bend the knee or else.
On Sept 1st, the retarded pretender declared war on normal citizens, so buy more ammo.
Tionico says
It was Andy’s lawful possession of a handgun, and his lawful use of it when sorely pressed on the streets in Downtown Portland that first got him nationwide attention. Having seen the video of that attack and his retreat, aided by the display of his handgun, there is no question in my mind he behaved appropriately but then was unjustly persecuted for his refusal to bow down to the demanding rioters who objected to his video recording of their unlawful destruction.
Andy survived unjust imprisonment, multiple rigged trials, and still will not sit down, shut up, OR disappear.
We need millions more of that sort, else we are doomed.
Anne says
You work for the FBI?
Anne says
You work for the FBI, along with Ray Epps below?
Banastre Tarleton says
The French Jacobins is the wrong historical example, as the radical DEms are clearly LIBERAL BOLSHEVIKS and the history of the former Soviet Union is the blueprint they are reading from
It was the Bolsheviks who first understood that by keeping the country unbalanced and in a state of fear, they could herd them towards Utopia like sheep . That’s exactly what the Globalists and their nefarious allies in the MSM are doing
Citizens of the Soviet Union were always paranoid towards capitalist encirclement , Trotski-ites , wreckers , Kulaks and enemies of the people ..Lenin and Co were the first Globalists
The Dem radicals first used a Flu-like virus to create a national emergency to rig the 2020 election, and now they are using a similar , bogus ”climate change emergency” to create panic and herd the population like sheep towards the ”Great Reset”
Just like in the former Soviet Union, everything the government says must be ”read between the lines”
TRump (and Putin ) are ”enemies of the people” !
Nicolas Carras says
“LIBERAL BOLSHEVIKS”
Two words that cannot go together..
The Bolsheviks were never liberals, and the “Democratic” Party is not a party of liberals.
It turns out that the French revolution has inspired totalitarianisms.
Also, there are two French revolutions.
With an opposition of ideas between 1789 and 1793.
By shematizing: we can very clearly oppose the ideas of 1789, truly founding of what is called liberal democracy, from those of 1793, which are not very democratic and even less liberal. There is a radical opposition between these two tendencies
Read : Les deux Républiques françaises – Philippe Némo
PS : There is a problem with the word liberal in English at the base. In France the liberals are those who support the classical school of thought of liberalism, which is also supported in the United States by the conservatives. In fact, the conservatives are the real liberals…
Anne says
Thank You! I have been saying that for years. All throughout our Republic. It was the Republicans, that introduced a bill every year for nearly 60 years to give women the right to vote. Republicans were against slavery. Republicans introduced and supported the Civil right laws. The downfall of the Republican party were the Bushy’s and the Neo-Cons. The Country club Republicans are just elite Democrat’s in disguise!
colin powis says
Why are you being so pedantic ? He’s not talking about Classical liberals ; he means liberals in the postmodern sense ..the way that Democrats refer to themselves
2020 was a ”silent coup d’eat” or even a flu d’etat as the radical Dems have made their move, it’s their 1917 moment when they seize the levers of power to radically transform the USA
They don’r EVER intend to lose another national election due to FRAUD
Nicolas Carras says
“he means liberals in the postmodern sense”
It’s about leftist, precisely…
A liberal is not a leftist, he fights the leftist utopia. He has always fought the leftist.
The liberals are the ones who have best dismantled Marxism.
What are you talking about ?
A liberal cannot support Marxism… Collectivism.
Your so-called American liberals are not liberals, they are fascists.
Fascism destroyed liberal institutions.
Banastre Tarleton says
You’re just a SIMPLETON
Nicolas Carras says
“TRump (and Putin ) are ”enemies of the people” !”
What is the relationship between Trump and Putin?
Putin is a dictator and a war criminal, who enriched himself on the backs of his people, preventing them from prospering fully and freely.
And he was a former member of the communist party (who does not deny the ideals of communism) and of the KGB… You know what communism did and what the KGB agents did.
Putin hates the West, and hates economic liberalism.
colin powis says
You are wrong again as both Trump and Putin are anti Globalists ; not allies per se, more co beligerants
Putin has morphed into a traditional Russian nationalist ; at heart a conservative who is repulsed by the decadent , deviant West ; but more importantly he’s justly concerned by the eastward expansion of NATO over the last 25 years as ”Great Powers have spheres of interest ”
Trump is a deadly enemy of the Dem Bolsheviks and of the Globalist agenda ; Trump has more in common with Putin than hiis fellow countrymen in the left of the Democratic Party as both are conservative nationalists
The Dem -Bolsheviks are becoming a parody of the former Soviet Union with their radical Leftist agenda, their politicisation of the FBI, ATF and Justice Department/ Show Trials
Nicolas Carras says
This man is a war criminal, a simple criminal who murdered Russians and who got rich on the backs of his people.
Who has never denied the ideals of communism. Who was a member of the KGB, a total rotten organization.
He is not a conservative, but a reactionary, supported by all the reactionaries of this world.
No conservative worthy of the name can support such garbage.
Go see the decadence in Russia, all the abortions, divorces, alcoholism, neo-Nazis, friends of Stalin…
Putin is a globalist in his desire to recreate a great russia…
You criticize the Democrats and you support Putin.
You are in an inconsistency.
Banastre Tarleton says
You are ridiculous
THX 1138 says
So long as the philosophers and intellectuals at the universities keep indoctrinating their students in philosophical nihilism, irrationality, and poison, America the land of freedom, liberty, and capitalism will not survive in the long run. The destruction of America comes from the universities.
The long intellectual, philosophical, march towards dictatorship in America started in American universities the 19th century. We are seeing the results of that slow but inexorable erosion of American values. Drop, by drop, by drop, the poison of irrational philosophy beginning in the 19th century has inexorably eroded American values.
If no new philosophy of reason is introduced at the universities as an antidote for the philosophies of unreason in 50 to 100 years America will collapse into a THEOCRACY. Whether that theocracy is Muslim or Christian can not be predicted.
But it will be a theocracy because the atheistic nihilism of the secular Left is so irrational that the human mind can not cope with such complete irrationalism. There are limits to how much irrationality a mind can tolerate. Even the irrationality of Islam is more tolerable to the human mind than Leftism.
Mark Dunn says
You have written an excellent letter, but I disagree. I think a United States theocracy will be leftist and secular. The leftist religion is already here Global warming, Saint George Floyd the fentanyl addict, dudes wearing dresses, are the dogma.
Onzeur Trante says
The Democrat Left is a toxic hybrid of Jacobins and Bolsheviks promoting revolution in and destruction of America..
internalexile says
The best summation of our present situation I have yet read. Thank you, VDH.
Onzeur Trante says
Yes, it is, but the closing argument that Americans can vote their way out of it is wishful thinking.
colin powis says
How do you win an election that is so clearly RIGGED ?
CHARLES R DISQUE says
Except for that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was your night at the theatre?
Sword of the Spirit says
Well said, well written. The evil have taken over, and these demons are:
Kamala Harris
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland
Secretary of State – Antony Blinken
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough
Attorney General Merrick Garland
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines
US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai
victoryman says
These pawns of the puppetmaster can do much harm.
What a group. And don’t forget the pervert puppet,
Bill Osborne says
Well said as usual…..I am now of the opinion that if we are to survive, we will soon need to replace ballot boxes with ammo boxes. The radical Left has blood on its hands, and will never stop until that blood is theirs.
Mark Bradley says
Growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s my brothers over in Vietnam fighting JFK, and LBJ. war of just there lies.
It all started when they took corporal punishment out of the schools in the 1970’s and parents stop disciplining and teaching their kids the meaning on respect hatefulness thinking started then. and guess what there all grown up college educated brains full of nothing but lefties hate one became president