November 10, 2011 - 10:15 pm
This is the first of two interviews I did with Victor Davis Hanson at his farm in Selma, California. The one concerns the coming election. In the second – more wide ranging – Victor talks of his childhood on a California farm and how he came to be the conservative intellectual and scholar he is today. You also get a look at the farm.
Thank you, Roger, for this excellent interview. I wonder if anyone else noticed that Dr. Hanson speaks as he writes – in thoughtful, full sentences. You can practically see his mind organizing as he speaks, and then it all comes out coherently and well-reasoned. Again, thank you for the interview.
Nice job, but I’ll go to the Romney point, that is to the reasons Romney is sort of radioactive for republicans/ conservatives:
Says Hanson (approx.): [...] everybody is opposed to [Romney] for a variety of reasons we don’t need to get in to [...] -
Ok, “WE DON”T NEED TO GET INTO”: why is this religious fear amongst conservatives and republicans to address what makes Romney unfit (versus Cain, of all!) -
Is that… because Romney is a mormon? But heavens, we are an inclusive nation, we love new religions, and wouldn’t this nice addition excite all buddhists, islamists and panthesists around?
OR is the fact that Mormons oppose homosexual marriage that causes this panick among republicans when it comes to Romney?
It is clear that it is the homosexual factor that makes Romney ineligible amongst the Republican establishment (see Mehlman, an active homosexual activist), who simply don’t want the issue to come in discution -
Too bad for them, because if this cowardice will trump the real concerns of the republican voters, and Romney will be derailed, then all others left on the Republican plate will be easy pray for Obama -
Decadence – no single raindrop can be charged for causing a flood – but the flood and its consequences exist -
Davies Hanson, a classicist, should have mention how Rome’s fall was a long process of erosion, in which acquiesced homosexuality played an important role -
When the Vizigoths finally stormed Rome, incensed by the odious behavior of the romans who kep abducting boys and young men for their sexual use, the city was defenseless –
Yes, to quote Hanson: “for a variety of reasons we don’t need to get into here” -
@2:
I don’t think we as a society can blame it all on homosexuals. In fact, I would say that much of our moral decline has come at the hands of heterosexuals and their lifestyles. Pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex, casual attitudes towards divorce – why do we conservatives not fight to fix those issues as much as we fight against gay marriage? If we are truly concerned about the sanctity of the marriage between a man and a woman and the family units that result from that union, then why are we not campaigning to outlaw second marriages? I think it is because we are hung up on homosexuals, using them as a scapegoat when we should be looking at the sexual practices of our fellow heteros. After all, who still makes up the majority here?
RE E2: “Hanson: reasons we do need to get into”: hope you’re sincere & misguided and not just a faux cxonservative/ liberal troll -
Baby, the point IS what makes Romney so unpalatable for “conservatives/ republicans”, not your wisdom-laden call for “why do we conservatives not fight to fix those issues as much as we fight against gay marriage?” (A version of “Nothing to see here, move on, move on” – also, since here, I heard another version of your “why do we conservatives not fight … etc” crap in an Episcopalian Church last year during a debate about the homosexualization of the Church, when a group intervened “Why do not we episcopalians do something more meaningful, like adressing… amphetamine use!”
Hehehehe -
E2 – pathetic attempt at deflecting the matter -
Come with an attempt at a decent answer: is it really Mormonism that keeps the Republicans away from Romney, or it is Mehlman and his lot – position aqcuiesced by so many “conservatives” like you, mystery E2?
Hehehehe -
in case we care about Ameriva
I’m not really sure you’re getting my point. Our societal acceptance of homosexuality and the resulting push for normalizing homosexual behavior via the legalization of gay marriage stems from the liberalization of heterosexual sexual mores that started in the 60′s with the advent of the pill. My original point is that perhaps we conservatives should seek to fix the root causes that allowed homosexuality to become normalized. The advancement of the homosexual agenda is only a symptom of our overall societal rot.
And on that note, I think you’re wrong that it’s only Mormon opposition to homosexual marriage that turns off Republicans. Why do you fixate on the homosexual issue? I think we can all agree that the majority of Republicans are Christians, and many Christians have problems with the Mormon faith, believing that from a theological standpoint, Mormons are not Christians. (And for those that aren’t particularly religious, there are still plenty of issues that conservatives/Republicans would take issue with when it comes to Romney, e.g. Romneycare.)
Additionally, I don’t mean to offend any Mormons, but for a large segment of the population, regardless of their politics, there’s a “creep” factor surrounding the LDS. Some of this has been hyped up by the media through shows like “Big Love” and the recent Broadway hit “The Book of Mormon,” but regardless, many Americans think that Mormons are just plain weird, which is not going to help Romney one bit when it comes to the election. Is it right? Of course not, but that’s the way it is and I think that’s what Republicans are concerned about; the Mormon stance on gay marriage is irrelevant.
RE E2 – I buy your theory, but I will return to my view that the GOP “key-setters” are afraid of Romney BECAUSE the position of the LDS on prop 8 – I live in Los Angeles and I can see here how the powers to be, left, right, Dem, Rep, etc. (including Roger), resort to lots of contorsions in order of not appearing “narrow-minded” (i.e. anti-Mormon), but cannot avoid to have the LDS’s position in the matter as a looming elephant behind them –
Then I have to say that I am not a Mormon – but also, that I simply cannot find anything “creepy” or “weird’ in the Mormons’ philosophical statute or practices – after all we accommodate Krishna loons banging cymbals, Santeria had an understanding coverage from the LA Times, etc., etc. – Diversity!
Yet when it comes to Mormons, immediately they appear somehow defective (and this compared with Episcopalians, mind you) for some obscure cause – is Brigham Young that disturbs the Republican elite? Or tithing? Or… let’s check with the Dustin Lance’s (Milk, Hoover, Prop 8) handlers -
Not acknowledging that it’s the Prop 8 situation that governs the attitudes towards Mormons in the American political establishment is similar with…
… saying that Mel Gibson’s hardships in Hollywood are caused by his rants about hotels in Ibizza and not by Passion and his exchange with officer Mee -
Still, I agree that your view is a correct hystorical/ causal background of the societal problems we now face in acuter and acuter forms -
Regards -
Dr. Hanson is always a joy to encounter. I fully agree about the pivotal nature of this election, though I do question his evaluation of Gov. Romney. One must choose a certain basis for evaluation, and that was the one chosen by the good Dr. But it would seem that his evaluation of the candidate should be based on the candidate’s own pronouncements and actions in office, rather than the evaluations of the punditry. Perhaps those “visionaries” perceive Romney as “the conservative”, but that would only reveal how genuinely out of touch said punditry is with genuine constitutionalist conservatism. From my own view, I considered both the 2008 candidates to be quite liberal. Toss in Giuliani as well. But this a mere quibble in an otherwise wonderful exposition.
Thanks, Roger, for providing this window into Dr. Hanson’s views.
Or perhaps it is you who have believed lies about Romney that are not true.
Those of us who have gotten behind the misrepresentations and just plain slander that is out there about Romney have known for a while that the left has had it’s greatest success this year by making suckers of talk radio and it’s listeners… they know how to press your buttons. If there wasn’t so much at stake it might be humorous. But as it is, it threatens to derail our entire history and reason for being Americans.
Open your mind a bit and check out WhyRomney.com you might be surprised at how some people you thought you could trust, have lied to you. I certainly will not trust Fox News or Rush/Levin/Ericksen ever again to get it right.
They have created a Romney that doesn’t exist in the real world and they attack him. But it is just a lie they have made up.
Ditto!
So when do we get to see the farm that we hear so much about?
In a few days. Video in editing.
Just the kind of thing PJMedia should be doing, I really enjoyed it. As television and internet converge, this kind of production really is the future. Did you direct it yourself?
I was amazed you got such beautiful light inside Hanson’s house. Magic Hour? Sound was also excellent, did you unplug the guy’s refrigerator?
The central two-shot was hideous – maybe you were forced to use it because it was a location – but the shot from Hanson’s right, the upward angle on both of you, was really nicely done. You guys are not bad looking and everybody benefits from an upward angle.
Again, very well produced and I’m looking forward to part two.
I agree, job well done. It looked to me like a 3 camera set up, shot with ambient light. I am guessing it was shot with some relatively low cost DSLRs and a crew of one, but the results are great.
Victor- Thanks for informing all of us little hobbits that the republican primaries had been cancelled. Next time, don’t wait so long to inform us on what it means to be a conservative. Imagine all of the little hobbits wasting all of our time going out to the polls to vote in all of those useless republican primaries when, unbeknownst to us, the decision for the republican nominee had already been made! You are to be commended for saving all of us little hobbits from wasting all of our time, all of our fuel, and all of our hand-wringing because we were in over our little hobbit heads. By the way, you also forgot to tell all of the republican candidates that the primaries had been cancelled. So, even as we speak, they are all out in the fields taking their campaigns to the wee little hobbits for nothing! What a relief! I mean I, and all of my little hobbit friends, were just out of our heads with all of the consternation that only little hobbits could feel when faced with the decision that all of the little hobbits fear the most.
Deciding who to vote for in the republican primary. But you sir have saved all of the little hobbits. We are forever in your debt.
Victor- I don’t know who the eventual republican nominee will be but I will go way out of my little hobbit league to predict two things. First, the republican nominee will not be the liberal romney. And second, if the GOP doesn’t get it’s house in order I predict a third party, the Conservative Party, will rise up to reclaim America. The elitest establishment republican bunch, along with the marxist democrats, have gotten us into the sorry state America is in. And it is up to all of the little hobbit Conservatives- at 40% the largest group self described- to get America out of it.
We need a third party just as the mainline Protestants needed to ditch their degenerate churches and find new places to worship. You can be an Episcopalian all day, but your church celebrates active homos and Lesbians as priests and bishops. Too bad Caligula’s dead — he’d be perfect as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
Dr Hansen doesn’t want to discourage the folks out there, but he knows as well as anybody the truth of the Mogambo Guru: “We’re freakin’ doomed”. Look all around in any direction, in any respect, and we will see clearly.
The criticism of Dr. Hanson in this comments thread is an exhibition of myopia. He is a classicist and historian and he is laying out the most likely outcome based on the canidates, their financial capacity and the current political circumstances of our nation. I hope it is a conservative that gets the nomination, but frankly if it is Donald Duck and Goofy against Obama and Biden I am I voting for the duck and the dog.
It’s a conundrum to be sure. No viable candidate or realistic issue/policy to run on. The GOP – Running on empty. Perhaps a mantra for youse guys (teabaggers too): I am sofa king we Todd did. Just recite it constantly, even as you walk into the polling booth to pull the lever. I am sofa king we Todd did.
I will not hold my nose again for a blue RINO. My furry little hobbit feet will not follow the RNC-next-in-line crowd to Mordor. I’ll swallow some of my conservative values for a Newt, a Cain , or one of a few others, but not Romney, aka, Obama-lite. Otherwise, I’m for a 3rd party candidate. Waiting for Sarah.
I often take umbrage with VDH’s non-stop anti-Obama screed, but he has great pipes and a pleasing way of making his case.
“….anti-Obama screed.”
Have you ever heard VDH utter anything abut Obama that is not true?
There are so many “truths” out there in the world, that the ones which get selected tell you a lot. VDH entertains a lot of people here by constructing a weekly narrative in which all the Obama and Dem failings are strung together as if that was the whole story. The simple truth is that it is not the whole story, but it is red meat for the folks here.
Perhaps you could point me to what has been left out?
Victor Hansen is a super fine thinker. Love his writing here at PJM. Loved having the change to see/hear this interview!!!
Thanks, Roger, for an opportunity to hear the voice and the thought processes behind the articles Dr. Hanson provides here at PJ Media and other venues. I never miss a column, and often forward the link to others.
It’s good to know there is at least one adult left in the country.
Perfect combination for an interview with you asking and Dr. Hanson responding!
Thank you both for the additional insights into the Doctor’s personal and uncommonly good sense.
I thoroughly enjoyed the friendly chat and look forward to the next.
sorry hanson, romney is not “castor oil,” he’s pure poison. will not vote for that two-faced, pro-abort, global warming idolator under *any* circumstances. period.