“The most important thing, the legislature shall make the law.” Historian Victor Davis Hanson opened his case that way on the July 4 edition of his podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” produced with The Daily Signal. The subject was the 250th anniversary of the American republic and why it has lasted.
His answer rests on design. Under the Constitution as the founders built it, he said, the courts interpret the law and the president enforces it. “There was no executive orders” at the start, Hanson said.
Culture, in his telling, did as much work as structure. Hanson argued the colonists were not objecting to British free-market capitalism or to the role of religion. He said Jefferson based the country on the nuclear family and the independent farmer, a self-supporting citizen trusted to make his own laws. “You want autonomy and to be self governed,” Hanson said. “It was a republic of virtue. That’s how we survived for 250 years.”
He also warned of what happens when a society loses its moral anchors and its civic education. Unchecked freedom, he said, is a danger.
Ordinary working Americans got their own tribute. “They get up every day, they go to work, they don’t complain, they go home, they obey the law, they make the country move,” Hanson said. “And nobody gives them any credit, but they’re the backbone of the country.”
On economics, he called the United States “the freest country economically.” If socialists took over, he said, Elon Musk would flee and the country would lose the talented people who go with him.
Iran, Israel and the midterms
The episode also took in the news. Hanson described Hezbollah as shattered by the pager explosions and by the loss of Nasrallah, most of its leadership and most of its arsenal. He said Iran keeps pushing Hezbollah into its negotiations with the United States, and that Israel could destroy Hamas and Hezbollah if it were unleashed.
With the midterms about four months away, Hanson put President Trump’s polling at about 40 percent and said Republicans trailed by about 5 points on the generic ballot. The Iran war is unpopular, he said, and gas is still over $3 a gallon, down from $4. He argued Iran is dragging out talks to keep that pressure on Trump.
His forecast was hedged. If gas falls to $2 or $2.50 and the unemployment rate, which he said dropped to 4.2 percent this month, keeps sliding, he called the midterms closer to a 50-50 race. He counted on redistricting to give Republicans perhaps five to 10 seats. He also said Democratic candidates in Colorado, New York and New Jersey lose votes every time they give an angry victory speech.
Hanson is the Martin and Neely Anderson Senior Fellow in Military History and Classics at the Hoover Institution.
