George Rebane
Last Saturday evening we loaded some friends in the car and headed for the Grand Sheraton in Sacramento to attend a fundraiser for Congressman Tom McClintock. We’ve known Tom for years and continue to support him in our neighboring congressional district. The evening featured a talk and Q&A with Victor Davis Hanson. Professor Hanson is “an American classicist, military historian, columnist, and farmer. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for National Review, The Washington Times and other media outlets.” He is also an award-winning, endowed senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
I have been a student of VDH for many years, and along with our friends, we were not going to pass up this opportunity to hear him in person. Well, the lavishly catered evening turned out even better than expected. We got there early and ran into the congressman in the hall, and after greetings and conversation who should walk up but Prof Hanson. Tom greeted him warmly, graciously introduced me, and then left the two of us to chat. We had a wonderful one-on-one for almost thirty minutes as we and the gathering crowd waited for the ballroom doors to be opened.
McClintock called the event to order, gave one of the best introductions that I have heard from a politician at his own fundraiser – a concise but warm welcome, proper summary of his guest's vitae, and mercifully short thank-yous to the event’s sponsors. The good professor took to the podium and delivered a 30-45 minute talk that framed today’s national politics from an historical perspective, and then detailed the events and political tactics that have so split the country into factions that share few social objectives and no longer effectively communicate with each other. After that, he took questions for about an equal period of time. No one felt rushed, and there was plenty of time to delve deeper into the issues – a wonderfully cordial and informative evening.
It was no surprise to me from our private conversation and his invited talk, that the good professor’s historical interpretations and political observations flew in fairly tight formation with the Rebane Doctrine tenets published in these pages. (In other words, we are both “alt-right” birds of a feather according to the local lefties who disparage yet track every word in these pages.) I’ll conclude this report with a selection of Dr Hanson’s observations and talking points.
- Obama’s administration was the most scandalized administration in recent memory.
- Judge Kavanaugh’s rebuttal of Judiciary Committee Dems was on the mark, and of better ‘temperament’ than shown by Justice Ginsburg viz the Trump election.
- The right of the accused to be presumed innocent until proven guilty has been thrown out by the Dems and the media with the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
- CA is now an Orwellian state in which the middle-class has the nation’s highest tax rate, 20% of Californians live in (official) poverty, with one-third of the nation’s poverty stricken taking up residence in CA.
- “Those who rule in California are never subject to their own ideology.” (e.g. Pelosi, Feinstein, Newsom, …) “They can afford to be liberal at someone else’s expense.”
- “Fences work and have always worked.” Examples – Israel today, Great Wall of China, Maginot Line, Zuckerberg’s private residence, … . (Fences are militarily known as fixed field fortifications, they are cost-effective and work only to the extent that they are also manned. They are NOT a ‘build and forget’ part of any defensive infrastructure.)
- CA has the best natural water resources, and has had the best waterworks in the world, which began deteriorating and proving insufficient for California’s growth in 1983 when further expansion was halted.
- President Trump has “restored the idea of deterrence” and put in place the best foreign policy and team in recent memory.
- The US is becoming, or has already become a tribal nation.
- The new “Socialist Democratic Party” has replaced the former Democratic Party.
- There no longer exists any visible ‘common ground’ in the national debate between the global socialists and nationalistic capitalists – i.e. the Great Divide is already forming.
- There is a very slim chance that our electorate will see the light in time to pull the nation out of its death spiral into global socialism.
[10oct18 update] VDH has summarized the Kavanaugh confirmation affair that also gives lie to the charge that President Trump somehow dissed Dr Ford in his speech recounting the distressed lady's dreadfully fractured testimony to the Judiciary Committee. His piece – 'One Ford Narrative Too Many' – examines the entire episode from a larger perspective and is worth a read.
rebanesruminations.com 
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