The Big Answer

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The Amazon blurb says that the New York Times bestselling author of The Case for Trump explains the decline and fall of the once cherished idea of American citizenship.

Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.

A U.S. passport is a symbol of U.S. citizenship

In The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.

As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

Burning buildings amid George Floyd protest riots in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020

“Mr. Hanson, an accomplished classicist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is one of the great amalgamators of American political writing. He has a particular gift for bringing together a dizzying array of events, controversies and ideas and making sense of them by advancing a coherent argument that incorporates thousands of years of history… Mr. Hanson hits hard, but I don’t find his analysis unfair or partisan. There is enormous value, moreover, in thinking about toxic political developments not as problems of the moment but as destructive pathologies to which all societies are prone at all times.”--Wall Street Journal

“Indispensable… Hanson’s immensely erudite and inspiriting book offers a most welcome corrective to those influential forces and doctrines in our midst that conspire to delegitimize the citizen and citizenship as such. In doing so, he provides us with hope that our society still has within it significant powers of rejuvenation.”--National Review

How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America

“As Victor Davis Hanson shows in his learned, powerful, and troubling new book, The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America [with a lot of help from the very anti-American George Soros], the steady devolution of citizenship speaks volumes about where we are today and where we seem to be heading… Hanson lays out this grim diagnosis with his usual clarity and brilliance, moving easily from his deep specialized knowledge of the ancient Greek and Roman world through savvy observations about present-day politics and American society.” --The New Criterion

“A powerful and carefully developed argument for preserving American citizenship.” --American Thinker

“Required reading for all those who seriously want to engage in the fieriest issues of our days at their most thoughtful levels of depth.”--Epoch Times

While Trump respected and honored citizenship, Biden and Democrats hated America and thought only in terms of World citizenship and globalism

“Hanson is well-positioned to describe the evolution of citizenship from ancient times through the modern era, and especially the assumptions about citizenship underlying America's constitutional order… Hanson presents, clearly and concisely, a case that critics will struggle to refute. His troubling argument has far-reaching implications. The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America is a book that all Americans should read, then discuss with friends and neighbors.”--Claremont Review of Books

“Among public intellectuals writing within a secular framework about America’s troubles, Victor Davis Hanson towers above the rest.”--First Things

“The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America is essential reading for any American who cares about the fate of our nation.”--Mark R. Levin

These folks just became American citizens in 2007

“In The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America, Victor Davis Hanson shows once again why he is America's premier scholar, writer, and political observer. Drawing on his training as a classicist, and clearly informed by his deep personal experience living and farming in California's San Joaquin Valley, Hanson has written a tour de force on the history, rights, and responsibilities of modern citizenship, and the galaxy of forces that are undermining the concept of American citizenship today. Immensely enlightening but also deeply unsettling, The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America.”--Rep. Devin Nunes

“Citizenship brings all the enduring principles of democracy into the sphere of the individual. It honors the human need for a collective identity even as it makes room for the individual to pursue happiness. In this remarkably illuminating book, Victor Davis Hanson shows how so many contemporary problems—identity politics, the border crisis, bloated government, etc.—have only worsened for the lack of a vigorous and clarifying idea of citizenship. In this deeply democratic idea, Hanson points to a way beyond what ails us.” --Shelby Steele, author of Shame

La Bestia ("The Beast") each year, between 400,000 and 500,000 migrants, the majority of whom are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, ride atop these trains in the effort to reach the United States—the trip is highly dangerous, especially to females and kids

“Politicians often speak to “my fellow citizens,” implying a kind of common project among all citizens. In America, that project is our shared devotion to our founding principles. Victor Davis Hanson explains in The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America, however, that this uniquely American concept of citizenship is imperiled—whether from ancient threats like economic stagnation, open borders, and racial discord, or modern ones like unelected bureaucrats, anti-Constitution progressives, and globalists. As only he can, Hanson weaves together history, philosophy, and contemporary headlines to diagnose our current woes and to remind them that the cure lies in what is best in them and in America.”--Senator Tom Cotton

“Victor Davis Hanson’s book is not a complaint nor a polemic but rather a fine-grained diagnosis of a very serious disease. Its symptoms are all around us: the fragmentation of America’s national identity by the assertion of not merely separate but separatist identities with the vehement support of the most privileged of all Americans. May this brilliant diagnosis lead us to a cure.”--Edward N. Luttwak, author of The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy

“The great glory of the democratic revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was extending the blessings of citizenship to anyone and everyone who embraced the principles and responsibilities of self-governing nations. As Victor Davis Hanson explains, by subtle degrees we’re reversing course, through a deliberate attempt to dilute and eventually erase national identity, sovereignty, borders, and the meaningful content of citizenship itself. But if everyone is a “citizen of everywhere,” it means they are citizens of nowhere, with the return of autocratic rule the final result. The hour is late, and we have Hanson to thank for this capacious account of what we need to recover.”--Steven F. Hayward, author of Patriotism Is Not Enough

America’s free citizenry is at imminent risk of defeat at the hands of an unelected Deep State allied to a globalist elite that flouts American law with impunity and plans to jettison the Constitution

“This is not a drill—this is the real thing. If you don’t believe that the survival of the American republic hangs in the balance, you must read Victor Davis Hanson’s relentless exposition of the facts. America’s free citizenry is at imminent risk of defeat at the hands of an unelected Deep State allied to a globalist elite that flouts American law with impunity and plans to jettison the Constitution. Even if you think you’re informed and alarmed about these trends, Hanson’s brilliant presentation will leave you much better prepared to address these dangers. Get this book into the hands of everyone you know.”--David Goldman, deputy editor of Asia Times and author of You Will Be Assimilated

Mary Ann Glendon and David Blankenhorn say that if we hold community and neighborhood as unimportant or obsolete, then nothing will instill in us the needed virtue and morality to hold the society and democracy together. 'The Constitution created a national regime with no authority to mold character but assumed a village life in which character would automatically emerge.'Seedbeds of Virtue: Sources of Competence, Character, and Citizenship in American Society

“Once again Victor Davis Hanson has written a masterly account of a great public affairs crisis. He has given a learned history of the concept and indispensability in a democracy of responsible citizenship; has perceptively chronicled how it has been undermined in the US; how Donald Trump in his sometimes frantic way tried to revive it, and of the tense but not unhopeful current prospects. This book is a concise masterpiece that all serious citizens should read.” --Conrad Black

“This is a book about an ongoing and threatening change of ‘regime,’ which means a change not only in how we are governed but also in how we live. To understand such a thing requires perspective: Victor Hanson is deeply educated in the classics, where knowledge of regimes was first developed. It also requires a close observation of what is happening today, about which he writes insightfully and in profusion. In this book, Hanson demonstrates yet again his command across time and for our time. This book and he are a treasure.” --Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College

As Ronald E. Parsons says, Hanson describes three social classes that do not rise to the level of citizenship. A chapter is devoted to each class. Number one is Peasants. Number two is Residents. Number three is Tribes.

Like residents and tribes, peasants are not CITIZENS, without which there is no citizenship

The peasantry consists of persons who are beholden to an overlord. Some are tied to the land. Others aren't, but nevertheless have no say in affairs of state.

Residents are akin to persons who are simply passing through. They have little or no interest in the welfare of the place. They know their limitations.

Tribesmen are customarily viewed as having responsibilities to immediate family and others in the tribe. A territory will ordinarily contain two or more tribes.

Every territory might begin with the above three classes. When the classes become fortunate enough to view the real importance of their being free individuals in a single territory, they will exist as a nation towards which they have serious responsibilities, just as they become 'protectees' in common, of their nation. Such freeborn persons will become citizens. This would be lucky indeed.

Part Two, Postcitizens, describes what can happen when the citizenry of a nation begin to change or reverse the process described above. Such a revision, if agreed to by the citizenry, will likely be enough to allow the nation to continue in said status. It will be considered as ongoing success nationally.

But if the nation is unlucky, its citizenry will allow themselves to fall into a massive bureaucratic existence in which the bureaucrats begin to view themselves as overly-important to the state. Factions will come into existence. And if unable to resolve their differences, they can become insoluble, and as a further result, dissolution of one sort or another might come to pass. There can be civil war. There can be a dictatorship.

Hitler, who symbolizes the hell that arises when the leftists dump freedom and rights and create a dictatorship

There can even be a movement towards 'One-World' government, giving power to a United Nations sort of overseer, in which no one will be satisfied. World disorder and warfare, rather than being overcome, will become the prevailing status. Elements will revolt against a 'One-size-fits-all' type non-government. A world-citizenry will be forever unstable, despite the beliefs and efforts of the starry-eyed 'Globalists' who wish for unity. Author Victor Davis Hanson fears such things can happen. As do we.

When our polarized factions in the USA find their disagreements impossible to resolve, Civil War can break out

Hanson grew up in the Central Valley of California where he still lives. He attended school, working summers at menial labor picking crops, and seeing the death of the middle class agriculturalist at the hands of the elite and the libtard government of what was once the best run state in the republic but is now a cautionary tale of how to ruin paradise. Hanson notes that California now has the worst schools, the worst infrastructure, the greatest disparity in income, and the most homeless and welfare recipients along with horrendous crime.

Hanson notes that California now has the worst schools, the worst infrastructure, the greatest disparity in income, and the most homeless and welfare recipients along with horrendous crime and people crapping on the streets and sidewalks so one needs galoshes to walk

If all the liberals lived together in the blue states (and told the Bubbas: "get out of here you Bubba-flavored bastards!"), and all the conservatives lived together in the red states (and told the bleeding-hearts: get out of here, you bleeding-heart eggheads!) then we'd obviously need to create three countries: East Liberal-land in the east, West Liberal-land in the west, and Bubba-land in the heartland, with the liberals in New Mexico and Colorado, even though in the majority there, having to choose to move west or east, just like any other red state liberals; and blue state conservatives would shift to the heartland. The Soviet empire underwent devolution into several self-governing countries. Why not us?

The map below shows where the liberals and conservatives are in their 3 countries, but it is BEFORE the liberals in New Mexico and Colorado move east or west, so these two states are initially part of West Liberal-land—BEFORE their move. The reason it would not stay like this is because they would be a liberal island in Bubba-land, surrounded by the conservative hordes. How would YOU like to be surrounded by Bubbas? So they'd move west or east and the Blue island would disappear, and the heartland would be all Red. (Remember to avoid pissing off the citizens of Bubba-land: rumor has it they have a strong affinity for weapons and violence!)

U.S. Devolved Into Three Countries

Note: The reason the map is the 2016 election rather than the 2020 election is the latter was rigged. The facts are in and the Big Lie turned out to be the Big Truth! All the lies about Hunter's computer being Russian disinformation and the fake news media all publishing 100% anti-Trump info, and the FBI liars working with the Democrats to smear Trump even to the extent of publishing the 51 "intelligence agency" signatures on the total lie about Hunter's computer being Russian disinformation. All this is the stuff of banana republics, NOT the stuff of democracies! In other words, all this was a corrupt coup sponsored by the Deep State—not a democratic election! Then Trump called all this the fraud it was and all references to this reaction of Trump's from then on ALWAYS called it "The Big Lie." So Trump got Kari Lake and many others to tell the truth about the rigged 2020 election, giving the mainstream media more opportunities to denigrate both Trump and the "election deniers" even though it was the mainstream news outlets who were the real "election deniers." Trump had told the truth the whole time! So we avoided the rigged 2020 election map.