Once upon a time, in the post-Joe McCarthy era and Barry Goldwater's candidacy, liberal political scientist Richard Hofstadter called extremism fueled by a long-standing conspiracy of the right's “paranoid style.” Records are now recorded in chronological order.
But especially in the 21st century, the left's “hysterical style” of fabricating scandals and manipulating perceived tensions for political gain has become much more common.
Or, in the immortal words of former President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, “never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
The 2008 economic emergency culminated on September 7th, when the mortgage industry nearly collapsed.
President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, more than four months after the meltdown. Meanwhile, officials have finally restored financial confidence and charted a course for economic recovery.
it doesn't matter. The Obama administration never stopped hyping the financial meltdown as if it had just happened. That's how we got through Obamacare, massive deficit spending, and massive expansion of the federal government. All of this hampered economic growth and recovery for years.
In 2016, then-President Donald Trump was declared to be similar to Hitler and an existential threat to democracy.
In the midst of this delirium, any means necessary to stop him were justified, whether it was the Russian collusion hoax, the impeachment phone call, or the Hunter laptop disinformation farce.
Ultimately, the left attempted to normalize the once unthinkable by removing leading presidential candidates from state ballots and prosecuting them in state and local courts.
Nothing was off-limits: falsifying federal court documents, calling for a military coup, rioting on Inauguration Day, and fundamentally changing the way Americans vote in presidential elections.
In October 2017, allegations of serial sexual predation by liberal film icon Harvey Weinstein surfaced.
The #MeToo uproar soon followed.
Initially, the accusers properly accused dozens of mostly liberal celebrities, actors, authors, and CEOs of past, largely hidden sexual harassment and often assault.
But soon the once legitimate movement turned into general hysteria. Thousands of men (and women) were persecuted for alleged crimes committed decades earlier, including sexual jokes and rude reception.
#MeToo has eclipsed the left's efforts to bring down conservative Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Though potential accusers have surfaced since his high school days 35 years ago, there was no evidence or witnesses to support the outlandish and macabre charges. k
#MeToo hysteria ended with too many liberal greats in jeopardy. Most dramatically, Tara Reade, a former Senate aide to Joe Biden, accused the front-runner of sexual assault during the 2020 campaign, and liberal media It was beaten down by.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States in the winter of 2020 caused even greater hysteria.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence, federal Health Secretary Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins were able to persuade the Trump administration to shut down the economy in the country's first national quarantine.
Suddenly, questioning common sense such as 6-foot social distancing, mandatory mask-wearing, the Wuhan virology lab as the origin of the coronavirus, and off-label use of prescription drugs became a thought crime. .
Left-wing politicians and celebrities, from Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsom to Jane Fonda, have all weighed in on the political benefits of lockdowns, from recalibrating capitalism and healthcare to ensuring Trump's defeat in 2020. was running out of his mouth.
When Biden won the 2020 election, the coronavirus hysteria magically ended. Explanations that the virus originated in bats or pangolins suddenly disappeared. The damage caused by isolation can no longer be contained. The epidemic was gradually eased due to herd immunity.
The lockdown has caused untold economic turmoil, suicides, and a health crisis.
One of the results was the 120 days of looting, arson, death, and destruction caused by Antifa and Black Lives Matter after the tragic death of George Floyd in police custody in May 2020. , it was violent.
Suddenly, a hysterical lie was being spread that American police were waging a war against black men.
Details about Floyd's sudden death: He had committed a felony, was resisting arrest, was suffering from coronary artery disease and the after-effects of the coronavirus, and was high on dangerous drugs. – was prohibited from entering.
The riots cost $2 billion, killed more than 35 people, and injured 1,500 law enforcement officers. A federal courthouse, a police precinct, and a historic church were set on fire.
Police funding has been defunded. Emboldened left-wing prosecutors invalidated existing laws.
With meritocracy under attack, diversity, equity, and inclusion commissions have spread across American higher education.
Racial essentialism has won. Racially segregated dorms, campus spaces, and graduation ceremonies were normalized.
Everything from the destruction of the southern border to the elimination of the SAT requirement for college admissions followed.
Crises, sometimes real and sometimes exaggerated, like the violent “armed uprising” of January 6th or the “fascist” “ultra MAGA” threat, create this artificial hysteria on the left.
Otherwise, the progressive movement cannot implement unpopular policies. Therefore, it must foolishly create chaos in order to scare people and destroy any crisis that is considered an enemy.
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow at the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the author of Basic Books' The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.You can contact him by email authorvdh@gmail.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
