Recent articles here and here by Victor Davis Hanson—my colleague at the Hoover Institution--paint a frightening picture of the United States as a country teetering on the edge of civil war.  In addition to being an exceptional prose stylist, Hanson is an active combatant in today’s political wars, so his impressions are understandable. As a data guy and a noncombatant, however, I am happy to report that the available data provide grounds for feeling much more sanguine about the state of our country.  

In “Why Liberalism Failed,” Patrick Deneen makes an eye-opening contribution to the critique of liberalism. Equating liberalism with the modern tradition of freedom, he distills abuses of state power, nature, culture, technology, and education that are undertaken in freedom’s name yet leave citizens less self-sufficient, less disposed to cooperate, and less capable of looking beyond material goods and social status to the cultivation of character and to the claims of duty.

Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, and whether Kavanaugh will be confirmed as well as how to handle similar situations in the future.

I’m writing this while also watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Let’s cut past the snap commentary and get to two questions: 1) does the process worsen the Republicans’ already-weak standing with women; 2) could Republicans use Kavanaugh’s struggles to Democrats’ disadvantage in key red-state Senate races?