Historian Victor Davis Hanson knew exactly what he was about to say was going to get him in trouble, and he said it anyway.
Speaking about the rise of some of the Democratic Party’s most radical figures, Hanson argued that there is an uncomfortable pattern hiding in plain sight that almost nobody in politics or media is willing to talk about openly.
According to Hanson, many of the loudest anti-American voices on the modern left aren’t people whose families have been rooted in the country for generations.
They’re often first or second-generation immigrants whose families came to the United States from countries that were politically disastrous, economically dysfunctional, or outright failures.
And in his view, that isn’t a coincidence.
HANSON: “One of the things that’s not being talked about and I know I’ll get criticized for this but here it is…”
“If you look at the candidates, Chevalier, and AOC, and Rashida Tlaib, and Mamdani, and I could go on…”
“But the kingpins, they’re first or second generation…immigrants.”
Hanson wasn’t making an argument about immigration itself, but rather his point was about incentives and political culture.
He argued that many of these politicians arrived in America — or were raised by parents who arrived in America — and quickly learned that within certain corners of the political left, attacking the country that gave their families opportunity was not only accepted, but rewarded.
HANSON: “And they come from areas that, to be candid and a little blunt, are failed miserable places, such as Ghana or the Caribbean, or many Latin American countries, or Mexico.”
“Almost 50-60% of them are.”
“So they come to this country either with their parents or their parents came and they were born. And they sense, they put their feelers up…and they learn very early on that if you trash this country, the left will protect you and advance you.”
That, Hanson argued, explains a lot of the rhetoric Americans hear every day from some of the party’s most prominent ‘progressive’ voices.
In his telling, the issue isn’t class resentment or economic struggle either. Many of the politicians he referenced grew up comfortably or became wealthy themselves.
Yet despite the opportunities America provided them, Hanson says what comes through most often is resentment rather than gratitude.
He labeled this; “contempt.”
HANSON: “And no matter how much money you have — AOC’s parents were pretty affluent. Ilhan Omar claims she was worth $30 million. Mamdani’s a multimillionaire settler colonialist from Uganda.”
“And when you look at all of them, they have nothing but contempt.”
That was really the heart of his argument.
If America is truly the irredeemable, oppressive, fundamentally broken country that many Democrat politician describe, Hanson asked an obvious question:
Why come in the first place?
HANSON: “Then don’t come! There’s no reason you have to come.”
“You came here because it was prosperous and safe, and there was not inbred tribal racism as in all these countries.”
Hanson then turned his fire toward the repeated accusations of genocide and oppression that frequently dominate Democrat rhetoric.
According to him, many of the countries these politicians or their families left behind experienced levels of ethnic violence, dictatorship, and political repression that most Americans can barely imagine.
He narrowed in on Somali Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
HANSON: “Apparently, the people came with Ilhan Omar because they were on the side of the genocidal [Mohamed] Siad Barre.”
“They keep saying genocide, genocide!”
“The only person that really is a genocidal maniac was Siad Barre, the head of the Somali government, of which a lot of these immigrants’ parents were part of, including Ilhan Omar.”
Whether people agree with Hanson or not, he touched a nerve because he stepped directly into a conversation that most politicians — and even media figures — avoid entirely.
