BENSON BYTE: "We're In The Middle Of A Really Reaganite Boom" - Victor Davis Hanson

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Now it's time for another Guy Benson Show, Benson Byte, where we bring you the day's most interesting interviews in a bite-sized package. For the full episode, visit guybensonshow.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Guy Benson (0:17)

Joining us now is Victor Davis Hanson, who is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow here at the Hoover Institution. VDH, always great to have you here, welcome back.

Victor Davis Hanson (0:27)

Well, thank you for having me, Guy.

Guy Benson (0:29)

All right, well, last week was an unpleasant one for conservatives and republicans at the ballot box, midterm elections going not just badly, but catastrophically for the Republican Party.

You wrote a column at the Free Press about some of the big lessons and takeaways from the wipeout, as you called it. Walk us through your lessons.

Victor Davis Hanson (0:51)

Well, for the loss, everybody said it was the war, but it was in some ways because of the adjacent rise in gasoline. But even that, when people polled, 84 percent wanted Iran to be denuclearized, and among the republicans, it was pretty solid support. I looked at the polls just recently until they stopped bombing, and then it loaded systematically over the next six months. I think people's idea was whatever the war was, we want it over, we want it quick, we want to be successful, and when you draw it out, then people, even though there was only 23 dead, which is tragic, was very small.

Cost was about the same as the withdrawal from Kabul that was left behind, the material and buildings and stuff. But people felt that it was not ending, and the gas was connected to it. That was one lesson. I think another lesson was that the Democrats got enormous turnout that was more characteristic or general than a midterm election. The idea that there were all these apostate Republicans that just switched sides doesn't seem to be borne out by the data. Maybe five to 10% depending on the state. But somehow the Democrats got turnout that was more representative of the general election. In fact, in Texas, I think, Talalico got more votes than did Camilla Harris by a huge margin. He got about the same amount of votes as Donald Trump did. So I think that was unexpected. There were things going on. I think that Van Jones reminded us that they called people to talk about affordability.

The irony was if you look at all the key indicators, GDP, unemployment, inflation, stock market, per median income, poverty rate, it was much, much better in 2026 in the midterm when the blue wave succeeded than it was during Joe Biden's 2022 midterm when the red wave failed, which was supposed to win. So there were things going on that we really haven't quite appreciated. I think a lot of it had to do with voter turnout and the Hispanic vote, especially in places like Texas, Colorado, Arizona, things like that.

Guy Benson (3:22)

On that point, other issues at play, other factors coming into the mix, because this is something I've expressed some befuddlement over, because I understand some of the frustrations with the war, but as you described, if you compare it even to, you know, 6 and the Iraq war, I mean, we're not even in the same universe in terms of, you know, the bloodiness of the conflict or anything like that. And when you look at, you know, 8 or even the inflation of 2022, the economy was in much, much, much better shape heading into this election than some of these previous elections. And yet, the backlash was just massive, maybe like the culmination or combination of factors.

Is there Trump exhaustion as well? Is that part of it where people have just decided, OK, like, we want this era to be over? Like, there's got to be some other extra kind of, I don't know, X factor at play here to describe or go ahead.

Victor Davis Hanson (4:23)

Yeah, I think you're right. I think one thing is that the Trump administration didn't appreciate that they came into power with a 21 to 22 percent inflation in the sense of price increase than when he left. So, any moderate inflation, the first year was 2.4, but that was on top of 22 percent. And on staples like insurance and car and health, food, it was almost up to 30 So, when Joe Biden came in, the last inflation rate was 1.9 on the Trump, and I think it was seven for the four years. So, you put that on top of nine, that's bad, 16, but it's not 25 or 26 And the administration never made this distinction between the inflation rate and prices. In other words, I think people really did believe when they voted for him, that he was going to lower that 22% price as soon as he got into office, which would have been impossible without a massive deflation and recession. So, instead of saying, we're stuck, but we can increase wages and per family income as we lower the rate of inflation, and we can get out of this in two or three years. That was never communicated. So, when people said, well, he's here and he didn't lower inflation, but it would have been impossible to lower the 22%.