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He didn’t mince words about the role leftist agitators are playing for Democrats’ larger agenda.
“With a wink and a nod, these young people who are committing these atrocious crimes are the useful idiots, or I should say the useful thugs, of the progressive democratic project,” Hanson explained.
He called out the hypocrisy of Democratic officials like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who publicly denounced federal immigration enforcement while later blaming Republicans for rising violence in cities like L.A.
“And so they have deniability of culpability, but by their silence, they think they benefit from that. And what I mean explicitly is, Karen Bass goes in a park and tells ICE to get out of her city, and then she and Gavin Newsom blame other people like Donald Trump for the violence that they let spread. And there’s no consequences,” Hanson stated.
Hanson connected the dots between today’s unrest and the violent revolutionary movements of the past, warning that the country is teetering on familiar—and dangerous—ground.
“These people in the university are indoctrinated about all of this liberation roguery and philosophy,” he said.
He argued that the modern two-tiered justice system was born during the 2020 George Floyd riots, when tens of thousands were arrested but few were ever prosecuted.
“If you go back to 2020, Laura, there were 14,000 people arrested in the George Floyd riots that went on. Almost all of them were let go, and that sent a message that if you were on the left and you could pose as a liberation, Jacobin, I don’t know, revolutionary, then you were going to be exempt and there would be no consequences for your behavior,” Hanson said.
He recalled how radical groups like the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorized the country in the 1970s—but back then, law enforcement eventually cracked down hard.
“Finally, they said, we don’t care if you’re middle-class kids. We’re going to indict you. We’re going to convict you. And we’re going to put you in prison for 20, 30 years. And they did,” Hanson explained.
That swift justice, he noted, helped bring a wave of political sanity.
“And then we had 12 years of backlash and Republican Presidents, eight years of Reagan and four years of George H. Bush,” Hanson noted.
The historian says the only way to stop leftist violence today is to prosecute offenders—without regard for political ideology.
“The only way they’re going to be able to do it is to indict and convict these people,” Hanson declared.
He warned that young radicals think of violence as glamorous—a romantic revolution instead of vicious crime.
“They think it’s romantic. Yeah. They think it’s romantic. It’s neat. It’s deadly. And it’s vicious. And it’s horrible,” Hanson said.
Yet Hanson believes Americans have had enough—and a political reckoning could be coming.
“People are going to get sick of this. And I think they already are,” Hanson stated. “And you’re going to see a conservative reaction and a lot of Democratic hemorrhaging.”
He demanded that federal prosecutors finally do their jobs.
“And you’re going to see DAs, federal DAs, really to stop it,” Hanson added.
From riots that torched businesses and inflicted billions in damages, to ongoing waves of street violence, Hanson blames Democrat politicians who refused to condemn lawlessness and cheered on defunding the police.
Now, he says, the country is paying the price—and the American people are demanding real justice, not a politically rigged system that gives radicals a free pass.
Victor Davis Hanson’s message is clear: there’s no end to the chaos until violent criminals face real consequences.
But whether Democrats are willing to listen is another story entirely.
