The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Why the Left Won’t Admit America Is Still Dominating the World at 250 Years Old

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, the nation’s unmatched economic, cultural, and military dominance remains clear on the global stage. The enduring strength of the Constitution, a merit-based society, and a tradition of innovation have fueled a level of success few nations have ever achieved. But growing debt, declining birth rates, and shifting cultural values raise serious questions about long-term stability. The future of American greatness may depend on whether the country can preserve the principles that made it exceptional in the first place, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠  Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027  👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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CBC News. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. This is this year on July 4th will be the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, as exemplified in the ratification, signing of the Declaration of Independence. A lot of people ask ourselves, why are we so exceptional? Are we exceptional, or is this just American braggadaccio? Well, if you look at some major indicators, it's pretty clear that, America stands like a colossus over the world today. Look at the economy. The U.S. economy is roughly

$30 trillion nominal economy in goods and services. It's one-third larger than the Chinese economy. We hear a lot about ascend to China, but it essentially means that one American is producing as many goods and services as four Chinese counterparts. It's a third bigger than the EU, which has about 70 million more people. in the United States. If you look at its culture, if you look at Netflix, streaming, entertainment, Hollywood, even in its decline, popular music, it accounts for about 75% of international box office receipts of all sorts. Educationally, there's a lot of global indices, and they usually have the United States with eight to nine out of the top ten universities. That kind of mimics the same economic standards that show that at the top 10 companies in terms of international

market capitalization, I think eight of them now are American. In the case of the educational surveys, it's usually Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, et cetera, in the top 10. But at the top 50, 40 of them are American. If you look at politics, The U.S. Constitution is the oldest surviving blueprint for a democracy-dash republic. All the others have either faded or they come in and out of existence, but ours is that continuity of one particular consensual government and its foundational document is on precedent. Finally, militarily, we have about 13,000. combat aircraft and their logistical support craft that's larger than China, the EU, and India put together. We have 11 fleet carrier groups.

China is struggling to get a third. No other country has a fleet-sized carrier and a carrier group. They have smaller carriers, but then in addition to our 11, we have nine amphibious carriers that are about the same size as most other countries' fleet carriers. and we spend more money than most of the world combined in terms of defense budgetary. Why did we enjoy all of this preeminence? Is it just because we have a continental-sized country? Well, actually, Russia, then China, then Canada have larger territories than we do.

Many countries have two oceans that border them. So it wasn't just that we have a large area and we have natural resources. Other countries have as many or more than we do. There has to be a secret that explains this global preeminence. And one of them, as I mentioned, is the Constitution. No other country has been able to emulate successfully our Constitution. It's a very rare document. It assumes that power will be collected in one particular person or one particular area given human nature.

and therefore it's going to check the accumulation of inordinate power through the legislative, executive, and judicial branches as being separate, each with power over the other to stop their aggrandizement of authority and power. It has a bill of rights. Very few countries have a bill of rights that protect individual liberty against the state, which is outlined in the Constitution proper, the state's authority, and then the Bill of Rights refines or hones that in and gives precedence to the individual in terms of free expression, the sanctity of his home from search and seizure, freedom of religion, their right to bear

arms, etc. In addition to the Constitution, the United States is not founded on a class system. There are no dukes or earls where you're born, who your parents were, how much land your grandfather. That doesn't really matter very much. or at least as much as talent. We are a meritocratic society, and we value someone, I suppose, based on their net worth more than we do their title. That sounds kind of plutocratic, but actually our system of rewarding individual success is measured by materialism or good works or philanthropy is a much more effective barometer of talent than is inherited privilege. And so that lends a message to the people that anybody can make it in America in a way impossible in many of the European countries and, of course, elsewhere in the world. We have, until recently, had a long tradition of the melting pot, Merocratic immigration.

And that meant that if you came legally and immigrants were diverse and they were of numbers of a size that could be acculturated, assimilated, and integrated, then it was a wonderful thing. I mentioned the eight or nine companies in the top 10 by market capitalization. I should say that of those American eight or nine countries, four of them were founded by immigrants. So it's been a great boom the United States. And finally, we have a can-do individual culture. There's two types of envy in the world, the envy of emulation, the good envy, and the bad indie of anger or resentment that someone has more. than you do. The old morality tell that American sees a Cadillac and asks somebody how he got it

rather than kicks in the tires or keys it like someone else in another country would do in anger that someone has a nicer car than he does. But that does explain, encapsulate the American ethos of emulating people who are successful rather than trying to tear them down. We also are the largest really devout Western country in terms of the Judeo-Christian tradition, that offers a break to the appetites. When you have leisure and affluence that are the bounties of market capitalism and constitutional government, you can get decadent, you can get complacent. In other words, our religious tradition may be emblemized by the sermon of mountains, it's just because something is legal and just because somebody has the ability to do it, you should not necessarily do it.

because of moral and ethical consideration. Are there dangers to this great American experiment of 250 years? Absolutely. An affluent and leisureed society, unless it has familial or religious or community breaks upon the appetites, can become self-indulgent, lethargic, the lotus eater syndrome, and fall into a slow decline. We've seen that happen in Europe, the foundation of the Western tradition that is really dissent. it now in terms of economics, politics, culture, and its military. Another great worry is the fertility. The United States' fertility rate has fallen just in 30 years from 2.1, 2.1,

the replacement rate, down to 1.6, as if life is too valuable, too fun, too enjoyable, to waste at raising kids. Any society that has a low fertility rate, the population ages, it shrinks, and it becomes risk adverse. We also owe $30 trillion in aggregate national debt. We're running $1 to $2 trillion annual deficits, until recently a trillion dollar trade deficit. These are unsustainable. And that will require, first of all, a major cutback in entitlements and unfunded liabilities. And how we do that when we have a bread and circuses attitude that people think the government owes them something,

whether than they owe the government, I don't know, but it's something we're going to have to deal with. And finally, immigration's gone haywire. We traded in the successful centuries-long melting pot for the salad bowl. DEI, we have reverted to tribalism. If we continue down that pathway that your superficial appearance determines who you are, that it's essential rather than just incidental to your identity as a human, then we're going to end up like every tribal society, which is failure and pre-civilization reversion. Thank you very much.

This is Victor Davis-Hanson for The Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansan.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.