In this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson lays out why the spread of radical Islam concerns him much more than the spread of socialist democratic government.

This content was recorded prior to Hanson’s major surgery on Dec. 30.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to VDH’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

JACK FOWLER: We’re going to look at another dust up, and let’s pick the growth and spread of radical Islam—that’s one side that’ll keep you awake at night, keeps me awake— versus socialist democratic government, which seems to be in some ways an ascendancy, at least in some places in America. 

Maybe it’s overstated because it’s always on the front page of the New York Post. But socialist democratic government versus the growth and spread of radical Islam: Victor, which is the worst of those two? 

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: I’m far more worried about radicalism for two reasons, negative and positive. Why did [Zohran] Mamdani get elected, and why do we have these socialist candidates in blue states, and why now? 

You’ve got to remember that Barack Obama was a socialist, and when he left office, he lost the House, and he lost the Senate, and he lost 1400 state and local offices that were Democrats. He destroyed the Democratic Party. essentially. He did. He made it possible for [Donald] Trump to win. 

What happened that resulted in this phenomenon? We’ve to remember that [former New York Mayor] Bill de Blasio was just a dull form of Mamdani. I thought he was, you know it better in New York. He was a socialist. He wasn’t as bold, but he was a socialist. He was just more incompetent. But we don’t know how........

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