by: Victor Davis Hanson, read in 2019

169 "Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. –Simone Weil, "Reflections on War""
200 "[A]n American political scientist knowledgeable of the Washington permanent caste...purportedly had assured Schatz that if Trump were elected, he would likely not survive his full term: "He will have to be removed from power by the deep state, or be assassinated.""
200 "Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), confessed in 2017: "The intention is to take down our President. This is very dangerous to America. It's a threat to our Republic. It constitutes a clear and present danger to our way of life. So, we have to be asking, 'What is the motive of these people?' . . . This is a problem in our country. We've got to protect our nation here. People have to be aware of what's going on, we need to protect America. This isn't about Democrat or Republican. This is about getting what's going on in the moment and understanding that our country itself is under attack from within.""
237 "Clinton was a creature of government, he [Trump] often at war with it. Her misdeeds were far worse than her reputation; his reputation far worse than his misdeeds. He could be authentically gross, she inauthentically prim. And his low cunning was usually prescient, her sober assessments usually erroneous. Trump could certainly be cruel to individuals, but he was kind to the public. Clinton was kind to her particular friends, but cruel to people."
272 Truman compared to Trump
274 "One of the great ironies of our age is that we have somehow managed to become far more sanctimonious than previous generations—and yet far more immoral by traditional standards as well. We can obsess over an unartful presidential comment, but snore through the systematic destruction of the manufacturing basis of an entire state or ignore warlike violence on the streets of Chicago."
275 "When any one man can change the lives of 330 million, what exactly is presidential morality after all—private and personal sins, or the transgressions that affect millions of lives for the worse?" Good question!
317 "Sophocles's [sic] Ajax's soliloquies about a rigged system and the lack of recognition accorded his undeniable accomplishments is Trumpism to the core."
320 "Trump likely will end in one of two fashions, both not particularly good: either spectacular but unacknowledged accomplishments followed by ostracism when he is out of office and no longer useful, or, less likely a single term due to the eventual embarrassment of his beneficiaries, as if his utility is no longer worth the wages of his perceived crudity." or worse: assassination.
355 "Trumpism ... was never billed as a change in presidential administration or as marking a Republican renaissance. Rather it was sold as an assault on the entire bipartisan culture of the elite "swamp" establishment by someone who had no prior investments in anything to do with the cultural landscape of Washington politics."