Author: Lily Shorney

Throughout Victor Davis Hanson’s novel, The Case for Trump, Hanson attempts to explain how America has ended up with Donald Trump, a man with little political experience, as the current President. Chapter four focuses specifically on the ways in which the Democrats evolved and became organized so as to set the stage for Donald Trump. He begins by speaking of Hillary Clinton and her campaign in 2016. Hanson argues that Clinton was running primarily in opposition to Trump. It was almost as if her policies and future goals were of little importance, instead she placed emphasis on the fact that Trump was a scary and bad person. She portrayed him in a way that emphasized that she was the better option. Additionally, she used her gender in order to gather votes as well. However, this clearly did not pan out as expected. The difference between her campaign and Obama’s campaign, which he obviously won, is the fact that Obama did not present himself merely in opposition of the Republican candidate. In fact, he mostly ignored his opponents. Additionally, Obama was especially careful in his campaign tactics. He made sure not to appear too liberal so that he might stay in line with the views of the more central democrats. He waited to incorporate progressivism until after he was elected. 

Hanson then goes on to explain how the Democratic party shifted during Obama’s term due to progressivism. Although Obama did not originally present himself as extremely progressive, after his election he became more so, and the progressivists in the Democratic party got excited and began to take over the party. Many of the Democrats who were liberal but lay more in the center, were turned away by this. By the end of Obama’s time as President of the United States, the Democratic party became dominated by the far Left and had little new ideas. With the next election, the Democrats and Republicans were polarized. The Democrats seemed to have forgotten that the majority of the population lay in the middle class and lower. Their priorities varied from the Democratic elite and the far left agenda. It was not sufficient to rely on citizens to merely vote based on their race or their gender, many voted in surprising ways. Hanson argues that all of these factors led to the unique situation in which America currently resides. After reading this chapter I have come to question how this situation can be remedied. I am curious to hear my classmates opinions on the next election and what they predict the outcome to be.

Chapter Four of Mark Regnerus’ Cheap Sex focuses on the relatively new prevalence of pornography and masturbation in American society today. He argues that pornography has greatly impacted the mating market and caused sex, which women hold as a commodity and men desire, to become increasingly cheaper as a result. Women are stuck in an incredibly difficult position considering that many do not approve of their significant others watching porn, however they often refrain from exiting a relationship as a result because the accessibility to pornography can and sometimes does serve as a replacement for sex with a real person. If women refuse to engage in sexual activity unless their significant other refrains from watching pornography, in many cases, men may simply resort to pornography and let the woman go. Regnerus also points out that pornography has shaped the ways in which people think about and view sex. It has opened people’s eyes to different sex positions, different sexual orientations, and expectations. He notes that a higher frequency of pornography viewing is correlated with a more liberal view on same sex marriage and other non traditional marriages. This may be a result of the fact that pornography incorporates many different types of sex with different people of varying sexual orientations. The prevalence of pornography and masturbation may also lead various people, specifically men, to remove themselves from the mating market. Not only this, but pornography contributes to unrealistic expectations about sex and sexual preferences. When viewing pornography, a person can focus solely on their own pleasure, they do not necessarily have to engage in sexual acts in order to please another person, because that other person is virtual. All of these points contribute to the lowering of the price of sex. As a result of pornography, sexual activity is readily and easily available at anytime with oneself.

Regnerus also goes on to write about masturbation and its connection with pornography. They seem to coincide. When a person reports having viewed pornography yesterday, they also reported having masturbated yesterday. When considering the entire population, he notes that when considering both pornography and masturbation, sexual minorities, for example bisexuals, lesbians, and homosexuals, seem to show the highest levels. This brings up an important point that Regnerus addresses multiple times throughout his novel. This is the concept of reliability of responses. Most of his data is based off of various surveys and interviews in which people are recording their own information. It is possible that those who are of a sexual minority show higher levels of watching pornography and engaging in masturbation simply because they are more comfortable with their sexuality and have already gone against the norm by identifying themselves as bi, lesbian, or homosexual. They are therefore more likely to admit to their actual sexual experiences and norms. This leads me to consider how accurate the author’s argument truly is. While he makes an effort to account for this potential flaw in the data, I still believe that response reliability could be greatly influencing the evidence used throughout the book. I would be interested to hear what my other classmates have to say about this topic.