VIDEO: Victor Davis Hanson: Germany is committing suicide!

On the latest episode of "The Daily Signal", Victor Davis Hanson weighs in on what appears to be Germany's death wish. He's talking about the country's domestic intelligence agency's labelling of Alternativ für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) as an "extremist" group -- just one level below "terrorist", evidently. 

AfD is challenging the designation in the courts, but Mr Hanson says the damage has already been done. He calls the move to effectively silence Germany's only rightist party about political control, not public safety as touted. The classification ensures AfD will never get its hands on the levers of political power, he says, no matter how many people support them.

If the AfD are "officially" extremists, Mr Hanson explains, "no government under [the German] parliamentary democracy system will ask them to join to form a majority government. So the process of ostracism and demonization of this party continues."

Why, he asks, would the German government do this? Because, the AfD offers a different vision, contrary to the politically correct narrative. "The party is advocating an alternative for the way that Germany is going." 

And where is Germany going? Mr Hanson paints a bleak picture of economic decline, energy failure, and political denial. But, he says, there is a deeper crisis -- one that strikes at the heart of Germany’s identity, and beyond that to the very idea of "Europe". 

The consequences of the denial of the rightist alternatives are both cultural and existential. Mr Hanson estimates that 16%  to 18% of Germany's population are foreigners -- not born in the Fatherland -- and have not not assimilated. "These are refugees -- or I don’t think they're refugees," he says. "They’re illegal immigrants from the volatile Middle East. Most of them are Muslim. Most of them do not have an intention of assimilating, intermarrying, and integrating fully in German society."

The [German] government's refusal to address this, he says, has allowed a demographic transformation to unfold without public debate or accountability. Today's Germany is a far cry from the Germany that once held Europe together. "For years, Germany was the powerhouse, the cohesive economic power that kept the EU together.... It's very tragic."

Instead of a healthy debate about what is to be done to resolve this crisis, Mr Hanson says the one party calling for such a debate and proposing solutions is being silenced. "They demonize [the AfD] because it's out of the norm. And the norm, unfortunately in Germany today, is national suicide."

Recommended reading: Suicide of the West, by James Burnham. The John Day Company, New York, 1964. That's right -- 1964. Conservative political pundits like Mr Burnham have seen this coming for six decades. Read the book (if you can find a copy) and marvel at the degree to which his vision of the future has become today's reality.