From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

We're having an erosion of the middle class. I don't know what it was caused by globalization of the by coastal elite economy that hollowed out the interior.

But whatever it was, for 12 years until 2017, we hadn't seen a gain in middle class wages.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. And that's Victor Davis Hansen, our first guest on today's program.

Dr. Hanson is Wayne and Marsha Busk, distinguished fellow in history at Hillsdale College,

senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and also author of numerous books, including the brand

new one, The Dying Citizen, How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization are destroying

the idea of America.

You can find more at Victor Davishansson.com.

Dr. Hansen, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

You write in the introduction to this new book that

citizenship is not an entitlement. It requires work. How would you describe the work that

citizenship entails? Well, it's an implicit bargain between the citizen and his own government,

and that is in exchange for rights protected under the Constitution,

and they're based on a natural law of sorts,

but human interaction with humans, interactions with each other,

then the citizen is responsible for voting.

The citizen is responsible for being civically educated about the constitution, the nature

of the government, state, local, and federal.

And then I think there's also a duty for civic participation and celebrations, customs,

and traditions that enhance the body politic, you know, Thanksgiving,

...