Posted on 10/30/2009 1:42:42 AM PDT by Nobel_1
The new economic statistics put growth at a healthy 3.5% for the third quarter. We should be dancing in the streets. No one is, because no one has any faith in these numbers. ... No one thinks we're entering a new age of abundance. No one thinks it will ever be the same as before 2008.
* * *
The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.
* * *
I think I know part of the answer. It is that they've never seen things go dark. They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don't have the habit of worry.
* * *
They don't feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about. They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases—"strongest nation in the world," "indispensable nation," "unipolar power," "highest standard of living"—and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally.
We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Best thing Noonan has written in ages.
Yes, well said. But I can’t help but look back at the role of the Washipundits like Peggy and George Will who decided during the primary season and in the run-up to the election that it was the hayseed grassroots that were the problem in the Republican party and if only they could get rid of those damned Evangelicals and the right-wing nuts like Sarah Palin then everything would be alright. They split the party elites from their base, we lost the election, and we are all suffering the consequences. Peggy and her beltway pals need to own up to their role in the coming misery.
Noonan can write an article without blaming Palin?
LOL. I had the same thought. She is bemoaning the fact that leadership doesn’t have people like Sarah Palin and she doesn’t even realize it. No rubes from Alaska for her, thank you very much.
bookmark
True. There is plenty of blame to go around.
You’ve got to love the Reagan speech re-runs by the Heritage Foundation. I heard one yesterday, and his words were soooo applicable to the moment!
We need more Reagan Repubs ... Palin is onboard.
I may not be a Professional Erudite Wordsmith, Peggy, but by my count those are four threats.
Good article. I’ve had a somewhat similar conversation with some of the older members of my family.
I don’t care what Noonan has to say. The grass root conservative movement is real and substantial. We have been diligent and committed to the conservative cause and Noonan
the pious
dismissed us as being obnoxious rubes.
Noonan has been swept off the stage. WSJ should dump
her column.
She nailed this, but doesn't go quite far enough. The grandchildren of the wealthy of whom she speaks are not simply complacent, they are absolute idiots.
Without family connections or affirmative action, most of today's political and business "leaders" would be unemployable. They have nearly destroyed the country as the intelligent and competent people out in the cheap seats look on in horror.
What are we supposed to do? They have millions of dollars to buy their seats at the table, supported by millions in additional PAC money from their equally worthless compatriots.
Meanwhile, we business owners work 100 hours per week or more, and the better we are...the more they take!
They are dragging us all backwards into the abyss. I know that the popular notion on this forum is that it is some grand conspiracy...and some of the players are no doubt of that mind....but most of them are just flat-out morons.
and does she take responsibility? nooooooo.....the very people who recognized how this country could be destroyed were the ones they made fun of, mocked. They continue to look down on us from their perches of superiority, and now wring their hands, oh woe is us, not admitting their guilt.
They should all eat dirt.
Peggy writes well, but she is misreading this. The liberal Obama supporters are not disheartened; they are still euphoric over their messiah's marvelous potential. They still drool over the joy of the Nobel Peace Prize that he deserves on potential alone. They still grin as they think of the historical inevitability of Obama's coming socialist victory over the obsolete Constitution. Disheartened? Nope. They have never felt closer to victory over American values.
As for real Americans, the conservatives who despise Obama and his socialist policies, we are no more disheartened than the enemies of our values and of our children. We are disgusted with Obama and with our government, but we as a group are still optimistic. We expect the younger, more energetic conservatives including Palin, Hoffman, Thompson, Army, and Bachmann to save our freedom (with our help) from the destructive efforts of a government that is no longer of the people, by the people, and for the people. We still see America as great, and we see our country's best days ahead of us, not in the past.
Peggy is making a fundamental mistake. America's strength is not in Washington DC but in the people, and Peggy is mistaking the prevalent attitude toward the liar in our White House for an overall perspective on our country. America will survive Obama, the biggest threat to freedom in our history. Freedom will survive. Only America's enemies have reason to feel disheartened, and they are too clueless to realize the emptiness of their philosophy so early in Obama's reign.
The piece is very good. Ms Noonan only missed two points. First, the people at the top of our executive branch, those people who will only respond even to the congress when and as they choose, know that their actions won’t “succeed” as any normal person would define success. For them, success will mean the dollar destroyed, inalienable constitutional liberties regrettably “suspended” (forever) because of (permanent or sequential) emergencies, and all power “necessarily” migrating into the White House.
The WH gang didn’t care what Nanzi and Hairy put into the Stimulus Bill, only that it was big enough to need capitals. Their only concern about funding for the last part of this fiscal year was that it be plentiful (i.e. $400B). They are trying to buy votes at home and “love” abroad with obscene giveaways, knowing full well that “redistributing wealth” to people who haven’t earned it achieves only the destruction of wealth. Perfect!
And the other, perhaps lesser, point Ms Noonan missed: that some of us are not disheartened, but are instead angry enough to kill until we die, or all the traitors in our nation die — along with everyone who looks, sounds, or smells like a traitor. The only thing worse than a blood bath would be an Obama success. Please note tagline.
Peggy helped with bring us Obama with her writing before the election. Thanks for nothing Peggy.
Forget it Peggy you two timing whore. Go back to your stud yobama and stop pretending to be “concerned” about America ... you might not get invited to the next party at the White House.
Agree as they were maybe still are enablers.
Could it be they have realized that they are as well as everyone else sacrifices to the dictator?
Many pundits don’t realize that presidents are supposed to be leaders, not legislators or managers.
Good leaders are not supposed to do the work themselves. They set goals and inspire others to achieve those goals while providing cover. Wise leaders never take credit for themselves. They give credit to others. Example: Reagan.
Sarah Palin displays all of the traits of a true leader. It matters not that she doesn’t know all the ins and outs of Washington politics. If she can surround herself with the right people, and I believe she can, she’s more than capable of being a great president. The anti-Palin pundits don’t realize how out of touch they are, because people eagerly rally for Palin-type leaders.
Obama, btw, displays ZERO traits of good leadership. It’s always about him, and, without dispensing tax monies, he apparently can’t inspire anyone to do anything.
Noonan is a two-faced phoney...
Kinda dumb essay but better than Noonan’s recent efforts. She is so weepy liberal I’ll bet she almost voted for 0bama like (Chris Buckley) or actually did
With apologies to Michael Corleone.
I agree with everything you said.
Not a word about her friend with a metal fabrication shop in a high tax state looking to move south or "Go Galt". My guess is she doesn't know what metal fabrication is, and her axis of her friends and the Frank reference was so inside the beltway mentality.
My guess is she like many boomers are scared that her doctor(s) will say "I'm done"..
I don't mean to be a smart @$$ but how is that hope and change working now for you Peggy. So many of us tried to warn her and our friends he would be an incompetent boob or worse. He is worse, and don't say we didn't warn you...
Speaking of turn coats, I wonder what Colin Powell has been up to lately. I would like to hear him say that he was wrong and terribly sorry.
But, Peggy, one has to ask, when you developed your crush on Obama were you not guilty of the it can't happen here mentality also?
This can’t be posted enough.
“A Time for Choosing” by Ronald Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY
She would redeem her self a bit by coming right out out and saying “I was wrong and very stupid in 2008”.
I may not be a Professional Erudite Wordsmith, Peggy, but by my count those are four threats.
You have correctly analyzed yourself, you are not a wordsmith. The one thing is that the people have become disheartened. The rest are the effects of it.
They spend most of their time making fun of the people who make America work. They have nothing but contempt for the people in thankless jobs who actually get things done. They ridicule the "teabaggers" and the people who attended town hall meetings to try to participate in the Democratic process and prevent a disastrous health care bureaucracy from being imposed on us. They call good, patriotic Americans right wingers and hate groups.
Senator Judd Gregg recently said, "we're basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country." and "You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States. We're creating these massive debts which we're passing on to our children. We're going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this."
The simple fact is that our great country is systematically being turned into a deindustrialized third world dictatorship. Our government, MSM and legal system are all dishonest, dysfunctional and incapable of anything other than wasting money and making things worse.
She’s right. The Ted Kennedys and Chris Dodds of the world would be collecting aluminum cans for a living if it weren’t for their families’ names and connections. Unfortunately, dunces like those two have been instrumental in destroying the Republic because clueless idiots kept electing them to office.
Is Peggy coming out of the ether at last?
Change some of the numbers due to inflation and that speech would be relevant given tomorrow.
Professional Buffleheaded Dingbat.
How’s that Hopeychange working out for you, Peggy?
I may not be a Professional Erudite Wordsmith, Peggy, but by my count those are four threats.
You have correctly analyzed yourself, you are not a wordsmith. The one thing is that the people have become disheartened. The rest are the effects of it.
Re-read the sentence. That's not what it says.
Allow me then to suggest to Her Pegginess a clearer, more succinct (please!) re-write:
The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened,. that tThis condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.
There. Was that so hard.
The Left has Maureen Dowd.
We’re saddled with Peggy.
Peggy, got crow?
Perhaps my eyes are not awake but all I see different is that your “re-write” is in bold. I stand by my observation that she has stated only one problem and the rest results from that problem.
Shouldn’t questions (Was that so hard. ) end with a question mark?
Not if they’re rhetorical questions.
It was either David Hume or Adam Smith who wrote that a country can absorb a lot of ruin. We are currently experimenting to find out how much ruin a country can absorb before it cracks.
As a result, we have enjoyed a prosperity that has allowed some of us to think that gay marriage and alternative energy are significant and worthy issues. In contrast, think of how those issues would have been regarded in the 1950's and 1960's.
We are like spoiled children who don't know what it means to go without a meal or a new toy. The current health care debate is a great example. Who would trade 1959 medical care for the care available now? There is no medical crisis. Great medical care costs money. The crude and limited care in 1959 cost a lot less.
It will take a major setback to bring America to its senses. And Obama may be just the man to provide that setback in the form of a prolonged recession.
If Noonan has written anything right, she doesn’t mean it, she’s just trolling for hits. Not clicking on her ‘til crack of doom.
I see: the American people are callous children. This explains the dire straits we face.
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