Peggy Noonan: Dubya's New Deal

Opinion Journal ^ | 05/17/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

The president sacrifices whatever he must to win the war--just as FDR did.

Let me tell you what I think of the criticism that President Bush (a) reversed a half century of Republican philosophy on free trade and caved in on tariffs, and (b) accepted and endorsed a big-government farm bill that was so greasy, pork-filled and fat-laden that if you took the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 in your hand and held a match to it would hiss, pop and sizzle like bacon in a big black skillet.

[palo verde]

Hi Wphile
your post # 9 is very interesting
I understand what you are saying and I agree with you
love, Palo

[palo verde]

excellent post BeAChooser, I agree with you
love, Palo

[palo verde]

excellent post RLK, I agree with you
love, Palo

[palo verde]

I am referring to your post ridiculing her assertion that the war on terrorism
equates with WWII
did she actually say that? can she actually believe that?
at first I thought by win the war, she meant the midterm elections
then it seemed she meant war on terrorism
love, palo

[RLK]

By her picture I would judge her to be quite young. Without having lived through WWII it's defficult to know what war is. I can remember air raid drills and blackouts in Iowa diring WWII. It sounds funny now. During that period ine could stand in the American beach and watch explosions anf fires on the ocean from torpedoed ships. I've been out on some of those ships as a diver. There are hundreds of them in long trails on the East coast. If Hitler had not aborted the project he would have bombed New York City.

[RLK]

The other thing Noonan has no conception of is the economic condition during the '30s when close to 1/4 of the people were out of work and the banking system had collapsed..

[palo verde]

Hi RLK
thank you for your interesting post
I didn't know that
I was born in an apt in Manhattan with black-out shades
No one explained to me what they were for, I just assumed it was normal to have two sets of shades, and one was called blackout shades
and we were all issued dog tags when we started school

Both the War and the Depression seemed to have been TOTAL events
The Depression shaped everyone of my dad's decisions for me and my kid brother's future till we left home
I remember when my brother dropped out of college, my dad said he has to go back and get his degree so he can work for Civil Service, ''When the Depression came those who worked for the government kept their job.''

I'm guessing Peggy is around same age as me
She's quite a pretty girl (I've seen her on tv) with a fetching manner.
Altho you are right, the only explanation for her lack of awareness, would be if she was born so far away from those two events, that she couldn't estimate their effect.
Love, Palo

[palo verde]

when I got interested in spirituality, I bought all the books by Edgar Cayce, a psychic
which had transcripts of all his sessions where people asked him questions
the one from 1931 was vivid for me
every single person wanted to know when the Depression would end
every question was about the Depression
I was struck by how it was an experience of fear
Love, Palo

I've always thanked God that billclinton arrived during time of abundance
Adolph Hitler manipulated German citizens' fear to get their allegiance
billclinton planned on getting our allegiance, but failed (thank God)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

LEARN!!! WE ARE IN A . . . WAR AGAINST BOTH THE TERRORISTS AND THE LIBERALS!

The only weakness in this article is that FDR went to war against three nations, Bush is fighting against terrorists. That is like fighting a war on poverty or on drugs; how we doing on those wars anyhow?

Why are Democratic operatives more effective? Because they see politics as total war. When you see yourself as a captain in a great unending struggle you not only fight harder, you rationalize fighting meaner. Why are Republican operatives less effective? Most of them don't believe politics is total war. It's only about government, it's not as big and important as life. If they thought it were that big they'd fight as if it were total war, but they wouldn't be Republicans; they'd be people who think government is everything.

If a GOP operative . . . attempts to be as crude and manipulative as a Paul Begala, and actually succeeds, the press will not say he is a worthy opponent. The press will paint him as dark-jowled and Nixonian, a hater, a hammer. The press doesn't like rude Republicans.

Noonan says too much, and not enough, about relations between Republicans and the press. Journalists, like all entertainers, like a simple black-and-white meladrama. Democrats--whether politicians or trial lawyers or unionists or black militants--give journalists exactly that.

Republicans, not only the rank and file but the more prosperous as well, see themselves as promoting the general welfare by the mundane act of doing their jobs and being tolerant of each other in our private and institutional capacities. In other words, Republicans are boring. To journalists as with all entertainers, being boring is the unforgivable sin.

The miracle is not, then, that journalism is de facto a part of the Democratic Party. The amazing thing is that with the journalistic propaganda wind squarely at its back the Democrats do not always win every election.

So yes, we are at war with liberals. But no, we are not "at war with terrorism." The very fact that "terrorism" is not a nation would tell you that we are not "at war." This is Cold War II. And just as Cold War I would have been a relative cakewalk without a fifth-column to contend with, just so does liberalism--socialism, really--constitute the main problem today. For without it, our Assassin Sect enemies would despair and turn to other pursuits.

[palo verde]

Bush is fighting against terrorists. That is like fighting a war on poverty or on drugs

Perceptive post, I agree with you

I still don't know who hired the arab fanatics to carry out 9/11
I've heard international gangsters were responsible
opium production had been stopped, as a result of the war, it is now a bumper crop
My friend whose brother works high up for Dick Cheney told me a serious attempt was made during 9/11 to get both Bush and Cheney, but this has been hushed up
I've never believed Bin Laden was responsible
When billclinton was prez, because he is a gangster, he used office of presidency of USA to further gangster interests
it's quite a bonanza for gangsters to have prez of usa working for their interests
they may have been frustrated when President Bush took office
Whether they were responsible for 9/ll I don't know, but they have made out like a bandit with the bumper opium crop
Love, Palo

[montag813]

Bush has toss'ed his base out in the cold by far more than a hundred votes. I rush to the television now to turn him off when he comes on, I can't bear to look at the man or listen to what he has to say. What he is saying probably isn't in my native tongue anyway.

Hold your nose, turn him off, do whatever you need to to.

But, please, come November, VOTE REPUBLICAN.

Bush is our only chance to give us a unbeatable 7-2 majority of the SCOTUS, which America will need desperately to endure the coming global-socialist war on our culture.

[RLK]

The Germans had the finest aeronautical engineers in the world during the 20s 30s and 40s. I was in the Air Force ROTC with Dr. Lipish's son after they were brought in to the U. S. space program. He brought in film from the German aeronautical development of the 30s. They had rocked planes we wouldn't have until 10 or more years later in out paniced development program. They had designed a bomber with a 6,000 mile plus operational radius that was capable of bombing New York from Germany. For some reason Hitler cancelled the project or it would have happened. If it had not been for Hitler's neurotic erraticism, Germany would have won the war.

[biffalobull]

- Sign a direct unconstitutional assault on the First Amendment - Prop up a failing steel industry with confiscated tax dollars - Prop up farmers who can't figure out how to do their damn jobs efficiently with confiscated tax dollars - Back off on any effort to even slightly relieve taxpayers of their burden - Create an even more-rapidly expanding Big Stupid Government

Hank; You forgot to mention GW's most serious sin, IMHO.

He has done nothing to bring KKKlintoon to task.

I believe that is a serious mistake.

[RLK]

transcripts of all his sessions where people asked him questions the one from 1931 was vivid for me every single person wanted to know when the Depression would end every question was about the Depression I was struck by how it was an experience of fear

--------------------

My parents went broke three times during the deptession. He stayed frightened until he died in 1993. Many in that generation would never trust banks again for the rest of their lives. For years he kept his money in secret vaults he had rather than put it in banks.

[browardchad]

Do you really think that after the Nov elections Bush won't throw many, many bones to the base? Carl Rove isn't stupid and he will have Bush roll out all kinds of things that the base will do cartwheels over !

I hope you're right, but who's to say that this strategy won't continue until '2004, and then '2006?

[palo verde]

hi rlk
your post affects me strongly
my dad remained frightened his whole life till he went to heaven in '94

when the banks collapsed, banks are such a symbol of security, it must have traumatized people back then
I was struck by something else Edgar Cayce said in that session, he told them to expect a turnaround in '32
he said things won't physically change then, but the populace will start to get back hope, and this will usher in a change
they must have been totally desperate when he said it
Love, Palo

[Austin Willard Wright]

It also misses another point. FDR was quite willing to pursue statist New Deal policies during the war in fact he want to expand them after the war. The key practical problem which undermined this goal was that the New Dealers (when appointed to wartime positions) always screwed up. By default, to handle war mobilization, FDR had to rely on the "dollar a year" corporate types (who knew actually who to run things) rather than the starry-eyed but bumbling New Dealer types (like Henry Wallace).

Moreover, by 1943, the GOP was able to block the New Dealers because they had made congressional gains during the war. The best source on this The New Dealers War by Thomas Fleming.

[smith288]

Just one more vote from Bush and allowing the liberal candidate a better chance of stopping our war on terror. But I guess that pesky freedom thing isnt all its cracked up to be if them steel tarrifs are in disagreance with you.

[RLK]

I am no Roosevelt fan, but he did give people hope. There remained high unemployment rates until WWII, which really ended the depression. Without WWII I don't believe a recovery would have taken place until the '50s.

[usconservative]

You shouldn't get emotional in the middle of a chess game. I look at Carville as an amotionalist, somebody who has the duty of inspiring the non-thinkers, the brown shirts and the religious followers of the political left.

Spot On. Carville plays to his party's emotions and base instincts. Their emotions carry them away, and their base instincts fuel hatred and intolerance for anyone who has an opposing point of view. The so-called "tolerant" left is nothing more than a bunch of sycophant 7 year olds who have been spoiled rotten by mommy & daddy and are used to getting their way.

The best way to win over the minds of the liberals is to make them use their minds in an intelligent manner rather than falling to the invidious sales pitches of their political leaders.

Absolutely impossible. You make a false assumption that LIEberals have a mind to use. They don't. The irony of it all is that the LEFT side of the brain is the logic/thinking side of the brain, while the RIGHT side is the emotional side. Leftists use only the right sides of their brains. The left side of their brain has either died for lack of use, or been cut out entirely as part of the initiation process into the leftist bed-wetting communist sympathisizing anti-American deomcRAT party.

Or in Senator Robert Byrd's case, the KKK.