[Timesink]

A Peggy Noonan home run!

[patriciaruth]

Hillary may end up the face of the New Democrat Party, but she will not resonate in flyover country.

The last time she showed up there she was smiling and laughing and clapping at Paul Wellstone's memorial pep rally, and hobknobbing happily with other corrupt Democrat dinosaurs.

The Clintons deserted Arkansas and the little guy for big city lights and power, and the little guys will eventually figure this out.

[fporretto]

It isn't often that I disagree with the extraordinary Peggy Noonan, whose gifts put her next to Mark Steyn at the summit of the opinion-editorial art, but she leads off this otherwise fine and important essay with an outright misstatement:

Every party has a reason for being. The Republican Party was formed in the mid-19th century to achieve a specific historical goal: the end of slavery. From there it became the party of Lincoln, the party that saved the Republic and, ultimately, the party that gave a natural home to those who felt enslaved by big government, high taxes, big regulation.

Though the abolition of slavery was indeed one of its primary goals, the early Republican Party was not the anti-statist jewel Miss Noonan makes it out to be. In fact, that's a rather recent development -- about the time of Warren Harding.

Up to the 1896 Presidential election, the Republican Party was the more statist of the two major parties. Its platform included high tariffs, Prohibition, massive "internal improvements" (i.e., public works projects), and deliberate inflation through a monopoly central bank. Its overall orientation was toward regimentation of the citizenry and a pro-regulation, proto-fascist attitude toward domestic business, which essentially incorporated the largest industrialists and rail barons in the ruling fold. (Regulation was seen as a tool by which to assist the largest companies in warding off competition, then as now.)

The 1896 capture of the Democratic Party away from the libertarian Grover Cleveland faction by the Jennings Bryan Progressive wing caused a mass migration of liberty-oriented Cleveland Democrats to the GOP. To accommodate them, the GOP dropped its inflationism and embraced the gold standard (a Cleveland priority), muted its emphasis on public works projects, and dropped Prohibition from its agenda as well. This made it into the embryo of the modern Republican Party, in which emphasis on personal liberty and low taxes are married somewhat uneasily to a degree of indulgence toward large domestic corporations. (The Democratic Party simply became more and more statist, as the Progressives were displaced by American Socialists under the influence of John Dewey.)

All of this is summarized in a brief but incisive history of the late 19th Century that Ron Paul included in his book The Case For Gold. Paul Johnson also covers some of it, and the developments that proceeded from it, in his 20th Century history Modern Times.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[pt17]

A Peggy Noonan home run!

Yes, indeed she did. When you contrast Peggy's editorials against someone from the other side like, say, Mo Dowd(y), a thinking person can readily discern basic differences between the two: Mature logic and reason versus immature emotional instability and condescension. The difference are quite stark.

[SkyPilot]

Democrats will be very happy when their "dream candidate"--the Anti-Christ comes to power.

Until then, I hope they continue losing--so America can be blessed.

[river rat]

"Hillary Clinton just may be where the party is going.

The whole party is going to become Lesbians!

How will anyone be able to see Hillary! as the new face of the Democrat party - if her face is shoved in some woman's ......., oh- never mind.
Semper Fi

[nicmarlo]

The Republican Party was formed in the mid-19th century to achieve a specific historical goal: the end of slavery.

Tell me, why does this CONTINUE to be LOST on black people today? The Repub. party is and has been looked at by them as their worst enemy, rather than the over century-long "helper" toward their equality? They keep voting RAT, who do nothing but USE THEM. And those blacks who do "see the light" and leave the Rats are persecuted and openly humiliated by the Rats (i.e., Powell, Condi....there are others).

Even their self-appointed "black leader," Klintoon, had appointed no blacks in his cabinet; instead, he surrounds himself by people of color only when a camera is present.

This reminds me of his always holding a Bible in front of cameras on Sunday, but a lying, raping, deceiving, coke-head 24/7. But Christians didn't fall for this display. We could plainly SEE he exhibits no admirable qualities whatsoever much less those which Christ requires of His people.

[RWG]

They have achieved every major goal they sought in the past 100 years...not so, the health care plan authored by clinton lost big time and that was a major goal.

[GaltMeister]

Peggy bump for later read

[Magnolia]

Now they have only the media. That's a lot, but Paula Zahn is not a state, at least not yet, and she doesn't get a vote in the Senate.

LOL! Loved this line...

[bfree]

The problem the Democrats have with their base is that it isn't liberal in the way the Democratic leadership in general is liberal. It is left-wing, and some parts of it are way left-wing. The last socialists are there, the warriors of race and class; there are environmentalists who want to set loggers on fire, people who think George W. Bush killed Paul Wellstone, activists whose only concern in the world is abortion rights, and people who support capital punishment for only one crime, smoking in public. Soon they will demand the death penalty for smoking in private. (Are there radicals and nuts in the Republican base? Sure. But 20 years of observation tells me there aren't as many and they don't have the same clout. Moreover, Republican candidates are somewhat protected from them. The protection comes from the media, which hate nutty right-wingers more than they dislike Republicans.)

My alltime favorite paragraph!!!

[mor40]

Great Article.

My concern is that in all this "what do Democrats do now" thinking, we don't drop the ball and not concentrate on "what Republicans do now".

Republicans now have a great opportunity to communicate a vision and act consistently with that vision. There are still many challenges ahead. I'm not so sure that conservative principles have swept the nation (although I hope that they do).

Pray daily that God will grant His grace to this nation and wisdom to our leaders.

May God bless the U.S.A.

[Joe Brower]

[wai-ming]

They lost Massachusetts to a Mormon! They lost Maryland with a Kennedy!

A double whammy for Teddy and friends.

[navigator]

More like another "foul" bunt on strike three Timesink.

Peggy Noonan has been swimming "in the tank" for quite some time now. I'm surprised you haven't noticed.

Did you see her on MSNBC on election night??? As Imus and others said, "she looked nuts." At any moment I expected her to say, "Where's my precious? Who has my precious!"

The self-described "non-Democrat" could not have been more wrong about this election prior to us going to the polls. She's about as out-of-touch as you would expect one to be if they had locked themselves in their Manhattan apartment for months at a time like she has. And she has all of the insight you might expect of a NewYorker whose role in life seems to be that of the "house conservative" at trendy lefty dinner parties.

[WaterDragon]

I just read the first part, so maybe she corrected herself further down, but in fact the Dems FOUGHT a civil rights bill for decades. The Republicans introduced civil rights bills and the Dems would fillibuster them out. Not until LBJ decided to back one did it get passed, and even then way more Republicans voted for it than Democrats.

Now, I'll go finish the article.

[WaterDragon]

Okay. I've read it all. What the Democrats REALLY ought to do is follow the lead of Zell Miller. Hillary Clinton? THAT would energize the Republicans and every single decent person registered Democrat.

Just why is Noonan so interested in helping the Democrats?