[Pokey78]

Pinging Peggy's list.

[NELSON111]

She nails it. That's why I left the democratic party. I was raised a democrat...and went through the first 20 years of my life thinking that there were 2 kinds of women...democrats and others. I would only be allowed to marry a democrat. I voted for Dukakis. Then something happened. I noticed the DNC didn't think like I thought. They seemed to hate America and the things about America I loved. I voted for Clinton in '92...but held my nose. Within 2 short years...I was a rabid Republican.

Thanks Clinton and DNC for opening my eyes...if you want somebody to blame for losing a democrat for life (and BTW...my mom is a republican too now thanks to X42)...blame yourself.

[nickcarraway]

Think of all the great people who became Republicans, when the Democrats, ``left them.'' Noonan and Ronald Reagan, for example.

[JoeSixPack1]

Please put me on the "Peggy List" :-)

[NetValue]

Again, Ms. Noonan is right on the mark...perfect. Here is every reason to NOT be a dimocrat.

[Noumenon]

Half the country is wondering if we are in the end times. (Excuse me, I mean they fear man may be living through a final, wrenching paroxysm, the result of man's inhumanity to man and of the inevitable culmination of several unhelpful forces and trends.)

Guess what, Peggy - there are more than a few of us who aren't wondering any more. It isn't rocket science or prophecy - all it takes is a modicum of understanding of human nature, some grasp of history and, for crying out loud, paying attention to what's going on around you. Sometimes ideas and events converge to produce a watershed in human history. The age-old struggle between those who claim the right to dictate the terms of existence to everyone else and those of us who recognize that no such 'right' exists is coming to a head once again. We're choosing up sides along a dividing line that cuts across national boundaries and political parties; it's a fundamental difference in world view that ignores the self-imposed borderlines of race and the hierarchies of class. For many of us, the light has begun to dawn on the fact that there can be no appeasement of evil, no compromise to be had with the erstwhile masters and minders of humankind. Moderation has no place here - not in this time or in this place.

Oh - one last thing, Peggy: your call for gun registration will be one of the proximate causes of the next American Civil War. It goes something like this: I will refuse to register any of my weapons at any time or for any reason. That is a line in the sand whose crossing I will not peacefully allow. Those who come to confiscate my 'unlawful' un-registered weapons and to arrest me me for non-compliance will not find me at home - I will already have taken to the field in order to hunt down those who sent them.

[Fracas]

She should have addressed tort reform and the Judiciary, but otherwise, a fine article. The good news is that Andrew will pay no attention.

[Lancey Howard]

You have had only one two-term Democratic president in the 35 years since Vietnam. This is because in the end you looked extreme, bought and paid for, and weak.

And beholden to a wacky mish-mash of goofy, liberal special interest groups that seem to be the bulk of the party itself. Gun-grabbing extremists, abortion-on-demand extremists, race-hustling "reparations" extremists, land-grabbing environmental extremists, America-hating and capitalism-hating extremists, and regular old parasites who depend on the Democrats to confiscate from society's producers and hand out lots of "free stuff"..... Why on God's green earth would normal, traditional American families want anything to do with the Democrat Party?

[Question_Assumptions]

I'm surprised about her focus on abortion for part of this essay. I think she's said that she is essentially pro-choice but I think even some pro-choice people are starting to realize that NARAL is pro-abortion.

[yoe]

Miss Peggy really cuts through the murkiness of today’s socialist Democratic party. It is Gephardt who seems to be calingl for a union akin to Hoffa’s organized crime as his base. It Tom Daschle and his class warfare or Hillary’s strident and mendacious call to the feminists, radical activists of all sorts as she did in the 60s and 70s. It Nancy Pelosy coming into the media light swinging like a mad miner who had been underground too long, spouting an anti-American pro socialist rhetoric long dead. It is all those slick and corrupt DNC leaders they cling to; it has not been about America and Americans for a long, long time.

I too hope Cuomo doesn’t pay attention to Peggy’s excellent advice other than to rally around a deserving President and put America first. One other thing; she hits the nail squarely on when she touches on elitism, snobbery it is that arrogance and their anti-Americanism that will do them in and is.

[Dec31,1999]

Bump. Thanks for the great post.

[ImpBill]

Peggy asks the Democrats to show class and integrity. I think she is asking them to show things they believe are liabilities. The Democrat elected leadership has NO class nor integrity. They squandered it all in the quest for power. I hope elected Republicans are capable of having enough vision to see that and not follow the same path. I am not always convinced they do.

[GOPJ]

How can one person be this insightful? It's never just one comment that "shines the light," it's twenty. Amazing.

My Democratic friends, when you think about this question, ask yourself if snobbery as a political force isn't part of the reason you stand where you stand.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Damn, That was GREAT!!!

[txzman]

Best line of the article: And they're not teaching their kids to love you.

Absolutely right!

I was a Democrat for a long time, until I turned 35 or so (See Winston Churchill). Now my kids wonder where we go to meet Democrats! LOL.

[I Am Not A Mod]

Free Republic Highlights 3/03/03 (doesn't that date look cool?)

[PGalt]

The Democratic Crime Syndicate should be shown the ash heap of history. The Republicans, Libertarians, Constitutionalists and Freepers should be steering the political course of this great nation. Criminals are anti-freedom. For them to have their own political party is unbelievable.

[jla]

Have a philosophy instead of an ideology, hold it high and dear, and attempt to apply it, not impose it.

The comely Miss Noonan might as well have just suggested they squeeze water from a rock.
Liberal ideology cannot be transposed to a philosophy because it's intrinsically one of hegemony over the will of the people, and their innate desire for freedom.
Much akin to Lenin, Mao, et al, the liberal ideology is premised on the notion that those occupying the offices of power know what's better for the citizens, whether they like it or not.

[fporretto]

Miss Noonan is a marvel.

It has been very good for the GOP, overall, to have so many adherents who are former Democrats. Those people learned from their mistakes; they saw that what they'd advocated had gone wrong, thought about the reasons, and abandoned their allegiance to what didn't and couldn't work. Learning is most effective when it's personal, based on the recognition of one's own mistakes, rather than borrowed from the experience of others.

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

[alwaysconservative]

My favorite passage, in particular the last line:

Let me be, admittedly, mean, but to make a point I can't figure out how to make any other way. Those who oppose the right to keep and bear arms are not as a rule the kind of people who would, or could, take down a nut waving his gun at the kids in a McDonalds. Those who oppose gun rights are more like the kind of people who when the incident was over would write a sensitive essay about how it felt to come face to face with one's existential powerlessness when faced with the sudden force of a sick man who alas shot two kids right in front of me. You may mean to be helpful in the abstract, but you are not helpful in the particular.

Ms. Noonan is a national treasure!