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Thank You, Peggy Noonan
I had just wandered through a generally so-so observation about patrician and plebeian elements in our present political situation. I was not sure that I had made my points clear enough for the normal pleb to grasp fully (we are generally too preoccupied with life’s minor distractions such as rent, food, and selecting the right brand of beer).
But one can always count on their betters to provide. So Peggy Noonan was kind enough to write a Wall Street Journal piece that explains it much better than I. She, of course, is an established member of the GOP Order of Patricians and her concern was about the unwashed plebs generally known as Trump voters. Hope among her fellow elitists was that more and more of this group would abandon the notion of the former president seeking the office again in 2024, that support for him would fade and he would pass from the public’s eye. As it is turning out, that simply isn’t happening. In fact, it appears to some that their numbers might even be growing.
This is so despite the continuous dumping on the former president. Or maybe even because of it. The latest anti-Trump production is turning into a huge disappointment. It actually seems to have the opposite effect intended. Interest in the show trial sometimes called the J6 hearings has been weak and far below what was hoped for. In fact, it is probably having the opposite effect. Only the most gullible or pre-disposed believe in them and for the rest they are far too transparent. For most, they leave the distinct impression of Star Chamber episodes intended not to learn anything but to influence an election by removing a leading candidate. Plebs must be protected from their limited intellects by narrowing their choices to only acceptable options.
In any case, Trump is actually increasing in support from this sideshow. So a fresh approach in pleb management has shown its face recently. That is to agree that the plebs do have some real concerns and that maybe the down and dirty Trump demeanor helped to create attention for them. But now he has served his purpose and it is time for candidates with smoother edges to carry the banner. For the moment, they are even willing to accept some candidates who might be a little “Trumpy” themselves as long as they are not the original. For the moment, that is.
But in the end, the real call will be for “reasonable” candidates who can hopefully worm their way into those “purple” vote without really confronting the matters that will change us as a nation and having to win a thoughtful and passionate argument for Liberty. You know, the kind of candidates who made Trump possible in 2016, the kind who knows in his (or hers, or …..) heart that something can be worked out to get us by if the patricians were left to bargain among themselves.
Noonan knows enough to begin every con job with a compliment, sort of. She is impressed that every Trump voter does love America even if it is “not always been a fully thought-through love but it’s generally fully felt”. She even concedes that this is “admirable”, even if the thought process was so incomplete. So plebeian. If it got any more simple-minded, it would be on my level.
A little deeper into the piece one is able to get a clearer picture of the patrician view of those millions upon millions of the GOP base who are so regularly called on by the party elites but rarely listened to. She tries to reinforce the Dem contention that Trump was told by all reasonable and sane people that the 2020 election was fair and square but he chose to listen instead to a collection of “kooks, crooks and freaks” which was not hard to find since “Trumpworld has more than most”.
Her appeal to wayward plebs is to drop Trump or lose the shining chance to dominate in the coming elections. Everything is so very bad that just about any Republican will surely win. Any except, of course, Trump. “Only Trump” would lose.
But the truth is as soon as Trump can be eliminated, the patricians will begin to try and thin out any of the other non-conformists with plebeian tendencies. Before the discussion is over they will hope to be back to the old standard GOP patrician because they could win “in the middle”. You know, that legendary middle where gun rights can be narrowed, where new entitlements have been created, where “comprehensive” immigration reform lives, where government dollars represent educational concern, where … Oh, hell my simple mind and stubby fingers are over-loaded … You can fill in the rest.
What is so desperately needed is a clear, objective American agenda for all, with disregard for who you are speaking to. The principles of the Founding and the principles which build successful lives will reach all levels of society.
The great swath of middle America that I have spoken of very much feels the loss of our Constitution even if the patricians don’t. The party elites have yet to realize that MAGA is not a Trump thing. It is a grassroots American plebeian thing. Trump simply put a slogan behind it and then did his best to implement it.
The Peggy Noonans still talk and act as if this was about a loose-mouthed billionaire and not the saving of the republic as founded. But they do sense the shift away from them and that is what they hate, what they fight against. If Trump is at the head of the column or not is hardly the central question. The real question is the uncompromising direction of the column.
We might be in a dangerous position with our future but more and more I believe that the people who will make the long-term difference have finally realized that the damage done to us by the “warriors” on their side, it is not near the problem as the damage done by the cowards and blinded on ours. Hopefully, Noonan will save her condescension for her own kind.
By the way, if any of you fellow plebs actually want to read the Noonan column you will find it behind a paywall. Unless you have the devious computer skills to bypass “the wall”, you will have to take my word for the content of the piece. Otherwise, you can join me in some simple plebeian pleasure as I take off these smelly socks, let the air hit these more than smelly feet, pour three, possibly four fingers in a cup, and soak up the quiet of an evening that has finally begun to cool.
Published in General
I see he’s threatening the airlines this morning.
He’s in a serious technical job and he has zero technical knowledge about his job.
Bad reputation as mayor.
One wonders what he’s good at.
Okay, so 62% of Independents want to see Trump charged with a crime.
Will you be watching the hearings tomorrow?
Charged with what? To me it could show an ignorance of civics and the news.
Nobody spends more time not thinking about public policy.
From what I can tell, Gary has never been concerned that this hearing is entirely one-sided. He likes his Soviet-style show trials. Why allow the opposition to state their case? Better to make sure that side is never heard. Makes mind-control so much easier.
People misunderstand mind-control. It’s not about hypnotism or some other kind of hocus-pocus. It can be achieved by simply flooding the zone with a single viewpoint, emanating from every corner of the culture. If you control all the media outlets, the universities, the entertainment industry, the primary schools, the libraries, the corporations, . . . if you control all that, totalitarianism is simple. Mind control is automatic.
If a majority refuse to vote for Trump, if he runs, and vote for more of what we have gotten from the Democrats so far, then they deserve more inflation, partisanship,empty shelves, and crime. I will not cry over it nor feel any sympathy for them. I believe freedom and prosperity must be earned and not enjoyed by the undeserving. However, one thing is certain, I won’t be a sucker again for the ruling class on our side.
Why not DeSantis? Why not Kemp? Why not Abbott? Why not Pence? Why not Tim (or Rick) Scott?
Why not a conservative Republican without all of Trump’s baggage?
The people voted for her knowing she would likely finish his term. They deserve her and all the ridicule Babylon Bee would conjure up.
[Love you, Rufus. You can translate my typos before I can correct them]
Push/ pull polls from leftie media are for maleable minds.
ABC viewers are not a representative crossection of American voters.
The only people I’ve bothered to listen to on the electorate and that stuff are propellerheads that you hardly see on TV and they do it full time. The one exception is that Democrat that is on Fox News a lot. Mark Penn. He probably has more of a blue dog point of view.
I haven’t said much here but this comment is really on point. Gary either is simply carrying water for the Democrats or he has little understanding of the Communist show-trial concept.
He keeps insisting that we should watch a show trial, the Jan6 hearings, that we all know is presented on a completely false foundation. The Speaker of the House and the Mayor of the District of Columbia have mismanaged the process of dealing with a minor riot at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2020, and allowed massive constitutional violations of the rights of numerous Americans through lengthy incarceration without counsel or charges. Those here at Ricochet who have seen these events know that the Jan6 Hearings can only be a sham and clearly not worthy of attention. We don’t watch this stuff.
DeSantis said he isn’t running. What is it with you Trump haters? Sure, he can change his mind. Personally, I hope he doesn’t. Because DeSantis is a great governor and there’s no chance we are going to get a repeat of him here. He can do more at the state level than he should at the federal level.
I prefer DeSantis stay as governor and lead the state pushback like he is now. He has more power there. Only a fool would believe anyone we put in the White House would be allowed to govern. Doesn’t matter if he is squeaky clean. Dems will make it up. And if we lose, if people vote for tyranny, they deserve tyranny. The country will split eventually.
No. Like most Americans, I am working, trying to earn money to put gas in the tank and food on the table to provide for my family, which is increasingly harder to do because of the illegitimately elected President now occupying the Oval Office (or a facsimile thereof).
But you’re rich enough that the fake-President’s policies don’t affect you and you can stop up your ears so you don’t have to hear the cries of the working class. They probably all just voted for Trump anyway. Who the hell cares about them?
It was a poll of all Americans, not of ABC viewers. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/americans-think-jan-6-committee-fair-are-not-following-it
38% don’t want it. That leaves 12% on our side who do want it, assuming Dems are 50% of the country and 100% of them want it.
I remember similar things being said during the Senate Watergate hearings. In the 1974 elections, we lost 49 seats in the House, pushing the Democrats to over 2/3 of that body. You can keep whistling past the graveyard on this one.
It is communist propaganda and we are well into the Marxist cultural revolution theFrankfurt School imported into Harvard and spread throughout academia, including law schools.
That probably is true that DeSantis would actually wield power more efficaciously in Florida. It’s a waste of talent for the country, but that’s probably true.
It’s also not ideal for his wife as a cancer survivor.
My guess is that Trump, when exonerated, will toss the nomination to someone else. If not exonerated the Democrats are likely to win as their vast legal and illegal voting will carry the day. Without Trump’s support, a lot of Trump supporters will stay home. What idiots here do not understand is that the Republic will be over, finished, kaput! It won’t be Biden, but it’ll be some weak candidate the top can agree on, but he’ll still win. We need Trump exonerated and then we need him to endorse one of our excellent candidates. If he still chooses to run, and he might, he needs everyone’s support. He can win. Do folks think that the Democrats and foolish Republicans are going after Trump because he can’t win? Folks if we don’t win, this is the last election our country will have that matters. I do not understand why that is not obvious. Even those who have never lived abroad should understand where we’re headed.
Putting a talented statesman in the presidency is a waste of talent. The deep state is too strong. Put the wrecker in chief back in.
Get your own governor. Ditch your lane ducks and get a fighter that stands tall. Find your own Chuck Norris. Hands off mine.
I want to see Gary and I Walton debate. lol
I don’t see this as comparable. Those Senate hearings were legally conducted and there was not unconstitutional activity as part of the process by those conducting the hearings. If you disagree, please give us the specifics.
Why not? Because we need a fighter who doesn’t care what the left thinks of him or will do to him. We need a rich man who comes back to fight again despite losing money in the last fight. Rick Scott and Pence are not those fighters. They should retire. Tim Scott is a moral man but not a fighter. He is what I want in the Senate. DeSantis is too young and has a family to worry about. Let him run in 2032. We don’t need Dems and RINOs destroying him when He can do more in Florida. In fact, every red state better be electing governors like him. DC is a mess. If the battle is to be won, the states must fight it as Florida has done.
This is how I see the 2024 campaign developing.
That is the dangerous, the person who will accept Marxist tactics if it supports his agenda. I worry about them..
Yes, Watergate, another commie show trial. They won and have been winning ever since. Compare Democrat high dudgeon then to their reactions to the Clinton campaign tactics and Biden family corruption.
It would help if you referred to comment numbers so we can see examples of ones that reflect what we shouldn’t do.
If the left uses copyright lawfare to punish conservatives, the internet and twitter would be the ultimate losers, I think. Who would risk even retweeting something. I would avoid even reading anything on a lefty site. I don’t subscribe to the WSJ. Now I will refuse to even click on a link to it and others like the NYT. I am even considering deleting my Twitter completely.
Sorry, but I was only able to “like” this once.