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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
Exactly. Talk about public policy. Socialism and populism are a problem for actual reasons
Democrats ran a five year coup against Trump and scored a win. I want the win to be temporary to send them a lesson. I feel like the only way to do that is re-elect Trump and let him undo all Biden’s EOs and fire all his appointments. Besides, I liked the good he did.
Here’s the question:
“As you may know, Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, where the riot followed. Do you think Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in this incident, or do you think he should not be charged”
LMAO.
Totally 100% true.
People in Gary’s camp don’t care.
He was entitled to govern and he wasn’t allowed.
Why are you so opposed to the exercise of First Amendment rights?
Why is that point continually ignored?
Now that I’ve typed the question a thought popped up. The GOPe regards the conditions that brought Trump to the presidency as ideal. They have worked hard with Demo-rats to bring those conditions about. To the GOPe Trump and his supporters are the problems.
We did every single thing wrong in the face of the wage deflation and job destruction from automation and globalized labor.
Every single institution is failing from a libertarian and conservative point of view.
The GOPe doesn’t care.
Say something original about public policy.
If Trump does run, maybe one of these two could be his running mate and DeSantis can stay in Florida.
Mea culpa on your first point. I couldn’t lash back at Noonan for her condescending remarks but had had my fill of GR’s condescension and could reply to him
Agree with everything in your second point.
Well yes, they are busy supporting that war in Ukraine and other international intrigues while remaining oblivious to the Domestic Threat posed by the Democrats and the Communists with whom they have joined forces.
I said this a while back over in the PIT and I still think I’m correct. Trump has to take head on the fact that he’ll serve only one term if re-elected. He should make clear that his VP will be a co-president in the sense that he (or she) will be involved in every part of the job. Yes, Trump will make the decisions, but the VP will be at his side, sort of on-the-job training. It has to be someone the public believes could take over without missing a step. Trump has to clean up his act a bit, drop some weight, and dispel concerns about his age. If I had my way, the VP would be DeSantis and Trump would resign after two years plus a day or two and we’d have a chance at 10 years of a DeSantis presidency.
Ah, but there’s the rub. We are told that those 20,000 votes were stolen away from Trump. We go round and round in circles. For example, we get this apparent gaffe:
I expect Ms. Griffin will now need to be attacked. We go round and round…
The issue is the characterization of an offhand comment, not Griffin.
Speech is great. Rioting, assaulting police officers, and using physical force is not.
As a lawyer, certainly you can draw that distinction.
Condescension? Nah. We just disagree, that’s all.
I fully expect that the full blast of Trump World will be aimed at her. Threats, slander, the full nine yards. Her statement cannot be allowed to stand by Trump World, truth be damned.
What the hell is “Trump World”? I am so [Redacted] sick of these stupid little shorthand slanders that we’re all supposed to understand but which are essentially meaningless.
#s 2 & 3 are simply a pejorative phrasing of the exercise of constitutional rights. As a lawyer, certainly you can draw that distinction.
Ignoring the tens of thousands who did not riot, and claiming that Trump specifically summoned “ rioters,” is just the usual Bulwarkian BS that we’re used to.
I have my own opinion about the timing of when she resigned from the trump White House and her behavior since then.
It’s a little more than that, Gary. You work hard to skirt factual issues that don’t comport with your false narrative of events. I asked you a question about whether the persons in charge of Capitol security were questioned publicly by the Jan6 Committee. This is important since you insist that we all should tune in to these hearings.
When did you start caring about truth? Is this the dawn of a new day?
I would add that one of the reasons that you have a number of “special friends” is that your posts/comments are often replete with distortions, untruths, exaggerations, and misleading information. See the latest discussion of the laughable poll on Trump’s alleged criminality, for example. Those friends are simply acting to set the record straight.
That “I still wonder” part really was sarcasm…now, six pages of inanity later, I think it is clear that someone certainly believes he is entitled to unlimited latitude. I’m not sure he is mistaken.
“Don’t say ‘gay.'”
Isn’t that what “Pride month” is about?
You need to draw that distinction since a small minority of rally attendees were involved and the violence wasn’t spontaneous but preplanned and I bet many of them went or the violence, not the rally. We know the Dems planned their own violent actions.
Then they will lose. I won’t stab Trump in the back to win an election. He deserves better. Evidently 19% of Republicans don’t deserve better and I won’t give it to them.
There you go.
I am far more of the Dispatch crew than the Bulwark crew. Oh well.
I have no idea, I don’t serve on that Committee, however I fully expect that this issue will be investigated in the next Congress.
And how about Trump’s dereliction of duty to protect the Capitol after it was overrun?