Noonan half gets it
Noonan’s coming along in her recovery from Obamalove. But she still cuts him too much slack.
But well worth reading, along with this by Victor Davis Hanson.
[ADDENDUM: And I’m pleased to see that Dr. Sanity is back doing some posting.]
I just re-read the column. I was much more interested in the comments.
The you tube videos are interesting as well. The one from yesterday with the big “goons” pushing people out the door, etc. – I’ll stay away from the town hall meetings, I think. I am left wondering if I’d have fought back at the one where the man got his shirt ripped and bloodied up a bit. Something I saw that really bothered me…… the policeman sided with the goons. He’s the one who closed the door, not allowing those left outside to enter or hear what was going on. All the “goons” got to go back inside. You know, I didn’t see ANY media cameras there.
Sweet Jesus, I’ve never felt the need to own a gun in my life. Today, I’m staring at the computer screen wondering if I now need to own one. Any questions left in anyone’s minds as to why the left really wants to outlaw guns?
Peggy Noonan is a sweety. I’ve been catching her ocassionally in the morning on that otherwise rat-infested cable channel MSNBC. I rarely read her, but I read this article earlier this afternoon. She’s a cerebral woman, who also has a sense for and respect for the common person. I like her and respect her. In this article I think she did get it right from her perspective. After all, she doesn’t have “spider” senses.
And let me tell ya’, when that creep Obama first hit the podium so many, many months ago my spider senses were tingling.
No way Obama is going to back down. The only hope is Congress. Are they worried enough about losing their jobs in 2010? Hope so.
Feh. Noonan lost me when she started trashing Sarah Palin.
Nice to see her finally getting a clue, but she’s a dollar short and a day late.
Dollar short? try 878 billion short, at least so far…
Noonan nearly had me thinking she’s recovered, or maybe is at least recovering, from her stint kneeling on the presidential kneepads–until I came to this: “They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants? It couldn’t be.”
Does she think these things are being done against, or in spite of, Obama’s wishes? She says precisely as much. She lost me some time ago because of her near-worshipful view of him. The truth is that if this weren’t what he wants, it wouldn’t be happening. The guy runs a tight ship.
I, myself, don’t cut him any slack. He don’ need no steenkeeng slack. He needs a good clout upside the head. Someone should report him the fish@whitehouse.gov or whatever it is, for stupidly spreading health care disinformation. If he doesn’t like it, he can come over to my house for a Bud Lite in the backyard sometime and I’ll set him straight.
Sorry. It’s flag@whitehouse.gov.
I think she is quite perceptive and has captured the tenor of the country perfectly. It’s amazing that the President she adores, who is himself politically astute, has not.
With respect to guns it should be noted that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
I’m not sure about Mr. Obama’s political astuteness. There is very little evidence for it. He has won a couple of elections where he ran as a smiling cipher and was presented with lay-down hands to play. He might be fooled by randomness, sort of like successfully drawing to an inside straight and calling it skill.
Noonan’s piece was a big step up from her recent work. Mrs. Oblio says she has turned into a sort of mushy Center-Right Maureen Dowd.
Obama’s missteps are becoming more frequent and more flagrant. He’s going to need a major distraction/diversion soon. Will he wait for one to come up or will he manufacture one?
And thanks for the heads up about Doc Sanity posting.
From VDH:
In other words, I underestimated the righteous anger of those who are daily deprecated by a utopian class–one that has neither the ability nor the fortitude to achieve what it now wishes to undo in others.
He really nails it there. That’s one of the things that really pisses me off….
Peggy Noonan:
“They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants? It couldn’t be.”
That’s the “If only Stalin knew!”
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/14/world/if-only-stalin-knew-vain-hopes-in-the-terror.html
Wretchard at Belmont Club, in the comments, gets at something I was ineptly trying to get at in the “Obama Joker” thread:
There is a process of consensual self-deception, which when carried to its limit, completely perverts the truth.
It’s a consensual self-deception we are so steeped in, even as conservatives, that has us ceding big portions of the battle to the Left and engaging in Leftist tactics ineffectually to defeat the left.
The individual action, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, is witholding that consensual self-deception. It’s insidious and after 40 years, almost impossible to recoginize.
So I’ll add to my previous statment:
“You cannot defeat the Left with Leftist tactics; you must individually stop consenting to the self-deception that perverts the truth.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/08/06/rebranding/#more-5395
…well, I will mention and end with America’s elites. Our recent debate about elites has had to do with whether opposition to Harriet Miers is elitist, but I don’t think that’s our elites’ problem.
This is. Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they’re living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they’re going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley’s off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it.
I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, “I got mine, you get yours.”
— Peggy Noonan, A Separate Peace: America is in trouble–and our elites are merely resigned
Noonan wrote this in 2005 and it was chilling and prescient. I believe that in 2008 Noonan joined these elites and made her “separate peace.” Perhaps she is having second thoughts now but it is a dead accurate editorial and at the risk of sounding trite, I say Read The Whole Thing.
Darn, left out the link.
and furthermore–I am really going to have to stop my reflexive bashing of baby boomers:
http://www.breitbart.tv/aarp-reps-cancel-listening-session-after-participants-refuse-to-keep-their-comments-quiet/
Today, I overheard a couple of ladies (early boomers, undoubtedly democrats–in my area) discussing the usual daily concerns until one said: “I cannot believe this Obama healthcare thing. This is just wrong. It’s unamerican.” The other said: “He might not even be an American.” And they laughed. I could have just hugged them.
Something is changing….
“Wretchard at Belmont Club, in the comments, gets at something I was ineptly trying to get at in the “Obama Joker” thread:”
Many of us understood then and still do.
“It’s a consensual self-deception we are so steeped in, even as conservatives, that has us ceding big portions of the battle to the Left and engaging in Leftist tactics ineffectually to defeat the left.”
I will also add that the idea of “leftist tactics” is one that is HIGHLY steeped in that ideology you wish to go past. And the “Joker” image is a great example.
It is simply *propaganda* – nothing more and nothing less. It has been used (to a high degree of effectiveness) by the left and is therefore seen by many to be a “leftist tactic” but there is nothing whatsoever inherent in it being leftist. I will also ntoe that “propaganda” has also been co-opted to mean something it never really did too – nothing wrong with it and it does *not* imply falsehood either. Simply a persuasive way to present your argument.
It is no more leftist than a grass roots politically motivated protest wherein people bring signs and chant slogans (ala Tea Parties). They are *both* effective tools of peaceful political change. Indeed, were I to ascribe to one the idea of “leftist tactics” I would MUCH more label the tea parties as such. In my memory (late 80’s or so) this is the first conservative protest party that I have ever seen and I’m certain that is part of what is *really* perplexing the Obama administration – they have no playbook to go by *at all* here.
There are some tactics with respect to raising up some types of mobs (say a union strike) that tends towards inherently leftist – but none of these things discussed here does that.
I do agree that the leftist still largely define many things – indeed I understand what you are saying yet I think you are allowing them to take control of something that not only pre-dates them but is a universal tool. You are allowing them to own something they should never have owned and disallowing yourself one of the more effective tactics out there yet allowing them to use at their will.
A couple of posts earlier I asked the question why the mainstream media networks were so on the left and behind Obama.
Well, listening to the Roth Show yesterday (Friday), I got some scary answers. When this is all true, the US has already descended into Chavez land. You can download and listen to the show on the website at therothshow.com.
It is a gruesome story about government intimidation of the networks and even murder. Two investigating journalists tell the story in a way that seems professional and beyond internet gossip.
Noonan forever lost my respect last year. SOME of us saw through Benito Mussolini Junior long BEFORE the election and were screaming about it to anyone who would listen. 200 days in, and she is just now STARTING to wake up? Puleeze.
And I note and 100% agree with Gray’s analogy “if only Stalin knew,” as illustrative of dimwit Noonan’s still clinging to her foolish faith that Benito is REALLY still the sophisticated “pragmatic” and “moderate centrist” all the beautiful people in their fancy Park Avenue apartments convinced themselves he was.
It sure is uncomfortable to be proven a SUCKER, doesn’t it Peg? And to have to admit that the red state flyover country rubes (a/k/a Caribou Barbie fans, and tea partiers) were right all along about this turkey.
The only way faux, inside the beltway or Martha Vineyard “conservatives” like Noonan can begin to win a little of my respect will be the day when she writes an article titled: “I was wrong, and I am sorry.” And apologizes to her readers for her breathtakingly foolish and naive misread of Obama, and apologizes for her misread contributing to any on the fence voters, pulling the lever for him.
And then promises to her readers that in the future she will read VDH FIRST, before formulating her political analyses; instead of forming it based on conversations held over latte at sidewalk cafes in Manhattan.
I used to be a fan of Noonan, too. I liked her fluid and elegant writing style and her turns of phrase and used to like her analysis but, like many commenters here I, too, think that somewhere during the last few years she drank the Obama Kool Aid, and dazzled and disoriented, she wandered off the “straight and narrow” and staggered into the desert, chasing a mirage.
“If only Stalin Knew” sums it up exactly.
As for distractions, the far far left playbook would have a leftist join the tea party (and or some other major anti leftist group) and then shoot another leftist at a rally. Its done miracles for the left before.
this is the first conservative protest party that I have ever seen and I’m certain that is part of what is *really* perplexing the Obama administration – they have no playbook to go by *at all* here.
Ha! They’ll just arrest the protestors and that will be the end of that.
Those tactics only work on us because we actually value all the things the Left pretends to value.
You cannot defeat the left with the tactics they used to defeat us, ‘cuz they just don’t give a shit.
BTW: How are you coming with those big-headed puppets for the protests? I’m planning on just wearing a g-string and some body glitter to protest the cancellation of the F-22.
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The Left used our value of free speech and assembly to marginalize us and defeat us by lowering the signal-to-noise ratio until big-headed puppets and guys in bodyglitter competed with President Bush on all information channels.
You cannot use free-speech, protest and assembly to defeat the Left. They don’t give a shit:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/07/white-house-collect-fishy-info-health-reform-illegal-critics-say/
Gray Says:
“BTW: How are you coming with those big-headed puppets for the protests? I’m planning on just wearing a g-string and some body glitter to protest the cancellation of the F-22.”
Now that’s a lefty tactic that doesn’t work. Along with feel good but pointless protest. At least these are shaking the congress critters.
As for distractions, the far far left playbook would have a leftist join the tea party (and or some other major anti leftist group) and then shoot another leftist at a rally. Its done miracles for the left before.
Let’s use this example to illustrate my point that you cannot defeat the left with leftist tactics:
The tactic you described worked, almost magically, to destroy a nominally right German government.
What if a right-winger dressed up as a union thug and shot another rightie at a rally?
In that case, without investigating the incident, the left-wing government passes a bunch of gun-control legistation and votes themselves a ton of money for surveillance cameras and metal-detectors on public streets for the common good and ‘if it saves one child”.
Civil rights are curtailed and the leftist government is strengthened. Leftist victory.
What if a right-winger dressed up as a union thug and shot another rightie at a rally?
In fact, note that after union thugs beat a conservative protestor up in St Louis on video, the leftie congress critters cited “Security Concerns” to avoid meeting with groups of constituents.
Checkmate.
We really are the stupid party….
So, Gray, how do you propose that those “stupid” people at the St. Louis town hall should have acted? Should they not have tried to get into the hall, not asked any embarrassing questions, just kept their yaps shut and adopted a submissive position or, just not have shown up at all? These behaviors certainly would have made setting up a confrontation harder for the goons.
Or should the out of work black vendor not have set up his table and tried to sell his wares? Then the union goon couldn’t have roughed up that particular vendor, but, then, other people were there in the parking lot, so they could have been alternative targets so, back we go to, don’t show up and you won’t get hurt.
It seems to me that if we want to protest and to defend our freedoms we have to show up and take our chances, and the opposite alternative is just to sit at home and wait for the thugs to come into our homes and slap the cuffs on.
What is your suggestion that we do?
Gray Says:
“Checkmate.”
no, now its up to spin time. We can try to show they just don’t want to hear the people or they can try to show its unsafe due to the mobs. Considering the polling data, we might win.
So, Gray, how do you propose that those “stupid” people at the St. Louis town hall should have acted?
Holy Wow: Where did you get that from?
(I’m suffering a plague of misinterpreting and misreading of my comments. I never said they were stupid.)
I’m simply searching for, and scrambling around for, something more effective. They were attempting the only thing they knew how within the intellectual and popular strictures of our Maoist-indoctrinated society.
We need to do better. They aren’t stupid, but as a party, the Republicans are.
We are politically stupid because we don’t understand the nature of power. We expect the left to cede us power like we did to them.
What is your suggestion that we do?
I don’t know. But the first step to winning is admitting what we are doing now isn’t working.
We’ve gotta do better. We must do better.
Surely the courageous and esteemed minds of the Republican party leadership elites can come up with a better plan of action than I.
Oh… Wait….
Grey–The Maoist playbook, the Bolshevik playbook, the Shining Path Playbook, the Pol Pot playbook, the Hugo Chavez, the Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, Franco in Spain and even the Mob playbook are all, I suggest, at root the same playbook; some with a little more breadth, subtlety and finesse than others.
The fundamental elements common to all are the application of power, violence. intimidation and fear, deception, the manipulation of language, the transformation and manipulation of the normal rules of the game, and the use of quislings and agents of influence.
Huxley,
Thanks for the Noonan link. I remember that piece she wrote but couldn’t find it. Guess she found a seat in the lifeboat.
We often in others a reflection in others of ourselves. The cheat is distrustful, the bully is timorous, the adulterer demands to know who his wife was talking to on the phone.
I believe Peggy is just too honest, too solid, too courageous to see what has been, and is daily becoming more so, very clear about this Barack Obama fellow to those of us who might not be quite so noble a warrior as she.
It is interesting that she and VDH – in quite different pieces – manage to pluck the same string.
And, yes. Good news about Dr. S. I had faith – never deleted her from my aggregater.
Nolanimrod Says:
“It is interesting that she and VDH – in quite different pieces – manage to pluck the same string”
On your point, VDH has occasionally said he see’s Obama’s flaws because he has similar ones (or had them when younger but learned / grew up).
Grey—The Maoist playbook, the Bolshevik playbook, the Shining Path Playbook, the Pol Pot playbook, the Hugo Chavez, the Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, Franco in Spain and even the Mob playbook are all, I suggest, at root the same playbook; some with a little more breadth, subtlety and finesse than others.
Precisely. What then shall be our playbook?
That’s the tough one that I am floundering around with. That wasn’t, thank God, the playbook of the American Revolutionaries and Founding Fathers.
I suspect that there is another playbook out there that we are ill-acquainted with and haven’t seen for (hundreds of?) years. I wanna play out of that one. I know it is out there. It’s lost, and we may have to derive it out of First Principles.
Like the American Revolutionaries did.
It’s lost, and we may have to derive it out of First Principles.
Which leads me to the next chilling thought:
How the hell are the elites of a nation steeped in Mao, Foucault, Derrida, Marx and Hegel going to derive law, and ideas, similar to the founders steeped in Smith, Hume, Kant, Hobbes (don’t forget Calvin) and Plato?
Oh, we are f’ed….
(Note to self: Need more primers, powder and lead, I can cast and swage my own bullets. Increase running mileage and brew more beer.)
Noonan is not in the lifeboat yet. She might be testing the water, wondering if she should swim for it.