Given her early and often effusive praise of the era of Obama following the 2008 election, I find it ironic that Peggy Noonan writes today of “riots and flash mobs” threatening our country. She includes an interesting admission that these events “have root causes that government can’t reach.” Is this the culmination of the Obama era of government she first envisioned?
She also accurately observes that the cause for the mayhem currently wracking Britain—and in transit to the U.S.—is, in a phrase, the result of a “lack of moral grounding.” The depressing truth, of course, she now attributes—quite accurately in my view—to “the distorting effects of the welfare state and a degenerate . . . popular culture.” Yet it is the very size and scope of the welfare state, with all its malignant dependency, that Barack Obama is hell-bent on expanding beyond recognition. Noonan says nothing about this. Indeed, Obama’s name is never once mentioned in her article.
One problem Ms. Noonan does seem to recognize is this: Like British youth today, America’s youth know little about our own country’s past. And, sadly, what they hear from our own president is little short of a full-throated indictment of our history. Given Obama’s non-stop denunciations of so much that is American, and his willingness to label amazingly large segments of our population as stupid if not hopelessly evil, is it any wonder a substantial portion of our youth care little for America’s past, and even less for its present? What young person would think otherwise if all they heard were Obama’s words filled with barely-concealed anger and disdain for our country?
The flash mobs in Philadelphia—with no knowledge of, much less allegiance to, what our founding fathers put into place—seem to want, in the now famous Obama phrase, fundamental “change” in America. So, Ms. Noonan, how is that “change” looking so far? And what will it look like a year from now if this administration continues along its present ideological trajectory or, God forbid, if Obama is rewarded with another four years beginning in January 2013?
In the meantime, even though we have myriad problems that government cannot reach, where are the personal examples of principled leadership from which the American people can take strength? There certainly isn’t one currently residing in the White House.
Peggy Noonan is a naive woman who has done enormous damage. She has sadly convinced many Americans into believing that Democratic Party elites are genuinely interested in promoting Constitutional values. This has not been true since 1972 when very secular and highly credentialed individuals grabbed the reins of power. The interests of the regular citizenry were pushed to the side.
I, sadly, agree with the naive part. The government’s role as accelerant to economic and social breakdown are so many there is no time to begin listing them here.
So you can’t be a “latecomer” or “sudden” convert to the baleful effect of government, it was all right before your eyes. Just as Carter being “surprised” by the Soviet invasion of Afganistan (turned me conservative in one speech) the facts were out there through the man’s entire sentinent lifetime, where there hell was his brain all that time? Same with Noonan.
I am certainly not excusing Obama for what he is, but he has only been president for two and a half years. The mobs of ‘misguided youth’ have been forming into what they are since the sixties. He is guilty of accelerating a cultural evolution, but he is not the architect of it. They, like his election, are the result of “the distorting effects of the welfare state and a degenerate . . . popular culture.”. He is one of them.
I keep thinking of the English rioter who told the press they were ” showing the cops they could do what they wanted.” Many leftist proclaim that the riots are the downtrodden and oppressed striking out. They are deaf to that girl who spelled it out plainly; they arent lashing out in frustration, they want destruction and lawlessness. What they want is what they are doing. Its a party to them, not a political movement.
Perhaps a convulsion of degenerate behavior is what it will take to bring us back to our senses. A convulsion, then a purge, then a return to sensible values. I am dreaming right? What I fear is that Bertrand Russell was correct when he said “All movements go too far.”.
“I am certainly not excusing Obama for what he is, but he has only been president for two and a half years. The mobs of ‘misguided youth’ have been forming into what they are since the sixties. He is guilty of accelerating a cultural evolution, but he is not the architect of it.”
You are correct, but honestly, you miss how he has winked and nodded and race-baited to legitimize this sort of behavior. His administration is the first to all-but-openly say that those who have not worked for anything are entitled to take whatever they want, whenever they want.
It’s a dreadful thing to witness, but trying to find the phrase and idea of self-reliance in Obama’s rhetoric is frankly impossible. That is where the rising tide of violent, entitled looting is coming from.
“….you miss how he has winked and nodded and race-baited to legitimize this sort of behavior.”
I did say he is accelerating it….thats what I meant, but I suppose I didnt emphasize that enough.
“those who have not worked for anything are entitled to take whatever they want, whenever they want.”. Again, he is one of them.
Well, we have a completely amoral man leading the country and actively fanning the flames of class warfare, religious warfare, social warfare, sexual warfare and any other kind of warfare he thinks will get him a vote and/or contribute to the quicker destruction of our culture. It’s plainly obvious.
Even the marxists would admit it, since it’s their strategy.
So Peggy Noonan isn’t just blind, people like her are a big part of the problem.
I stand corrected. They are not blind, they deliberately omit the real explanation. The question now is, why is Noonan suddenly making sense? If she has sense enough to see this, she has had sense enough to see it all along. Is she changing sides now that the ugly result of her work is being manifested, or was she a dupe all along and now has had an awakening?
Noonan, like most women, has a soft heart when it comes to the poor. Thus you can count on her to write about the true picture only until a conservative wins the White House. Then she’ll revert to ‘Oh, those poor, poor minorities, mistreated by these mean ol’ Republicans.
P Noonan is another shallow elite who,like Collin Powell became
increasingly embarrassed at true patriotic conservatism. Her
only credential is having been a speech writer for the great
deliverer of words, Reagan. Now her words are so sappy and
bitter, one can hardly get through her work without getting
some serious indigestion.
She is not qualified to write on the topic of idle youths who
have brought a spotlight on the fruit of generational neglect
in the name of liberalism.
Peggy Noonan is another shallow elite and the WSJ is full of many others just like this has been Noonan. She was one of the reasons I dumped the crappy paper. The IBD is much better and actually supports freedom.
Peggy Noonan started to shift just about November 2010. The change in control of the House and the effect of the TEA Party [who she despises] penetrated her elitist brain to the point where she realized that the Democrat “thousand year Reich” just may not come to pass. So she is trying to hedge her bets a little bit, just in case; so that if America is restored she might not have to move to Europe. If Obama wins in 2012, by any means including a coup; Peggy Noonan will be back to worshiping at his altar extra loudly to make up for her hedging.
The only reason she is not on MSNBC, is that she is too elitist to allow herself to be broadcast foaming at the mouth like the rest of their broadcasters.
Subotai Bahadur