"... doesn't listen to those with expertise, doesn't understand the constitutional limits on his office, is increasingly alone and paranoid. Are these things true? What else is true?... Why do those who have worked with Mr. Trump so rarely if ever speak in any depth, in public, of their experience?... Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a great deal in his resignation letter... But one letter isn't enough. The Trump supporters I know are motivated by patriotism, not spleen, bigotry or bitterness. They are so loyal to their man in part because they see all the forces arrayed against him, especially in the media. They believe, legitimately, that he gets only grudging credit for his accomplishments. And they have told themselves a story about the brave if unlikely outsider who sacrificed his own comfort to upend a corrupt system and protect the interests of the common man.... They won't believe someone like Omarosa... They won't believe the words of 'Anonymous,' author of the September New York Times op-ed that became a sensation.... They will believe only the testimony of serious people who are obviously patriots....
We need some noble rats. May they come forward, speak softly, and make their motives clear."
Writes Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal. I added the boldface.
We need some noble rats.
And — since I'm thinking about illustrations this morning, having just perused
"The Year in Illustration 2018" (NYT) — I'll add my illustration:
The Noble Rat ("Pop").
Posts
103 comments:
I am one of the elect. One of the elite. I have an Althouse rat sticker on my car window. They will soon sweep the nation.
If only that idiot Kevin Spacey had an Althouse Apron covered with rats for that video he made. Case dismissed!
"...this moving..."
morning.
Omarosa who?
Getting dragged into the weeds by aids with “expertise” is just another way to be coopted. This is only a problem if he is not getting the results he wants in the grand scheme. I think he is getting those results, so if he has little patience for the people who have created this mess and overseen the sale of our economy to China and Europe and gotten us involved in so many ‘foreign entanglements,” I don’t see the problem.
Peggy Noonan is a turner of cloying phrases, that’s her expertise.
The Press says a lot of things. Few of them true.
This is one of their old memes that Trump is mentally unstable.
It only works with the choir--assholes like Inga or Chuck.
Trump and Melania looked on-the-ball when they visited the troops in Iraq, after a very long flight to boot. Mattis and Omarosa have their own agendas--and those aren't necessarily aligned with the best interests of Americans. I suspect the same is true of the Press.
Doesn’t play well with the deep state, not subservient to the Uniparty. His crimes to on and on.
Guliver refuses to let the Lilliputians tie him down stake by stake.
"I am one of the elect. One of the elite. I have an Althouse rat sticker on my car window."
Plus, you're a Nebraskan. That alone makes you extra special.
I call it the Paradox of Nebraska: Extreme eliteness combined with profound humility.
You can't get it simply by moving there. You have to grow up out of Nebraska soil.
Like corn.
I really don’t care if Trump doesn’t read. All he does is work and get stuff done while Mueller and Fake News attack him 24/7. He is doing what we elected him to do. Who has the time to read?
The last guy in that office was a big reader. In fact, he just released his top books of 2018. Mostly identity politics including his wife’s book as number one. VDH’s book wasn’t on the list. And Barack’s favorite song was that mega-hit, “Apeshit.” No lie.
Trump is the most public President we've ever had. We can judge him without a media filter in a way that has been truly unique in our lifetime.
On the other hand, "the press reports he watches television for hours, is inattentive to briefings, doesn't read, rants, rages, nurses petty resentments.. doesn't listen to those with expertise, doesn't understand the constitutional limits on his office, is increasingly alone and paranoid."
Who am I going to believe - Peggy Noonan or my own lying eyes?
Peggy Noonan is fishing for some invitations to a New Year's Eve party. She must have been shut out.
(eaglebeak)
Peggy Noonan is getting worse and worse. She hated Bush Jr for not being sufficiently GOPe, she was gentle on Obama, and she has hated and attacked Trump ever since Escalator Day.
She has made a career of -- dined out on, as they say -- having written a couple of good speeches (or maybe just one) for Reagan--much as David Frum built his career based on having written the "axis of evil" paragraph.
On top of bad political insights and pedestrian conclusions, Noonan has a creepy softness to her that hints that she's trying to manipulate everyone.
"Turning of cloying phrases "is right.
Noonan is part of Conservative, Inc. "Conservatives" like her are a big part of the reason we have Trump.
He actually does seem to understand the constitutional limits of his office. Barry the Law Professor is the one who thought that you could make a treaty with your pen and phone, and create a lasting legacy without involving Congress and spend money that was never authorized.
I wish I could sit Peggy the Simpleton down and ask her some questions. But the beauty of being a member of the Uniparty is that you only have to answer to the Uniparty, which knows which questions never to ask of its adherents.
Meade:
I’m even more special. I’m a Creighton alum. Creighton is the greatest university in the world today. Easily surpassing the Creighton of the East Coast: Harvard.
Now all we have to do is beat Providence on Monday.
Peggy must have missed Trump issuing new guidelines for preventing forest fires on Friday. Common sense measures like clearing undergrowth. Going back to what worked.
I am against anyone who makes Peggy Noonan comfortable. She is part of the problem.
Noonan reminds me of Blasey-Ford.
Peggy Noonan is one of those beltway parasites that made the Republican party what it was before Trummp. LOSERS. Democrats with better made suits. She is dead to me.
Trump should order the furloughed Federal workers to forest States to rake the forest floor. And fire them without back pay if they refuse.
Miss Havisham.
Obama was also famously a big TV watcher, mostly sports at night on his tablet. But, that was framed as him needing to unwind after a long day of solving everything.
"Noonan reminds me of Blasey-Ford."
She reminds me of a slightly more refined version of Joe Scar'Bro. Same message, softer tone.
Listening now to the NBC talking heads. One, explains how 'President Trump is ignoring his advisers, and experts, making decisions counter to what those experienced and learned pols tell him to do. An example is the President going it alone and sticking with Justice Kavanaugh after the CBF/Democrat party story of lies. All advised him the best thing to do is have Kavanaugh withdraw his name. President Trump instead went with his gut. This is a prime example of what is wrong with the President.'
Ignoring the facts, like the whole thing was a planned lie, played out with a script, written by the Democrat Party
I thought that our own Cuck got the job he wants. A TV expert forcing his version of reality down our deplorable throats.
Peggy just doesn't get how anyone cannot despise Trump.
Why can't our President be like Barry? … clean, well-spoken, with that nice crease in his pants. Barry made Peggy and her friends feel good about themselves and America. Finally they could hold their heads up high around their African-American friends and not be ashamed of their racist country.
Peggy doesn't know anyone who admits voting for Trump.
Trump gets good things done.
The fact that he pisses off Peggy is a feature, not a bug.
"the press reports he watches television for hours, is inattentive to briefings, doesn't read, rants, rages, nurses petty resentments.. doesn't listen to those with expertise, doesn't understand the constitutional limits on his office, is increasingly alone and paranoid."
Pure projection. All of this can be said of MSM.
Rants and rages on TV for hours
Inattentive to the messages of the briefings
Won’t read anything against the narrative
Nurses petty resentments
Doesn’t listen to those with expertise
Doesn’t understand the constitution
Increasingly out of touch with the American population and the American purpose.
Obama was a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure. I missed Peggy Noonan's column about that.
Trump has this insane habit of thinking about “what’s in it for America?” “What’s in it for the voters?” instead of the usual, “What’s in it for the ruling class?"
LBJ had 3 TVs in the Oval Office.
Did she actually assert that Trump doesn’t listen to the experts, most of whom thought he didn’t have a chance of winning? Most of whom never saw 9/11 coming. Most of whom steered us right into the 2007/2008 financial downturn, or passively kept watch while the bankers did it? (And think of all those poor bankers who, out of the goodness of their hearts, lent money to those later-failed Trump Inc. Projects, and had to take over the asset and to sell it.)
What a dope Trump is.
Peggy refers to "grudging respect" that Trump gets for his successes. I would be deliriously happy with grudging respect. What he gets is the harshest criticism for doing, in some cases, the same thing that his predecessors did (e.g., tear gas at the border). He gets called every name in the book for doing what the Dems thought was right until the minute he took office (getting the hell out of Syria). No serious respect for the economic progress.
It really is "Orange man bad."
If you had a noble rat, then what?
What if Trump is all those bad things?
So what?
"The Trump supporters I know are motivated by patriotism..." She doesn't actually believe that. She's just buttering up potential leakers, hoping they'll tell her what she wants to hear. Later, they can be exposed and their lives destroyed.
If the noble rats came forward and declared that Trump is brilliant, absorbs all information given to him and has a solid understanding of the limits of Presidential power would Noonan accept the information. LOL - just joking, of course she wouldn't.
Peggy fell hard for the magic pony:
https://www.americanthinker.com/
Peggy Noonan. Chuck with tits.
Because Qatar is behind Hamas the Taliban and boko haram, as well as al queda
West Texas IC nails it.
Trump gets no respect.
Peggy lost me with her sneering attacks on Sarah Palin in 2008. Palin had some limitations for sure, but so did BHO. Biden and McCain rounded out the clown show, but Peggy only had eyes for Sarah.
Peggy also wrote a ghastly column where she took Chuck Hagel seriously when he was in the Senate. Sheesh.
The media used to say stuff like that about Reagan, that he wasn't attentive, fell asleep during briefings, etc. While I suspect 90% of it came from their fevered imaginations, I didn't care, since I trusted Reagan's judgment and leadership, and he got the job done. Ditto for Trump, even if I sometimes disagree with his policy positions.
Somebody should dig up Nelson Rockefeller and hang him.
The experts don’t look at the data, come to unbiased opinions, and write reports that include their doubts. They start with opinion, use the data that supports it, and write reports without answers to questions skeptics would ask.
Good businesspeople don’t spend hours each day reading reports. They go to the source, ask pointed questions, engage in vigorous debate, and decide before the meeting ends.
Peggy Noonan and her ilk know nothing of that world.
I like Peggy Noonan, but she's way too comfortable. I wish someone would afflict her. Perhaps someone who worked as her office assistant can come forward with tales of her mercurial moods. America needs to know these things. .......The Dem Congress is gearing up to investigate not just Donald Trump and his family but everyone who has ever done business with Donald Trump or his family. Lives will be ruined. I wish someone would bring comfort to those so afflicted, but it won't happen. The various rapists and rape enablers in the entertainment and news fields will pile on these beleaguered souls.
Perhaps the last article I read by Peggy. Looks like she is fully deranged now and getting mad at the people working with PDT. Just short of calling the Staff deplorable.
Noonan is the antithesis of a Whacko-Bird. Right Chuck?
It was only after Kelly’s departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed.
Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO, as he had threatened.
Kelly said he made sure that Trump had access to multiple streams of detailed information before he made a decision — even if the president says he often relies on his gut, rather than U.S. intelligence.
"... doesn't listen to those with expertise,
Socialism will work, trust me.
We need to accept there will always be a USSR. Trust me.
Ignore Ronnie. We can work together. Trust me.
Man-made global warming is the biggest crisis ever. Trust me.
Salt is bad for you. Trust us. The science doesn’t lie.
There are 58 genders. Trust us.
Cholesterol is bad. Trust us.
These low fat diets will work. Trust us.
We are the experts.
Constitutional limits of the office: I have a phone and a pen.
doesn't understand the constitutional limits on his office,
RNB said...
""The Trump supporters I know are motivated by patriotism..." She doesn't actually believe that."
Probably not, but in my experience, it's true.
The anti-Trump crowd, when they're in a generous mood, will grant Trump supporters a grudging victim status as people "left behind" who need their help. They'll tell you they read JD Vance and talk about ignorance and opioids and a skills gap. It's not as bad as labeling Trump's supporters Nazis and racists, but it still dismisses them as rather loathsome inferiors. But don't worry. They'll quickly return to the most vile slurs.
And that's another thing. This "Trump doesn't read" business. Obama still releases's his reading lists. What a poser. Does he really read these books? Who knows? And who cares? He probably gets paid by the publishers to endorse their products.
The thing is, when these intellectual giants in the media start talking about reading books, they're talking about group think. They're all reading the same trendy, current books and the same reviews thereof and Surprise!, they're all coming to the same conclusions. It's a Consensus! Oh happy day! We must be right!
Wait...What?! You see things differently? Are you stupid or immoral? You don't read much do you? Oh you actually know some of these... Trump people? Ew. No wonder....
WHY TRUMP IS STICKING TO THE SHUTDOWN: Poll: 8-in-10 call illegal immigration a ‘problem,’ 58% say ‘serious.’
Trust us. America wants open borders so we look pretty. O icky walls for us!
Blogger Curious George said...
"Peggy Noonan. Chuck with tits."
Minor adjustment: Peggy Noonan. Life long Republican Chuck with tits.
No icky walls.
We won’t change the rules. Trust us.
There’s no vote stealing. Trust us. Ignore all those boxes found later.
"We lied all the time and now nobody believes us. Please help!"
David Brooks' dear Aunt Peggy.
We know that RBG is a human dynamo and Donald Trump is berserk because reliable news people tell us these things.
So long as the guy is pushing (and obtaining) agenda items which got him elected, nobody gives a rat's patoot if he walks on the ceiling naked while watching re-runs of the Three Stooges and eating banana peels.
This stuff cracks me up. Two years on and their still puzzling their puzzlers over the fact that a significant chuck of American voters weren't, and aren't, particularly impressed with how our employees (establishment parties and politicians) are performing.
This is simple and obvious, but they continue to cling bitterly to two whoppingly false premises: 1) our current governing caste is uniquely qualified, and self-evidently competent (so no need to justify their claim to elite status by keeping most of their employers reasonably satisfied, not just the minority among their employers that give them lots of money); and 2) Trump is uniquely incompetent, uniquely corrupt, uniquely boorish and vulgar among politicians, and uniquely just...just [insert foot stamp and wrist flap] awful!.
You wouldn't think that any intelligent adult would operate (not for long, anyway) from such absurdly unfounded premises, but here we are.
If Trump had listened to the "experts", Hillary Clinton would be president today.
Bet Peggy Noonan really liked that Beto ad about upscale people issues with the border wall.
The first two years of the Trump Administration kind of sums up what's wrong with America's political class. They are flatly contemptuous of a huge segments of the American population and they are comfortably detached from reality.
Mike
Noonan is a concern troll.
If it's noble rats we need...where are the noble rats exposing Lerner and the IRS under Obama? Where are the noble rats exposing Clinton's crimes with a private server? Where are the noble rats exposing what actually happened in Libya? Where are the noble rats exposing the Iran deal? Where are the noble rats exposing the Clinton Foundation? Spilling the beans on Soros? Exposing Leftwing anti-Semitism? Voter fraud?
flatly contemptuous and contentedly flatulent
That is the democrat party member mindset. They are dirty rotten rats who consider themselves noble. Just like the Nazis.
Peggy Noonan. Chuck with tits
Chuck's are bigger.
She longs for a noble rat because despite it all, she believes still in the press. It's touching, if a little stupid by now.
Why should Trump listen to the entrenched "Aides",professional government lackeys, and self anointed experts?
He has done things HIS way for decades in business and been successful. If it isn't broken why try to fix it????
When he decided to run for an office....why not start at the TOP....he did the campaign his way. Avoided or laughed off most if not all of the self proclaimed "expert advice" and against all odds won the office of President of the United States. Not bad for a stupid rookie who managed to graduate from Wharton's /s
Since then he has continued to do things the way that he feels is best. Has he made some mistakes. Sure. Who wouldn't. Most of those mistakes seem to be occurring when he DOES listen to the experts and aides.
HOWEVER, he is delivering on his campaign promises. He is speaking directly to the people, despite avoiding the "expert advice".
As someone said. As long as he is delivering, doing what he promised and what we elected him to do....I don't care what his PERSONAL time is like (as long as he isn't torturing little kittens or doing illegal things)
I don’t understand her snide TV comment.
Obama learned a lot from watching TV. He said so. He never knew certain things were going on until he watched TV.
He knew about the basketball brackets, tho.
Or, maybe, the press reports are a lot of baloney.
The press are lying enemies of the republic. I seldom believe a word they say. I wind up doing more verification of their stories than they do before vomiting them.
Bush Republicans are almost as unhappy being out of power as Democrats. Noonan is a Bushy. Trump is doing what he said he would do. Unfortunately, Ryan should have left two years ago. It will be an uphill struggle now.
Poor Peggy finishes 2018 sniffing farts with the rest of the fart-sniffers.
He seems more sensitive to constitutional issues than the past few presidents. This undercuts her claims rather badly.
You supply the rat, she'll supply the nobility.
Bob Boyd (at 9:03) refers to Trump supporters as people "left behind," and affected by ignorance, opioids, and a skills gap. True, but the Dems will never get them back absent a total rebuild of their party, and furthermore, that is not all of Trump's supporters.
I'm a highly skilled 6 figure income guy with a 7 figure 401k. Post graduate education at elite university. I have lots of similar colleagues and family members, all of whom will quietly and grimly support President Trump over any of the potential Dem candidates, and almost any potential Rep challenger.
But quietly; not wanting to ruin family or social gatherings, not wanting to defend against charges of racism, Nazism, trans-, homo-, or whatever the phobia of the week is. Not wanting our homes or cars vandalized.
We saw it in the recent Senate race- Beto yard signs, bumper stickers, T shirts, other overt signs of support 10:1 over Cruz. Very few people think that Senator Cruz is a great guy, one to have a beer with. Nevertheless, we voted for him quietly, grimly. And Cruz won.
All President Trump has to do is stay the course, continue keeping his promises. Most everybody who voted for him last time will, however reluctantly, do so again. He will have a few converts also.
To Noonan: “What this ‘we’, white woman?”
Noonan is still alive?
We need term limits for columnists.
"The press reports..."
That is know as a "tell".
Reagan: “I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.”
BTW, anyone who trusts anonymous sources from the Trump-hating MSM, is a fool.
Which means Noonan is a fool.
Federal workers are now suffering because Schumer and Pelosi don't want to secure our Southern Border or enforce the immigration laws.
And D's are A-OK with that.
I don't why Peggy needs noble rats to go on the record. She seems quite comfortable citing anonymous sources for her diatribe.
@West Texas
Exactly.
Trump supporters are not some demographic monolith. That we're all a bunch of poor, uneducated, angry, left behind white, working-class males is a cherished assumption of the self-saluting antiTrumpers in both parties.
Some fit that description, but Trump voters are majority middle and upper middle class.
Noonan worked for Ronald Reagan, who wasn’t notorious for listening to experts, either.
On what basis, objectively measured, can the self-proclaimed elites (eg advisers, policy wonks, etc) claim to be worth a listen? What string of victories have they secured for those outside their self-referential circles?
I mean, sure, making 10 counties that surround DC wealthy by extracting wealth from those who are considered outsiders by those "experts" is a personal victory of sorts. But that just illustrates how little they have done for - or even considered the concerns of - the broad middle.
The Tea Party was absorbed by the GOPe. It was co-opted. Trump has refused overtures to co-opt his presidency. Trump represents the second iteration of the Tea Party. The third iteration will be less reasonable and more militant. The elites have not considered the responses they are likely to face if they continue down this path.
They continue to miscalculate.
why does anyone read or quote Peggy Noonan? She is not on the right side of this. She is an ultimate elitist, and will just back the strong horse. No principles.
Men and Women of principle are thin on the ground. That fact alone will be the end of us.
The attitude of the self proclaimed elitist experts seems to be ...We have always done it this way and therefore you must also.
When asked WHY are you still doing things the same way? Why have you always done it this way? There is no answer. Because they say.
Because? Why. It is tradition to speak in this manner. We have always done X. Dressed like X. Acted like X
Because is not a reason.
Does anyone think Comey is a noble rat?
These guys stay off the record because if they gave their names we would see they are Comey types.
I like Mattis. Good for him to resign. But he has no answers to basic questions. The US would be in Afghanistan forever with guys like Mattis.
And a lot of NATO countries, like Germany, don’t pay 2% of GDP on defense and don’t share the sacrifice. The US is 35% of population of NATO countries. US has 2/3 of the casualties in Afghanistan. The Good War. About 70 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan compared to 2,400 US soldiers. Germany has about 25% of the population of the UD.
Germany is not a partner. Or an ally. They are free loaders.
Mattis resignation letter has vague generalities — “partners and allies.”
These are facts. Mattis knows these facts. Trump knows these facts. Trump takes about them. Mattis didn’t want Trump to talk about them.
Mattis can go public all he wants. He has no responses to facts.
"What else is true?"
What, if anything, is true in what Noonan wrote?
Noonan is a Bushy.
Only half a Bushy; she was a very harsh critic of George W., mainly because of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which she opposed.
All these people who didn't get elected to the presidency- talking about how dumb, stupid, and ignorant President Donald John Trump is.
Of course, that begs the question- If they're so smart- Why aren't they President?
I suspect President Donald John Trump will be reelected because his opponents will continue to misunderestimate him. Democrats thought they were being smart in the early open primary states by crossing vote and voting for the weakest Republican primary candidate, Trump. And after the fact reminded many of a famous movie line: "Choose the form of your destructor."
Trump has been successful at many things. The best of course, self promotion. He's been a builder. A developer, similar but not the same. A television producer. A landlord. A club owner. A husband**, a father. Not the best at any of them as he brags, but that's part of the self promotion- which no one is better at than Trump. And now he's POTUS, and all the other wannabees are butthurt. Wah, wah, wah!
Why did I "**" husband? IMHO, real success there is getting married once and staying that way. I'm currently at 40 years and going, so I'm better at that than Trump. I don't know the dynamics of his marital breakups- and neither does anyone else on this blog. But, I really can't fault his choice of wives- nor their choice of husband. As far as parenting go, at the moment, we're equally successful. Our adult children all appear to be happy and successful.That's the goal.
I always liked Peggy Noonan and thought she understood where the American center was. But at present her understanding has shrunk to: what do coasties think. Salena Zito does the job Noonan used to do. And why? because Salena Zito is touch with communities affected by the loss of manufacturing and mining jobs. But Noonan now is only in touch with the coasties and the coastie media, at that. Her conclusion, based on her study of coastieland is that Trump supporters will only be detached from Trump by "noble rats", aka credible witnesses, saying the same thing as the ignoble rats now talking on Rat The Faces. But that analysis just doesn't meet the issue - why was the elite silent about the huge loss of manufacturing jobs and the way in which that impacted the Mid-West? silent about NAFTA, silent about TPP? Why must we listen to our noble allies like France but not listen to our deplorable allies like the Yellow Vests who have also lost their jobs in France somehow? That is an issue, there are other issues and Trump supporters want to hear issues discussed. The frothing filth from the media - Stormy Daniels, for God's sake!! - is being disregarded. And it will still be disregarded even if some "noble rat" squeaks out "Stormy Daniels" or some other symptom of the plague. Issues are the issue, not how Rat Nobility might defend Noble Rat Rottenness. "You see, we have sunshine up our ..." Basically, Noonan needs to stop thinking that a study of the social psychology of fascism or racism will explain much about Trump supporters. That's the thinking that produced the lying story about Fergus Falls in Der Spiegel by a Ignoble Rat (who was, you know, CNN's Reporter of the Year in 2014.) and many other such stories about Trump or Trump supporters including everything about Trump on CNN. That's Sixties thinking and the Sixties were fifty years ago. NOT THE SAME NOW. Oh, the social psychology they talked about in the Sixties explains TDS - the looking backward in fear, the hysterical screaming, the being stuck in 2016. But it doesn't explain Trump supporters because Trump supporters have gone into the future and do what they do because of what they find there.
I don't think many of the "elite" are all that comfortable with Noonan's being considered one of them, largely because of her conservative Catholicism, which sometimes has her writing things like this: "Once you separate sex from its seriousness, once you separate it from its life-changing, life-giving potential, men will come to see it as just another want, a desire like any other. Once they think that, then they’ll see sexual violations as less serious, less charged, less full of weight. They’ll be more able to rationalize. It’s only petty theft, a pack of chewing gum on the counter, and I took it."
She also is able to see the failings of the elite -- from a column she wrote in 2016, "How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen", which starts with Angela Merkel's decision re immigrants:
...there was a fundamental problem with the decision that you can see rippling now throughout the West. Ms. Merkel had put the entire burden of a huge cultural change not on herself and those like her but on regular people who live closer to the edge, who do not have the resources to meet the burden, who have no particular protection or money or connections. Ms. Merkel, her cabinet and government, the media and cultural apparatus that lauded her decision were not in the least affected by it and likely never would be.
Nothing in their lives will get worse. The challenge of integrating different cultures, negotiating daily tensions, dealing with crime and extremism and fearfulness on the street -- that was put on those with comparatively little, whom I've called the unprotected. They were left to struggle, not gradually and over the years but suddenly and in an air of ongoing crisis that shows no signs of ending -- because nobody cares about them enough to stop it.
The powerful show no particular sign of worrying about any of this. When the working and middle class pushed back in shocked indignation, the people on top called them "xenophobic," "narrow-minded," "racist." The detached, who made the decisions and bore none of the costs, got to be called "humanist," "compassionate," and "hero of human rights." ...
The larger point is that this is something we are seeing all over, the top detaching itself from the bottom, feeling little loyalty to it or affiliation with it. It is a theme I see working its way throughout the West's power centers. At its heart it is not only a detachment from, but a lack of interest in, the lives of your countrymen, of those who are not at the table, and who understand that they've been abandoned by their leaders' selfishness and mad virtue-signalling.
Trump’s support- and his election specifically- comes from a flat rejection of the alternatives. These are people who would gladly give you Hillary or Beto with equal satisfaction. Simple
Noonan has never been a fan of Hillary Clinton; see this, for example, "Hillary Lacks Remorse of Conscience":
I don’t want to beat up on Hillary Clinton. She thought she’d win and she lost, embarrassingly, to a man she considered deeply unworthy. At the same time she won the popular vote by 2.9 million. It would take anyone time to absorb these things emotionally and psychologically.
But wow. Her public statements since defeat have been malignant little masterpieces of victimhood-claiming, blame-shifting and unhelpful accusation. They deserve censure. ...
The truth is Bernie Sanders destroyed Mrs. Clinton’s chance of winning by almost knocking her off, and in the process revealing her party’s base had changed. Her plodding, charmless, insincere style of campaigning defeated her. Bad decisions in her campaign approach to the battleground states did it; a long history of personal scandals did it; fat Wall Street speeches did it; the Clinton Foundation’s bloat and chicanery did it—and most of all the sense that she ultimately stands for nothing but Hillary did it. ...
What is true is that throughout her career Mrs. Clinton has shown herself to be largely incapable of honest self-reflection, of pointing the finger, for even a moment, at herself. She is not capable of what in Middle English was called “agenbite of inwit”—remorse of conscience, the self-indictment and implicit growth, that come of taking a serious personal inventory. People are always doing bad things to her, she never does bad things to them. They operate in bad faith, she only in good. They lie and exaggerate, she doesn’t. They are low and partisan, not her. There’s no vast left-wing conspiracy only a right-wing one. ...
The worst part is that she insulted her own country by both stating and implying that America is full of knuckle-dragging, deplorable oafs who are averse to powerful women and would never elect one president. Has she not learned anything? Does she never think Britain had Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and Theresa May now, that Germany has had as its leader Angela Merkel since 2005? Is America really more backward, narrow and hate-filled toward women than those countries? Or was Mrs. Clinton simply the wrong woman, and the wrong candidate?
Peggy Noonan. Chuck with tits.
Perfect.
Some people defend Trump because they are tired of being accused of racism, nazism, stupidity etc. simply because they voted against Hillary.
For all the criticism of how uninformed he is, somehow Trump always manages to be ahead of the curve. People who have a different mindset think that's chaotic. They are offended. They warn about catastrophies which never happen.
As an example, I saw the media this AM was quibbling about his use of the word "wall" versus fence or barrier. Do the American people care about semantics? Do we need border security or not? Do we want to keep encouraging people to come illegally?
Will the Democrats provide a solution?
Big Mike: "Noonan worked for Ronald Reagan, who wasn’t notorious for listening to experts, either."
All of LLR Chuck's cuck establishment "experts" hated Ronald Reagan and those 1980's era Chuck's were the ones advancing the democrat narratives about Reagan being an out of touch "amiable dunce".
Precisely as the LLR's of the 90's attacked HWBush as dumb.
Precisely the same the LLR's of the 00's attacked GWBush as dumb.
Precisely as the LLR's of today attack Trump.
It was these very same "experts" who kept deleting the astonishingly powerful "Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall" clause.
Multiple times.
But Reagan kept putting it back in.
And it was that line that made that speech immortal and actually magnificent.
Not fake conservative LLR Chuck-obama-cuck "magnificent", but actually magnificent.
West Texas Intermediate Crude said...
"I'm a highly skilled 6 figure income guy with a 7 figure 401k. Post graduate education at elite university. I have lots of similar colleagues and family members, all of whom will quietly and grimly support President Trump over any of the potential Dem candidates, and almost any potential Rep challenger."
This. When I'm not working on my book about relativistic quantum mechanics, or programming GPUs or supercomputers, I get my kicks reading what some purblind Voxling thinks about my general intellectual deficiency. Or what Peggy Noonan thinks about my President. Six of one ...
Maybe that scheiss is not true, and that's why nobody credible has said it for the record?
Just a thought...
Well, first of all, it's today's press, so there you go. Second, if Trump is so lazy, disengaged, petty, and oblivious, how did he manage to build his empire?
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