Maybe Peggy Noonan is just tired of working at being a conservative. Perhaps she’s just a Reagan Democrat who’s heading back home after all. After Peggy declared that “Palin's Failin'”, the notion was taken up far-and-wide that she wandered from the conservative fold. “Peggy, we hardly knew ya” has become a refrain among on-line conservatives. But, I have long ago “got past” having any respect for Ms. Noonan’s writings. She's not insightful or helpful. In fact, she makes Martha Stewart sounds practical. And, when I see her on television, she always seems to talk like she’s balancing a plate on her head. Obviously, Peggy and I don’t travel in the same circles.
But it begs the question - what exactly has Palin done to deserve the hatred of so many on the left and, surprisingly, some on the right? The best barometer as to the effectiveness of your candidate is how much spittle flies from the lips of liberals when they insult said candidate's intelligence.
To start, Peggy is a NY Republican (an oxymoron) with Beltway Insider roots. She does have fabulous writing talent... The fact is, she was a helluva speechwriter for Reagan and had some great columns over the years, especially right after 9-11, but Peggy Noonan is all about “intangibles”; speech-giving as “leadership”, vague notions about “character”; and she has never cared too much about conservative policies, though she writes as if she does.
She swoons over a well-turned phrase and ignores the redeeming thoughts behind them. She judges people by their accent and their social class not the ideas they offer. She prefers style and temperament over substance and experience. I don't think anybody's forgotten nor can you not help but love the line she wrote for Reagan:
"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."
She has an undeniable way with words, but nobody ever said she was a great conservative to begin with. For her part, Peggy is in love with beautiful sounding words rather than any political ideology or a person. She always has been.
Conservatism did not lose this past election. Conservatives did. The timeless principles of conservatism are right and remain right regardless of what the mainstream media pundits such as David Brooks or Peggy Noonan might tell you. Conservatism is way of thinking that precedes the Republican party. Values are held accordingly even if you are a democrat or an independent.
But Noonan's day in the spotlight has silently passed, as her generation of American politics has faded. But, it is Noonan's completely unsupported sneer at Palin's mental capacities that is most revealing. This is the McCain/Rockefeller Liberal wing of the Republican party and some form of the 'elitist' intellectual wing. The Harvard 'elite'. The NY Rockefeller. She's been name-dropping Reagan for over twenty years as if this makes anything she has to say relevant in the modern political landscape or gives credence to herself as being a true conservative.
She swoons well and punctuates well, and does an excellent rendition of breathlessness. The very essence of her expressions in words often move and touch hearts. Yet, it appears she is on nobody's side but her own. Working within the belly of the beast for too long, she has become little more than a peevish elitists herself who looks with disgust at what a truly conservative woman like Palin brings to the movement. Noonan outwore her welcome on my computer long ago.
Despite her forgotten and mindless bravado, I read that Peggy Noonan voted for John McCain.
