Commentary
On the positive side, regular readers may recall my admiration of columnist Peggy Noonan’s wordsmithing. As a speechwriter for President Reagan, her “these are the boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech for Reagan at Normandy on June 6, 1984, was memorable.
In the 12 years I have been writing these commentaries, I have read and offered comments on many of her Wall Street Journal columns, good and bad.
I hesitate to say that she suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome because on occasion she has written favorable remarks about him.
She went off the deep end with her Journal column this past weekend. Critical of his asking people to vote as if he’s running, she writes, “They will, and he’ll regret it. The president should be dealt a rebuke, a rebellion and a rout.”
Trump’s response has been, “They’re going to blame me win or lose, just like my decision to do these 30 rallies in the last 30 days.” Those rallies have given him 30 opportunities to remind people of his many accomplishments.
On Iran, Noonan believes that his decision to go to war “fractured the Trumpian base,” adding “that had the war ended successfully or even just ended, the philosophical and policy breach would have soon been forgotten.”
She claims that “everyone on both sides of the issue knows that he’s out of his depth in running a major war,” referring to him as a “bumbler.”
I imagine “everyone” being the military and national security losers who advised Presidents Obama and Biden, including Tom Donilon, Susan Rice, Denis McDonough, Lloyd Austin, Mark Milley and Jake Sullivan. Yet their commander in chief is responsible for his ill-conceived withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I follow the analysis of retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane, currently chairman to the Institute for the Study of War, on Trump’s Iran decisions. Noonan should seek his view of Trump.
While I thought he made the mistake of stopping the war to consider diplomacy, I can understand his thinking that it might dissuade American views that he is a war monger.
“Everyone knows a wave is coming, the only question is size,” she wrote. “I believe a big wave is coming, and I see it as composed of many colors – blue voters predominately, but indignant red voters too, and disappointed Trump base voters, many staying home.”
While providing her thoughts on the political future, weighing the size and color of a wave, she writes, “This is what I hope for: that it won’t be a close election, that the outcome is unmistakable.”
Additionally, she hopes MAGA “takes it full in the face on Tuesday,” seeing it begin to shatter on the state level, where it matters.
Believing the Republican party “has to get healthy again,” she refers her readers to her view of 20th century greatness, quoting Pat Moynihan’s remark about the GOP becoming “a party of ideas.”
Clearly, her dislike of Trump has caused her to avoid giving him credit for being a man who has fostered new ideas. Along with his promises of cutting taxes, reducing regulations and reducing the size of government, many of them to benefit those “regular people, “normal people,” and the little guy,” she claims Trump has forgotten. No taxes on tips and overtime or social security, Trump accounts, discounts on the purchase of American made cars, to name a few.
And what about Trump’s “new idea” of gaining favored nation status in the purchase of pharmaceuticals resulting in the lowest prices for Americans?
If Noonan has been listening to the Democrats, she should know their ideas, are far from new. Here’s a list of their new ideas: Socialism, higher taxes, a 32-hour work week, impeachments, Medicare for all, stacking the Supreme Court, non-citizen voting, leniency for illegals, boys competing in girls’ sports, and statehood for Washington DC and Puerto Rico, which has been their unachieved new idea for decades.
Poor Peggy, her association with the east coast elite has caused her to become oblivious to Trump’s “wave” of ideas for the Golden Age and she’s left with the hope of the midterm dealing Trump with a rebuke, a rebellion and a rout.
May be results of midterm voting mirror our overwhelming win in 2024.
