I’ve figured out why Peggy Noonan and Christopher Buckley are so upset these days. They’re just now realizing that yes, even though we’ve read their columns and books, even though we’ve sometimes made the effort to hear them speak, we really don’t care what they think. She’ll never read this, of course, because I’m nobody special and this blog is insignficant (and rightly so). But if I could, I’d tell Peggy Noonan a thing or two.
Starting with this – people don’t really care what you think. You see, when you agreed with us, we liked you. Now that you don’t, we’re tuning you out. It was never about you, Peggy. It was always about us, what we think, what we want. And when you agreed with us, we quoted you, emailed a link to your column to our friends, and praised you because you effectively communicated what we were already thinking. And now that you don’t, we’re shrugging you off. That’s human nature, and I’m surprised you’re so naive you didn’t realize it before. I’m sure it stings, learning that we don’t really look up to you or think you’re smarter than we are, just because you’re a better writer. I hope you recover soon, because the resentment coming across in your writing can’t be good for you.
“Palin’s Failin’” – really? What part about her don’t you like? The fact that she’s had more real achievements and impacted more lives than you ever will? As a mayor and governor she made decisions that affected people’s day to day lives – and was hugely popular, so evidently her policies were both good and effective.
You portray her as Caribou Barbie, but Peggy, I never noticed you negotiating with Canada and building a pipeline. You don’t know what she stands for? Really? I never met the woman, but I can tell you:
- Palin stands for life. She continued her Down’s Syndrome pregnancy and openly advocates that these oft-aborted children deserve to live, and that they do, in fact, have something to contribute to our society. Her pregnant, teenaged daughter evidently agrees that abortion isn’t the right decision.
- Palin stands for family. She’s proud of them, warts and all. They don’t need to be the perfect little Brady Bunch for her to happily take them up on the stage with her.
- Palin stands for common sense. She’s not getting swept up in the “science is settled” nonsense of global warming. The science is NOT settled, and she’s willing to stand against the tide and take heat for her views that maybe we ought not wreck the economy with cap and trade until we can take a more reasonable look at this. But in the meantime, she’s in favor of using our natural resources WHILE we continue to develop alternative energy.
- Palin stands for the 2nd amendment. We have the right to bear arms. Liberals should just get over it.
- Palin stands for winning the war.
- Palin stands, unfortunately, for “windfall” profits taxes. (I love how only oil companies have “windfall” profits. Never Google, which has a profit margin of 25%; two and a half times that of oil companies.)
- Palin stands for improving the public school system, which she attended, which her children attend, and which is what started her involvement with politics in the first place.
- Palin stands for smaller government and for not setting up government officials as an elite class. Look at how she transferred the cook and got rid of the jet.
I could create a much longer list, but just LOOK at her life and you will know what she stands for. I don’t agree with all of it, but it’s certainly not in doubt.
You don’t like the fact that she’s not doing news interviews? What would be the point? I saw the Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric interviews. I’d just as soon Palin spend her time on the stump and not waste any time feeding the ravening media beast.
You don’t like the way she’s addressing Obama’s ties with William Ayers? She’s at least willing to address them at all, unlike McCain, who needed to be dragged kicking and screaming to do it, or your media colleagues, who still refuse to do so. (But they have all the time needed to vet Joe The Plumber.) Playing that seriously only got it roundly ignored. Saying it provacatively – “palling around” – forced the media to cover it, and millions of people who never heard the name William Ayers now know who he is.
You write, “In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn’t, really, understand.” On what is your claim that she doesn’t understand these people based? There are too many aspects of her life that people do, in fact, relate to for your concept to be credible. No, we don’t know what it’s like to be governor of a huge state, but we know what it’s like to skip around a bit in college, to have a husband whose political views we do not entirely agree with, to have children who do things we disapprove of, to have crazy in-laws, to have a family business, to go to and to send our kids to public school. We “get” Sarah Palin in ways you inside the beltway folks cannot fathom.
You write, “This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine.” Good grief, the arrogance just oozes out of that sentence. Rather like the pain felt by pundits who are apparently just now realizing that it’s not, in fact, all about you. At least you didn’t say we’re bitter, clinging to guns and religion.
As for “come and get me, copper” – honestly, that comes across as a plea for relevance like the blogosphere’s most Insignificant Microbe trying to start a flame war just to get a few links. Are you jealous that Christopher Buckley is geared up to be the new Andrew Sullivan, now that Sully’s completely unhinged? The victim role doesn’t suit you.
Speaking of “come and get me, copper,” Obama’s Truth Squad thugs should concern you more than people with the temerity to express an opinion contrary to yours about what’s best for conservatism. But you waste ink on attacking Palin. Consider that – the decision is made. Palin is the VP candidate and nothing you write will change that. But you attack her, rather than use your bully pulpit to spread the word about the Truth Squads, ACORN, or the thuggish attempt to sue McCain for hate speech. That says a great deal about what moves you, Peggy.
Tacitus of Stop Global Laming has more on that:
If anything, the recent slide away by conservative megapundits away from McCain / Palin appears to be a rescue mission designed to salvage the credibility of conservative megapundits, not the Republican Party or the Conservative Movement. In fact, I think the deception on the behalf of these conservative pundits is a bit more duplicitous than they let on. While they claim to want a true conservative realignment of the Republican Party, they’re retooling their writing as though they expect the opposite to happen. It appears as though most of these longtime conservative pundits believe that a liberal realignment is what’s going to occur, and these conservative pundits are simply making a phased withdrawal away from their longtime readership towards a left-leaning future readership.
Shorter Peggy Noonan: “I, for one, welcome our new leftist overlords.”
Added: Jack M doesn’t appreciate that “vast and broken-hearted” nonsense either. Lorie Byrd is also unhappy. It’s Vintage, Duh at DPUD smacks Noonan upside the head. David Blue at Winds of Change, makes a snortworthy observation:
If conservative critics who wanted Sarah Palin removed from the Republican Party like a fatal cancer were wild fans of, e.g. Governor Tim Pawlenty, and convinced that once Sarah Palin was gotten rid of their man would jump into her spot and put the country to rights, that would make sense. But nothing like that is happening. Sarah Palin’s critics seem in many cases (but not in Charles Krauthammer’s case) to be warmly attracted to Barack Obama, and quite uninterested in who takes second spot on the Republican ticket, as long as it’s not Sarah Palin.
I’d pay to see Christopher Buckley, Peggy Noonan, and Kathleen Parker cheering wildly for Tim Pawlenty. Never gonna happen.
