Destructive Governance

Peggy Noonan tries to present herself as an antidote to the hyper-partisan, supercharged rhetoric that pervades much of our current political discourse. She attempts to appear always calm, measured, and reasonable. In today's WSJ, however there's something you rarely see in a Peggy Noonan column - a flash of anger.

When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?

I think I know part of the answer. It is that they've never seen things go dark. They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don't have the habit of worry. They talk about their "concerns"—they're big on that word. But they're not really concerned. They think America is the goose that lays the golden egg. Why not? She laid it in their laps. She laid it in grandpa's lap.

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

Apparently, even Peggy Noonan is getting outraged at the antics of Obama, Reid and Pelosi. One thing I think she still gets wrong is her explanation of why they behave the way they do. It's not because of ignorance. They know exactly what they're after. Change. If you accept Jonah Goldberg's definition of patriotism as Love Of Country (and I do), then by definition these people, who are trying to radically change our country, are not patriots. They abuse our country because they want to.

A good column

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703363704574503631430926354.html#mod=todays_us_opinion