Yesterday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter and adviser to President Ronald Reagan made a comment that is worth pondering by serious people interested in finding a way to “keep” this republic. Tom Brokaw made a reference to economic conditions in 2008 being similar to those of 1980 when the presidential contest was between Reagan and Jimmy Carter, and the desire of the country to find a leader to help get the country “back on track.”
Peggy Noonan responded:
Oh maybe it’s all more so, but I actually think we’re living in a different world. The intensity of our economic crisis seems to me to be greater. But, Tom, also there’s something that we all know, and it’s in the back of our minds but we don’t quite think of it enough, and it is this: We are living in the age of the unknowable, of weapons of mass destruction, of crazy people who can get and harness these things and who can come and hurt us. When you—you don’t want to be dark and you don’t want to be preoccupied, but when you keep your mind on that fact and that we may in our country face difficult days ahead, and even immediately ahead, when you keep your mind on that, you realize, whoa, this old partisan gamesmanship, this “tear out his throat,” all of that stuff, it’s over, it’s yesterday.
What we need now is grace. We need real patriotism, which patriotism isn’t used as a weapon in a campaign. Patriotism actually needs grace in order to function. We got to be our best selves right now. We got to hit our game in a higher way. We got to be forbearing. We got to be adults.
I sometimes think one of the problems in America is there are too many people that don’t want to embrace the role of the simple grown-up and show the maturity and forbearance of a grown-up.
2 comments:
I saw that exchange and was very impressed with Ms Noonan's open and non-partisan point of view. I've always had something of a block in my mind about her, because she's such a fan of Reagan -- I am not. But I have nevertheless admired her writing for along time. Just read the introductory section to her new book and you'll see what I mean.
Joe Fab
She has always been a great writer and certainly made Reagan sound literate when he most needed it. Her time in the private sector these past 20 years has given her a wiser, more balanced perspective on what America needs.
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