A typically well-reasoned, well-stated comment from Heliotrope that I was given permission to elevate to post status. (No, it’s not because I’m lazy and want to watch ‘Gotham’ on Netflix. Who said that?). Peggy Noonan — who voted for Obama in 2008 because ‘Hope and Change’ — seems to have finally figured out why the voters are done with her and the Republicans who buy her cocktails.
Peggy Noonan nailed it as only she can when she is focused. This long except from her recent column may not seem to be about free speech, but it actually is:
We’re in a funny moment. Those who do politics for a living, some of them quite brilliant, are struggling to comprehend the central fact (of the) Republican primary race, while regular people have already absorbed what has happened and is happening.
(….)
There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.
The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world. More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created. Again, they make public policy and have for some time.
I want to call them the elite to load the rhetorical dice, but let’s stick with the protected.
They are figures in government, politics and media. They live in nice neighborhoods, safe ones. Their families function, their kids go to good schools, they’ve got some money. All of these things tend to isolate them, or provide buffers. Some of them—in Washington it is important officials in the executive branch or on the Hill; in Brussels, significant figures in the European Union—literally have their own security details.
Because they are protected they feel they can do pretty much anything, impose any reality. They’re insulated from many of the effects of their own decisions.
One issue obviously roiling the U.S. and western Europe is immigration. It is THE issue of the moment, a real and concrete one but also a symbolic one: It stands for all the distance between governments and their citizens.
It is of course the issue that made Donald Trump.
Britain will probably leave the European Union over it. In truth immigration is one front in that battle, but it is the most salient because of the European refugee crisis and the failure of the protected class to address it realistically and in a way that offers safety to the unprotected.
If you are an unprotected American—one with limited resources and negligible access to power—you have absorbed some lessons from the past 20 years’ experience of illegal immigration. You know the Democrats won’t protect you and the Republicans won’t help you. Both parties refused to control the border. The Republicans were afraid of being called illiberal, racist, of losing a demographic for a generation. The Democrats wanted to keep the issue alive to use it as a wedge against the Republicans and to establish themselves as owners of the Hispanic vote.
Many Americans suffered from illegal immigration—its impact on labor markets, financial costs, crime, the sense that the rule of law was collapsing. But the protected did fine—more workers at lower wages. No effect of illegal immigration was likely to hurt them personally.
It was good for the protected. But the unprotected watched and saw. They realized the protected were not looking out for them, and they inferred that they were not looking out for the country, either.
The unprotected came to think they owed the establishment—another word for the protected—nothing, no particular loyalty, no old allegiance.
Mr. Trump came from that.
This business of “thought control” through manipulation of what you are free to say only by agreeing with the political correctness police has not gone down well well with the average “useful idiot” who is not eager to be a member of the useful idiot underclass.
I got a great chuckle from a “tweet” by Christina H. Sommers:
“Want to close wage gap? Step one: Change your major from feminist dance therapy to electrical engineering. #NationalOffendACollegeStudentDay”
Colleges seems to be hellbent on nursing any little pimple of an “offense” which appears to go against the Progressive agenda.
Therefore, “feminist dance therapy” wins out because it is part of the great cultural purge of the “impure” thinking which must be stomped out in order to reach the ideological purity that undergirds the glorious revolution of Progressivism.
It is Noonan’s “protected class” which is weaving the narrative. Their gated community lives do not want to mix with the hoi polloi on any terms which they do not control.
But now, much to their shock and awe, a vox populi is rising against the establishment and it scares the living bejesus out of the protected class. For them, it is Donald Trump who must be silenced. He is reckless. His brashness might throw the whole protected class in with the common trash. Think of it. Hillary and Bernie and lapdogs among the Repugnants are part of the passing scene for the establishment. Trump doesn’t play by any of the rules. If you look through the establishment looking glass, Trump is narcissistic. He is a bully. He is brash. He is a boor. He is histrionic. He is asocial. He lacks remorse. He is self-absorbed. He is shameless. He is self-serving. He plays by a different set of rules.[Note: does this remind you of Obama?]
Yeah, maybe so, but the “unprotected class” hears him and they smell an entirely different rose. So, maybe Trump is responding to the psychological state of his supporters. So, maybe a huge chunk of the population is nuts in the eyes of the establishment. Maybe the establishment knows it is losing its control of the little people. Maybe the welfare and the speech codes and the whole manipulation of the culture has suffered a transmission breakdown. Maybe the emperor establishment has no clothes and they have no place to hide. Maybe this is how actual revolutions begin.
What can I add to this?? I don’t know because the rest of Noonan’s column is behind a subscription wall, and I don’t feel like going to the trouble. But the thing about the Protected isn’t just their isolation, it’s their arrogance. The Republican Party was too arrogant to pay attention when voters were demanding that illegal immigration be stopped. It was like some bizarre Far Side cartoon where voters were screaming, “You have got to stop this illegal immigration. It’s killing us! Our kids are losing out on jobs to illegal workers. Illegal aliens are overwhelming our schools, our health care facilities, and our welfare systems. Illegal alien gangs are coming into our communities and committing crimes. You have got to stop this problem.” And what Republicans heard was, “So, we should sign on with the Democrats and make illegal immigration legal.”
It was arrogance that led the Republican Party to write off Donald Trump as a joke before the primaries; repeatedly predicting that he would rise and fade like Herman Cain or Sarah Palin, and once voters “came to their senses,” they would nominate someone “electable” like Jeb Bush or John Kasich. And when Trump started winning primaries, it was arrogance that kept his opponents in the race, even though they had no chance. They all arrogantly believed they were the one who should be nominated, and the anti-Trump vote got split 5 or six ways.
First they ignored him. Then, they laughed at him. Then, they fought him. If you’re familiar with the Gandhi cycle, you know what happens next.
After the way Republican majorities in the House and Senate have betrayed the people who voted for them, voters are sure Republicans are lying to them and planning to sell them out. They are willing to take a gamble that Donald Trump might not.
Ah, glad to see I’m not the only “Gotham” convert around here. I watched the first season in about five days. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Immigration was only one thing on the 2014 docket that turned the electorate against the Republican Party.
There was Obamacare. They promised to pass a bit repealing it, and putting it on Obama’s desk for him to veto. They didn’t.
There was Planned Parenthood and the defunding of it which they had a golden opportunity to show they had gumption. And they failed. Oh, of course it was doomed, but they could have trumpetted that they had everything else funded, but the Democrats were holding it hostage for Planned Parenthood. Made the message clear. But they were afraid and cowed by the press.
They have used their base to get elected and ignored them ever since.
Not this time.
Marco Rubio mentioned how Trump profited off the labour of illegal immigrants.
I fear Peggy’s heart is still with the establishment she’s spent her life working to establish at a handsome pay rate. “We’re in a funny moment” — yeah, hilarious. This is 1% the level of honesty she’ll need to come up with to gain any credibility.
Meanwhile, keep up the great work.
Noonan focused on immigration alone as the rocket fuel that launched Trump and that is quite short-sighted on her part. Immigration has been but one catalyst.
I read Noonan’s script and I saw the “protected” class manipulating the narrative and attacking the unprotected as a “confederacy of dunces.”
Many of us are beyond fed up with being told that Benghazi was about a video and that Boko Haram will suffer mightily from hashtags and Wal-Mart is the enemy bringing down the economy and the life of The Gentle Giant matters more than law and order and Planned Parenthood must be federally funded in order for women’s health to be whatever and Gitmo causes radical Islam and the deficit spreading like kudzu is being constantly cut in half and gay marriage is a compelling state necessity and free college and a $15 minimum wage will cause unemployment to disappear and the economy to blossom.
We have all seen too much Monty Python and Bart Simpson to actually buy into this Doublespeak.
Rush Limbaugh has it right. He marvels that Donald Trump has put together the coalition of voters which the Republicans have long claimed that they are seeking and now the Republican establishment is having a cow. Apparently, it is a case of the correct process, but the wrong candidate.
Has anyone heard any serious discussion from the “protected” about the Trump supporting cross-over Democrats, the new voters and the much vaunted Evangelicals who have set aside their social conservatism in order to first save the country?
@ Heliotrope: The only thing you hear out of the “protected” class is how racist and stupid Trump’s supporters are.
Manring years ago Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday, has a prophetic ring to it. Paul Verrell, a reporter for the New Republic, when liberal wasn’t a dirty word. Billie Dawn, Brock’s mistress, represents us, “the unprotected class.” Brock is corrupting a senator, represents the elite, the establishment. to have legislation passed that will benefit his busines. Ed Devery, Brock’s lawyer, reporesents lobbyists. Paul accepts Brock’s offer to educate Billie. In the process she and Paul discover that Brock’s plan. In the end Paul refuses to be bought off. As he and Billie leave, Brock, dazed like today’s establishment asks, “what’s going on around here” Devery, responds, ” A revolution.” Brock calls Billie, still a dumb broad, and Paul, a chump. Devery, with his drink toasts, “To all the dumb chumps and to all the crazy broads, past, present, and future, who thirst for knowledge, and search for truth, who fight for justice, and civilize each other, and make it so tough for SOB’s like you and you and me.”
But Trump doesn’t have the temperament to be President.
…or any experience governing. We’ve already had one of those for the past 7 years; that should have been enough of an education. Also, the ability to say “You’re fired!” only goes so far in federal government.
Why do I have to read about the first case of drug resistant AIDS found in the US on a conservative site? Its like that black moslem serial killer of gays in 3 states Ali Mohammad Brown again.
This should be big gay news, as the 80s might come back.
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/aids-acquires-drug-resistance/
Perhaps it should, …and can. You can remove and/or transfer a LOT of senior bureaucrats and senior military officers with the phrase, ” We have lost confidence in your leadership.”
They might not be “unemployed”, but plenty of plum-posting are at the pleasure of the President. There are plenty of remote wildlife sanctuaries and backwater agency offices to staff with protected civil service members, and out of the way military posts around the world that need commending officers. And it’s pretty-hard to remain once the POTUS has “requested” or “accepted” your resignation, or your early and immediate retirement.
3. how Trump profited off the labour of illegal immigrants.
Trump addressed a while back that he has done everything he legally can to not have illegals working for him and explained some of the rules his HR ladies are bound by.
Trump is the peoples weapon to crush the establishment cucks. The books SJWs always lie & The Cuckservative explain how enemies left and sellout right function.
@CrayCray – While I doubt that The Donald reviewed every application for help at one of his properties, you do have a point. My response is that Trump availed himself of laws enacted by the likes of Marco Rubio and Chuck Schemer.
It’s bad enough when Disney or PG&E forces people to train their foreign replacements and then fire them. It’s worse when politicians claiming to be fighting for the “middle class” work behind closed doors to make the firings easier. See Michelle Malkin’s book “Sold Out”. I knew that the labor arbitrage business was slimy but O had no idea just how slimy is is.
Great post – if you Google “Peggy Noonan”, it is possible to find a link that gets you the full article – it’s worth the effort.
The idea of a President Trump is “troubling” (to borrow a phrase from the SJWs) but the reaction of “Conservatism, Inc.” is more troubling.
I’ve stopped following most of the writers at NR because their non-stop Trump-bashing and insults (Trumpkins) confirms to me that they really are clueless.
For a bunch of people that preach “free markets” as if it’s some sort of religion, they don’t seem to grasp that the average Joes and Janes – those who don’t read NR, Commentary, reason.com, etc. see nothing but the downsides of the protected’s policy prescriptions. In other words, voters (customers) just aren’t buying it anymore.
Any thinking person knew this day was coming… that at some point, people would get a snootful and start looking for someone, anyone that seems to get it. (I don’t know that Trump gets it but he certainly knows how to sell whatever it is he’s selling). I suspect that, if he’s elected, his supporters will be disappointed.
Donald Trump is a Frankenstein constructed by the national GOP’s leadership failures and the backing chorus at NR, Fox News, the WSJ, CNN, print media, Facebook, etc. Now the chorus feigns astonishment at the entirely predictable.
The New York Times has a bombshell article up detailing efforts by the Gang of Eight to get Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes to keep their on-air “talent” from attacking the Gof8 bill. It worked, they got Hannity and O’Reilly, and the rest on board.
Rubio and Schemer even went to Florida to parley with Rush Limbaugh (who, apparently, didn’t fall in line).
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/marco-rubio-pushed-for-immigration-reform-with-conservative-media.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
And they say people are crazy for thinking there’s some sort of conspiracy against the hoy polloi.
Great post on the Peggy Noonan article, Heliotrope. I heard some remarks about the article on Friday morning, but hadn’t read or seen any of it yet. I ended up sending the link to a somewhat conservative friend of mine who has expressed concern and dismay over the whole Trump phenomenon.
As I am friends via Facebook with several Trump supporters, I certainly understand what appeals to them about him. Personally he wouldn’t be my first choice for the nominee, but if he is the nominee, at least he’s not Hillary or Bernie. I am enjoying watching the dismay of both the left and the establishment types at his persistent popularity.
In line with KCRob’s suggestion above, you can find the full article at this link.
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/40958
This guy gets it.
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2016/02/23/demagoguery-as-unskilled-labor/
37 years more of this crap to go…
“After the way Republican majorities in the House and Senate have betrayed the people who voted for them, voters are sure Republicans are lying to them and planning to sell them out. They are willing to take a gamble that Donald Trump might not.”
You get it……..finally.
I ask this to those who don’t think The Donald has the temperament or the panache or the stability or the smarts or the whatever to be president: by which means do you intend to stop The Donald?
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” – George Orwell, 1984.
I look in awe at those who support Hillary or Bernie. I wonder what they fail to see and what they think they see.
As for the Republican field, I just watch. It is winnowing itself down in ways that have the collected wizards of smart holding their breath until they turn blue and clapping their hands over their ears. Now they are trying to engineer something to stop The Donald. These are the same smart asses who couldn’t engineer a candidate more appealing to the unprotected class and useful idiots than The Donald.
If The Donald is the Republican nominee, it will be his platform and his agenda and his organization that will be in control. If the Republican establishment casts itself as a chain that demands to be shoved uphill The Donald will simply walk over it and leave it muttering in its own stale beer.
But that won’t happen. Like Chris Christy, the professional politicians will see the light, calculate the openings and come running to The Donald with tales of how they were secretly making him a success from the very beginning.
Meanwhile, The Donald is busy showing the calculating crowd what happens to a Marco Rubio when The Donald gets dissed.
The Donald may not be the embodiment of an idea whose time has come, but that does not make him any less of a force. C’est la vie, ¿qué será, será?, it is what it is, tough titty, whatever, life sucks, and up yours.
Time to acknowledge, recognize, and ponder. The Donald has entered the building.
The donald doesn’t have the temperament to be president? Hillary certainly doesn’t have it. She’s a lying sack of s**t. LBJ, avaricious and I believe one of the participants in the plot to kill JFK. Does paranoid Richard Nixon qualify? Gerald Ford, who wasn’t elected couldn’t hold on to the White House. Jimmy Carter, saw everything as peanut butter, either chunky or smooth. Bush 41 couldn’t defend is pledge. Romney couldn’t defend himself against Candy Crawley, during his debate with Obama. All McCain talked about during his campaign was his war wounds. It was Sarah Palin who gave the ticket some credibility.
A Ronald Reagan doesn’t come around but once in life; unfortunately.