Peggy Noonan Almost Hits the Mark

Peggy Noonan almost got it right this weekend in the Wall Street Journal when she opined,

"This is historic. This is something new in modern political history, and I'm not sure we're fully noticing it. Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved.

Part of the reason is that the problems- debt, spending, war- seem too big. But a larger part is that our government, from the White House through Congress and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths- spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone- well, not those in government, but most everyone else- seems to know that won't work. It's not a way out."

Noonan actually refutes herself by the end of that second paragraph. If she had simply added the phrase,

"by our increasingly professional, lifetime political class"

to that last sentence in the first paragraph, she'd have hit the mark exactly.

How is it she could write "well, not those in government, but most everyone else- seems to know that won't work," but claim we are dispirited and feel overwhelmed by our problems?

Nobody I know, with a brain, thinks our problems are overwhelming us.

They think the problems are overwhelming power-hungry professional pols who just want lifetime sinecures and more power.

Sensible Americans understand that we must spend less via government, trim entitlements, reverse 60 years of deficit spending, and focus on defining objectives for our current combat situations, then achieve the objectives.

These problems are far from insoluble by Americans who want to go about their business unhampered by government.

But for too-long-sitting Senators and Representatives with half a dozen years in office and dreams of as many more, or one of their state's Senate seats, those solutions don't sound like fun.

Less power. More accountability. Fewer lush promises made with other peoples' taxes.

Maybe Noonan's friends are too set in their government ways, and, by extension, so is Noonan.

She almost had it right.

But not quite.

She knows the right answer, but, like so many careerists in and around national politics, she can't bring herself to say it.

Term limits. Less federal power. No more professional politicians.

It's that simple. Solving that problem might be overwhelming. But not debt and spending. Not even war.