Peggy Noonan Is Definitely Not Working Class
Peggy Noonan's "A Farewell to Harms" in the Wall Street Journal leaves me wondering where I stand in relation to the Republican Party. Ms. Noonan pretty much slams anyone who found Gov. Sarah Palin the least bit interesting. In fact, Ms. Noonan's slam -- so full of the sort of grace and poise one expects from really bright Republicans -- even made its way (no doubt heralded with carbon-neutral fireworks) to the Huffington Post.
And in the comments thread attached to Ms. Noonan's column (commenting is a new feature at the WSJ on-line, by the way), a commenter had the following to say about the GOP and Ms. Noonan's column:
Enough. I will not enlarge upon Ms. Noonan's commentary here for fear of unduly influencing those of you who have not yet read it. But I will ask you to pay close attention to Ms. Noonan's extraordinary wit. Just stand in awe of the paronomasia she employs with such ease in her opening sentence:
I will end with this: In her essay, Peg Noonan pegs no one but herself. You'll see that Ms. Noonan is not only NOT working class, she is without class. She inadvertently puts a new face on the class-less society.
(See, Ms. Noonan, how easy this is? I would remind you that such slant rhymes and word-plays may be fun, but in your essay, they strike me as rather sterile: You should think of employing no onanism here, if you get my drift. As I said, it's so easy.)
©2009/Contratimes. All rights reserved.
And in the comments thread attached to Ms. Noonan's column (commenting is a new feature at the WSJ on-line, by the way), a commenter had the following to say about the GOP and Ms. Noonan's column:
Anyone who disagrees with this article by Noonan is either disingenuous or stupid. It's refreshing to see that there are some intelligent people (i.e. Noonan) in the GOP.Such sweeping generalizations aside (and rather self-aggrandizing ones, too), Ms. Noonan's criticism of Gov. Palin strikes me as fatally flawed in several places. In fact, I simply don't get it: how can Ms. Noonan be so bright and yet so, well, dim?
Enough. I will not enlarge upon Ms. Noonan's commentary here for fear of unduly influencing those of you who have not yet read it. But I will ask you to pay close attention to Ms. Noonan's extraordinary wit. Just stand in awe of the paronomasia she employs with such ease in her opening sentence:
Sarah Palin's resignation gives Republicans a new opportunity to see her plain. [bold mine]Such slant rhyme, such anagrammatic wit! I love it!
I will end with this: In her essay, Peg Noonan pegs no one but herself. You'll see that Ms. Noonan is not only NOT working class, she is without class. She inadvertently puts a new face on the class-less society.
(See, Ms. Noonan, how easy this is? I would remind you that such slant rhymes and word-plays may be fun, but in your essay, they strike me as rather sterile: You should think of employing no onanism here, if you get my drift. As I said, it's so easy.)
©2009/Contratimes. All rights reserved.
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3 comments:
Peggy Noonan writes that Sarah Palin is "self-referential to the point of self-reverence"?
An understatement. Try "delusions of royalty."
Mrs. Palin actually said she loves Alaska so much that she's "sacrificing her title" for the state.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/sarahs-sacrifice/
Dear Mr. Licht,
Thanks for the comment.
I do not know Gov. Palin. Since I do not know her, it would be impossible for me to to know if she is "self-referential to the point of self-reverence," as Ms. Noonan deftly puts it. But I have no problem understanding the governor's statement about loving her state; I heard Alaska's Lt. Governor essentially say in a radio interview the same thing: the governor's office was no longer about Alaska, it was all about Palin, and it was the media and relentless Palin critics who had made it so. Maybe that is just a bunch of bull. Maybe not. But I can surely understand how someone could love her state enough to see the harm that's being done to it because of her celebrity status. (I heard the Alaska Lt. Governor also report that the FBI had to finally announce that there were NO FBI investigations of Sarah Palin. This rare announcement was made because the FBI had been overwhelmed with calls from Palin critics who demanded to know the many criminal charges that the bureau was bringing against her.)
When the media obsess about who a woman is rather than what it is she does; when it fixates on her personality; when it hurls invective at her and lets vitriol drip from its gossiping lips, it should surprise no one that any woman who is the object of such scornful scrutiny is going to get a bit "self-referential." The media and her critics have not given her any other option. One senses that Ms. Noonan expects the governor to reply to the slams presented in her essay without once saying "I am" or "I feel" or "I will" or "I think."
Of course, there IS a politician quite current and popular right now, one Ms. Noonan seems to like, who uses the first-person singular pronoun "I" rather often. Is he given to "self-reverence," too? Does he suffer from "delusions of royalty"? Perhaps Ms. Noonan will answer such questions in another fine installment.
Ms. Noonan, whose punditry I've admired over the years, is nonetheless a member of the self-selected elite. Again, without reference to party affiliation, this elite feels threatened, and rightfully so, by Ms. Palin, because she obviously connected with so many people, especially those of us between the Appalachians and Sierra Nevada. To this elite, Ms. Palin is an enigma. They don't know her because they've never known anyone like her. Yet, there are thousands or hundreds of thousands, whom she represents.
I hasten to add, Ms. Palin may be a caricature, or perhaps two. One created by the left and one created by her "fans" on the right. How much of those caricatures are really her is the question open to debate.
Cheers.
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