Peggy Noonan does what we try to do every day at The Free Press: tell the truth, make sense of things plainly and without pretension, frame the news in a way that helps the reader make sense of things, and put things in a historical context that gives the day-to-day depth and meaning.
PN is right that we ultimately need to build something. But, sometimes you have to demolish the old buildings to make room for new ones. As long as the existing institutions have power over the stakeholders on an issue, we can’t have a free discussion about what comes next. The biggest stakeholders are under the thumb of the institutions. The institutions have to be disempowered enough to leave people free to build the next thing.
And, I know that’s not easy, and there are huge risks involved. But, I don’t see any alternative to starting by reining in the institutions.
As I have previously written in comments earlier, Peggy Noonan used to be a brilliant writer and intellectual who was treasured voice for many of us years ago. Sadly, she is no longer. Bari, ask her about Oct 7th, the student outbreaks Pro-Hamas, the hideous riise of anti-semitism, the sex slavery of women and children condoned by this current Administration, East Palestine, Appalachia barely recovered, the murders of Lincoln Riley et al. Sadly, I no longer believe that Peggy Noonanhas her hand on the pulse of America or Americans. She doesn’ t know where we are bleeding & deeply heart-broken.Trump gets us. She doesn’t get it for all her larger lyrical prose, which she can still churn out.
America is no longer the poem of Peggy Noonan’s yester year. America is a war zone and some of us, and I believe you, Bari, are fighting as hard as we can for truth in the face of blatant , manipulative & life-destroying lies on all fronts! We believe you have done more to represent this for us Americans than mostly, anyone else. Whatever your propensity for Peggy Noonan, she is only nostalgic for something that is no more. She is one of the “ over- protected, “ ie. elite classes. She just doesn’t realize it. How sad.
I have heard and read Noonan for years. She does not, however, hear herself. She is saying exactly what we who want change with Trump are disavowing. We don’t need the old guard in Secretary positions. We need a change in the Pentagon. People who stay in DC must move out into the world and find out what is going on with regular people.
"Any jackass can knock down a barn, but it takes a man to build one." “I love Nellie Bowles on Fridays...” Oh boy, what a great pod; two of my favorite media people talking together. I became a huge Peggy Noonan fan after reading When Character Was King. Oh how I miss those days. Bummed I wasn’t able to see this pod recorded live.
I love beautiful writing and I enjoy listening to engaging speakers. At this point, I don't really find Peggy Noonan to be someone I care to listen to. Her voice and cadence ooze "elite" - you get the sense that she sees herself (and her life) as so clever and "magical", that poor commoners just can't comprehend. She is one of those elitist journalists who feels her intelligence is needed to interpret the world, particularly politics and presidents, for us common folk. She is quite focused on "character" (as is Bari, who often points out she just can't "get past the character issue" with Trump). I figured Peggy probably graduated from Berkley (she did not); when asked about her favorite music, she waxes on about Gershwin. Really?
I have not read any of her books (though I would definitely consider it), but saw from a brief review that "Peggy Noonan in her essay on Ronald Reagan. "A president doesn't have to be brilliant; Harry Truman wasn't brilliant, and he helped save Western Europe from Stalin. He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever. White Houses are always full of quick-witted people with ready advice on how to flip a senator or implement a strategy. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can't buy courage and decency, and can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring these things with him." Of course, she understands things the rest of us don't. I'd suggest that all the men who have risen to be president carry a combination of all of these traits ,to different degrees. That, plus the unique circumstances in history within which they find themselves, serve to elevate a few above the rest.
To write Trump off as shallow, crass, an "underhanded real estate mogul" is very short sighted - I'd like to expect more from Peggy (and Bari!)
I'd love to see a round table of the Free Press staff writers listen to the JR podcast w/ Trump and give honest feedback. Watch the Trump-Bryson DeChambeau "Can I break 50 with President Donald Trump?" Expand your viewpoint from cliche soundbites and your focus on a phrase uttered off the record in 2005. Read The Art of the Deal. (these just as interesting starting points)
Take the time to consider the unique traits and life experience, talents and skills, that DJT brings to this office: high level problem solving; getting things done (quickly and efficiently); entertainment value. A real estate developer who has been involved with finance, building codes, tax code, supply chains, raw materials, resources, city and state governments, politics, celebrity, international trade, etc. etc. Who has spent a lifetime "making deals" and learning how to read people and understand what motivates them.
If I heard some higher level of understanding along these lines from either woman (whatever their final conclusions would be) - I'd have more interest and respect.
First…she works at the WSJ. Second, you and her must really hate Trump. Third, the FP is becoming a leftest news source. Fourth, you renewed my subscription without even asking me if I wanted to renew again. You need to fix that. Fifth, how the hell can you side with the very people that want to take your free speech, have open borders, forced people to get shots, that hates Jews and went full communism.
Overall…the power you and your wife have is starting to corrupt you.
I was also disgusted after this interview. You can tell by the comments which subscribers are Leftist or at least consider themselves "Elite". The good news is Bari finally got schooled by a growup, who thinks for himself - https://www.thefp.com/p/marc-andreessen-on-ai-tech-censorship-e21
SAME/same... renewed w/o any notice that it would renew. Disrespect. Agree with everything you said as well... tainted, poisoned, corrupted.. NOT a free press.
I thought it was a terrific interview. Noonan (and Charles de Gaulle) made me cry in the Walmart. I, too, have all my life had a certain idea of America. I still do and thinking about it made my native optimism well up within me and leak out my eyes while I stood in Produce holding a sweet potato in one hand and a bag of mini marshmallows in the other. So, thanks for that.
I have no doubt that Trump is out for himself. How does that make him any different than Biden, Harris, Pelosi, McConnell, etc? If his policies help people, then by definition is he not on their side?
Bari, I love you and have recommended you to many.
BUT. Yes, sorry, there is a but. But, will you respond to a bit of a trend: Your disastrous conversation with Joe Rogan about Tulsi Gabbard is being reawakened.
I really appreciate you guys sharing the link (someone shared it on another article). I listened to the conversation back in 2019 but was unaware of Gabbard at the time and did not home in on her comments. But, with Gabbard in the forefront since then and someone who I believe loves this country and is a strong individual, I find Bari's comments typical from a progressive.....slamming someone without any context or facts.
Peggy Noonan worked for some great people (Reagan), but helped HW get elected? C'mon man. Her and an Army of volunteers, advisors, donors, and oh yeah, voters. True, she worked on the campaign. Like Maureen Dowd, she was once witty and honest. I won't say that Trump broke her, but her TDS was and is incurable. Hasn't written anything worth reading in years, says this long time WSJ subscriber.
Oh My G-d! Such a wonderful human being. A real American Brahmin! How did she put it, deservedly arrogant. A member of the "old dignity." Yes Trump tells you everything about himself down to the bottom off who he is, and "it isn't deep!!"
Geeze, Bari. You started TheFP to stand up against the establishment dogma that is so often wrong. Right? But more and more you seem to have become the very embodiment of that dogma. You can be so much better than this. I've seen you do it.
I used to be a big fan of Peggy Noonan - until I found her TDS to be too much. But to claim, as she said in the beginning of this podcast, that politics took a nose dive in decency in 2015? As someone who had to deal with teenagers and younger children asking about oral sex during the Clinton years, I beg to differ.
PN is right that we ultimately need to build something. But, sometimes you have to demolish the old buildings to make room for new ones. As long as the existing institutions have power over the stakeholders on an issue, we can’t have a free discussion about what comes next. The biggest stakeholders are under the thumb of the institutions. The institutions have to be disempowered enough to leave people free to build the next thing.
And, I know that’s not easy, and there are huge risks involved. But, I don’t see any alternative to starting by reining in the institutions.
I agree with Susan & Charles below, Bari.
As I have previously written in comments earlier, Peggy Noonan used to be a brilliant writer and intellectual who was treasured voice for many of us years ago. Sadly, she is no longer. Bari, ask her about Oct 7th, the student outbreaks Pro-Hamas, the hideous riise of anti-semitism, the sex slavery of women and children condoned by this current Administration, East Palestine, Appalachia barely recovered, the murders of Lincoln Riley et al. Sadly, I no longer believe that Peggy Noonanhas her hand on the pulse of America or Americans. She doesn’ t know where we are bleeding & deeply heart-broken.Trump gets us. She doesn’t get it for all her larger lyrical prose, which she can still churn out.
America is no longer the poem of Peggy Noonan’s yester year. America is a war zone and some of us, and I believe you, Bari, are fighting as hard as we can for truth in the face of blatant , manipulative & life-destroying lies on all fronts! We believe you have done more to represent this for us Americans than mostly, anyone else. Whatever your propensity for Peggy Noonan, she is only nostalgic for something that is no more. She is one of the “ over- protected, “ ie. elite classes. She just doesn’t realize it. How sad.
Noonan is just plain remarkable--a sensitive, insightful, humane conservative.
I have heard and read Noonan for years. She does not, however, hear herself. She is saying exactly what we who want change with Trump are disavowing. We don’t need the old guard in Secretary positions. We need a change in the Pentagon. People who stay in DC must move out into the world and find out what is going on with regular people.
"Any jackass can knock down a barn, but it takes a man to build one." “I love Nellie Bowles on Fridays...” Oh boy, what a great pod; two of my favorite media people talking together. I became a huge Peggy Noonan fan after reading When Character Was King. Oh how I miss those days. Bummed I wasn’t able to see this pod recorded live.
This conversation was insufferable.
I love beautiful writing and I enjoy listening to engaging speakers. At this point, I don't really find Peggy Noonan to be someone I care to listen to. Her voice and cadence ooze "elite" - you get the sense that she sees herself (and her life) as so clever and "magical", that poor commoners just can't comprehend. She is one of those elitist journalists who feels her intelligence is needed to interpret the world, particularly politics and presidents, for us common folk. She is quite focused on "character" (as is Bari, who often points out she just can't "get past the character issue" with Trump). I figured Peggy probably graduated from Berkley (she did not); when asked about her favorite music, she waxes on about Gershwin. Really?
I have not read any of her books (though I would definitely consider it), but saw from a brief review that "Peggy Noonan in her essay on Ronald Reagan. "A president doesn't have to be brilliant; Harry Truman wasn't brilliant, and he helped save Western Europe from Stalin. He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever. White Houses are always full of quick-witted people with ready advice on how to flip a senator or implement a strategy. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can't buy courage and decency, and can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring these things with him." Of course, she understands things the rest of us don't. I'd suggest that all the men who have risen to be president carry a combination of all of these traits ,to different degrees. That, plus the unique circumstances in history within which they find themselves, serve to elevate a few above the rest.
To write Trump off as shallow, crass, an "underhanded real estate mogul" is very short sighted - I'd like to expect more from Peggy (and Bari!)
I'd love to see a round table of the Free Press staff writers listen to the JR podcast w/ Trump and give honest feedback. Watch the Trump-Bryson DeChambeau "Can I break 50 with President Donald Trump?" Expand your viewpoint from cliche soundbites and your focus on a phrase uttered off the record in 2005. Read The Art of the Deal. (these just as interesting starting points)
Take the time to consider the unique traits and life experience, talents and skills, that DJT brings to this office: high level problem solving; getting things done (quickly and efficiently); entertainment value. A real estate developer who has been involved with finance, building codes, tax code, supply chains, raw materials, resources, city and state governments, politics, celebrity, international trade, etc. etc. Who has spent a lifetime "making deals" and learning how to read people and understand what motivates them.
If I heard some higher level of understanding along these lines from either woman (whatever their final conclusions would be) - I'd have more interest and respect.
Doc.., WOW… well said
This was such a lovely interview.
First…she works at the WSJ. Second, you and her must really hate Trump. Third, the FP is becoming a leftest news source. Fourth, you renewed my subscription without even asking me if I wanted to renew again. You need to fix that. Fifth, how the hell can you side with the very people that want to take your free speech, have open borders, forced people to get shots, that hates Jews and went full communism.
Overall…the power you and your wife have is starting to corrupt you.
I was also disgusted after this interview. You can tell by the comments which subscribers are Leftist or at least consider themselves "Elite". The good news is Bari finally got schooled by a growup, who thinks for himself - https://www.thefp.com/p/marc-andreessen-on-ai-tech-censorship-e21
SAME/same... renewed w/o any notice that it would renew. Disrespect. Agree with everything you said as well... tainted, poisoned, corrupted.. NOT a free press.
I thought it was a terrific interview. Noonan (and Charles de Gaulle) made me cry in the Walmart. I, too, have all my life had a certain idea of America. I still do and thinking about it made my native optimism well up within me and leak out my eyes while I stood in Produce holding a sweet potato in one hand and a bag of mini marshmallows in the other. So, thanks for that.
I have no doubt that Trump is out for himself. How does that make him any different than Biden, Harris, Pelosi, McConnell, etc? If his policies help people, then by definition is he not on their side?
Can both be true? He is a selfish narcissist? But also, he intends to help people?
Bari, I love you and have recommended you to many.
BUT. Yes, sorry, there is a but. But, will you respond to a bit of a trend: Your disastrous conversation with Joe Rogan about Tulsi Gabbard is being reawakened.
At, https://youtu.be/dNbrDjPMpmw?si=J_GckEbJy9CkrLiV&t=668 you suggest that Tulsi was in need of offering an apology. It certainly appears you are in much more need of an apology for this entire bit.
Please disavow your (nearly) entire performance. It is so very contrary to anything resembling 'journalism.'
I really appreciate you guys sharing the link (someone shared it on another article). I listened to the conversation back in 2019 but was unaware of Gabbard at the time and did not home in on her comments. But, with Gabbard in the forefront since then and someone who I believe loves this country and is a strong individual, I find Bari's comments typical from a progressive.....slamming someone without any context or facts.
Peggy Noonan worked for some great people (Reagan), but helped HW get elected? C'mon man. Her and an Army of volunteers, advisors, donors, and oh yeah, voters. True, she worked on the campaign. Like Maureen Dowd, she was once witty and honest. I won't say that Trump broke her, but her TDS was and is incurable. Hasn't written anything worth reading in years, says this long time WSJ subscriber.
Me too. She is so blinded by TDS that her columns in the WSJ are no longer insightful.
Oh My G-d! Such a wonderful human being. A real American Brahmin! How did she put it, deservedly arrogant. A member of the "old dignity." Yes Trump tells you everything about himself down to the bottom off who he is, and "it isn't deep!!"
Geeze, Bari. You started TheFP to stand up against the establishment dogma that is so often wrong. Right? But more and more you seem to have become the very embodiment of that dogma. You can be so much better than this. I've seen you do it.
I used to be a big fan of Peggy Noonan - until I found her TDS to be too much. But to claim, as she said in the beginning of this podcast, that politics took a nose dive in decency in 2015? As someone who had to deal with teenagers and younger children asking about oral sex during the Clinton years, I beg to differ.
I know, remember when Americans considered that scandalous and worthy of impeachment/disqualifying for office?
Ah....those were the days....