Peggy Noonan wrote one of her masterpieces and it appeared at WSJ today.  She is dealing with the hard left turn the Democrats are taking and calling for a response from Republicans.  She is undeniably right on.  But I want o focus on just a couple of lines she wrote in this great, great piece:

…Democrats are not only going left, they will do it badly. They will lurch, they will be spurred by anger and abstractions, they will be destructive. They really would kill the goose that laid the golden egg, because they feel no loyalty to it.

[….]

The natural job of conservatives is to conserve….

I have been thinking  a lot about the nature of conservation lately.  I recently attended a performance of Shakespeare that was deeply troubling – deeply.  I do not wish to pick on the particular institution offering the performance, nor the performers, directors and crew involved so I will offer no more detail.  What I will comment on is that the play was radically altered from what I read in high school.  Of course, it was in a left leaning direction, but that is almost immaterial.  The point was that those putting this presentation together thought themselves somehow better and smarter than the original author and had no problem appropriating it to their ends.  This is actually pretty common with Shakespeare anymore which is why I do not want to pick on anybody specific.  In the end it is a deeply selfish act.  This is part of what Noonan is talking about when she says, “…they will do it badly.”

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This week on the Townhall Review with Hugh Hewitt –

Among the great conversations on the Green New Deal:  Senator Tom Cotton joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss how this absurd plan has found favor among key Democrats.  And fellow Salem host Dennis Prager speaks with economist Alex Epstein on how the plan would devastate our economy.

Also, Larry Elder tackles socialism in his home state of California.  And Focus on the Family president Jim Daly explains their latest effort to stop late-term abortion.

The podcast can be found right here.

Take a listen.  Sign up, and get a daily email with a marvelous segment of the best in talk radio.

FDR’s New Deal arose at a time of serious existential crisis.  The unemployment rate was 25%.  All any American, if they were not deeply experiencing the Great Depression themselves, had to do was look to their neighbor or a street corner to know there were serious issues.  Agree or disagree with the particular policies of FDR in the New Deal, the fact that something had to happen was undeniable.  The “Green New Deal” is an entirely different animal.  The crisis it purports to respond to is something that 1) not all Americans agree is a crisis, and 2) you have to mine vast hordes of data to actually detect.  There is massive debate about whether the best response to climate change (or whatever the term du jour is) is to cope with it or to try and halt it.  The Green New Deal does not respond to an obvious crisis, but given that it has not already died of embarrassment, it responds to a crisis that many Americans think…feel…sense needs a response.

When people sense a “crisis” more than they observe it, such “crisis” is generally a reflection as much of their own attitude as it is the facts on the ground.  There are a lot of Americans that are apprehensive about their future.  That apprehension has found a place to reside in concerns about climate change.  I would argue that this is a result of being unmoored from faith, which is certainly where I turn to deal with my ungrounded apprehension.  But that is a different post, as just linked.  A state of apprehension is not a happy state in which to exist, yet apparently many Americans are living there.  And this in a time of great prosperity.  The sad thing about the GND is that in the end it perpetuates that unhappy state.

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Florida Senator Rick Scott joined me today:

Audio:

02-14hhs-scott

Transcript:

HH: Joined now by United States Senator Rick Scott of the great state of Florida. Senator, good to talk to you.

RS: Hey, it’s hard to think of my new title as senator, because…

HH: I know. I got over that without doing the, doing a stumble. So I was proud of myself.

RS: Nice job.

HH: …after 8 years of governorship, how are you enjoying the new body?

RS: You know, I like the people. There’s a lot of good people up here. It’s frustrating that it doesn’t work. That’s why, you know, I mean, think about this. They say oh, we all want border security. We hate government being shut down. Oh, we care about these DACA kids. But do they do anything about it? No. I mean, look at this compromise bill. It, you know, the positive is it looks like it’ll pass. It looks like it won’t shut down government, which we shouldn’t be doing. But is it securing the border? No. I mean, I was out in Laredo last Friday and talking to border security, and they were telling me all their problems. These Democrats ought to go down to the border and say this to them. I don’t, Democrats ought to say they do not care about this border security and safety. They’re not giving them the technology, they’re not giving them the manpower, and they’re not giving them barriers. They ought to go to the town halls with the American public and say you know, we don’t care about your safety. We don’t care of drugs come across the border. We don’t care if terrorists come across the border. They ought to say we don’t care, because that’s exactly what the Democrats are saying.

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