Noonan on the Signs of the Times

Peggy Noonan, perhaps the best Catholic journalist in the country writing for a secular paper, writes about the mood she finds people in around her turf—New York City/Washington DC—and they appear to be prepared for the worst.

I feel that also, but think that with the passage of the stimulus bill, regardless of its specifics, the surge of money entering the economy will correspond to a surge in consumer confidence, particularly as the weather begins to change from the current ice storms of the east and the rain of the west into nation wide sunshine and warmth, so will the national mood; and the interior resiliency of the American people and the American economy will kick in and we will pull out of this.

An excerpt.

“All week the word I kept thinking of was "braced." America is braced, like people who are going fast and see a crash ahead. They know huge and historic challenges are here. They're not confident they can or will be met. Our most productive citizens are our most sophisticated, and our most sophisticated have the least faith in the ability of our institutions to face the future and get us through whole. They have the least faith because they work in them.

“Tuesday I talked to people who support a Catholic college. I said a great stress is here and coming, and people are going to be reminded of what's important, and the greatest of these will be our faith, it's what is going to hold us together as a country. As for each of us individually, I think it's like the old story told about Muhammad Ali. It was back in the 1960s and Mr. Ali, who was still Cassius Clay, was a rising star of boxing, on his way to being champ. One day he was on a plane, going to a big bout. He was feeling good, laughing with friends. The stewardess walked by before they took off, looked down and saw that his seatbelt was unfastened. She asked him to fasten it. He ignored her. She asked him again, he paid no attention. Now she leaned in and issued an order: Fasten the seatbelt, now. Mr. Clay turned, looked her up and down, and purred, "Superman don't need no seatbelt."

“She said, "Superman don't need no airplane. Buckle up." And he did.

“We all think we're supermen, and we're not, and you're lucky to have a faith that both grounds you and catches you.

“But during the part in which I spoke in rather stark terms of how I see the future, I think I saw correctly that the physical attitude of some in the audience was alert, leaned forward: braced. Again, like people who know a crash is coming. Afterward I asked an educator in the audience if I was too grim. He looked at me and said simply: No.

“A sign of the times: We had a good time at lunch. It is an era marked by deep cognitive dissonance. Your long-term thoughts are pessimistic, and yet you're cheerful in the day to day….

“Whatever happens in the Senate, Republicans have to some degree already won. They should not revert to the triumphalism of the Bush era, when they often got giddy and thick-necked and spiked the ball. They should "act like they been there before." They should begin to seize back the talking mantle from the president. And—most important—they must stay serious.”

"The national conversation on the economy is frozen, and has been for a while. Republicans say tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Democrats say spend, new programs, more money. You can't spend enough for the Democratic base, or cut taxes enough for the Republican. But in a time when all the grown-ups of America know spending is going to bankrupt us and tax cuts without spending cuts is more of the medicine that's killing us, the same old arguments, which sound less like arguments than compulsive tics, only add to the public sense that no one is in charge."