[John Cole]

Rick,

I read the rest of Noonan's speech, and, of course, I can't find much to praise, except perhaps for her admiration of Adlai Stevenson, who once said, "In America anybody can grow up to be president. That's just the chance you'll have to take." (Isn't that enough to merit admiration?)

Note her highly unethical wording when she calls the Democrats the pro-abortion party. Wouldn't you object if I called the Republicans the anti-women party. Furthermore, she attempts to polarize an issue that many Americans really aren't that extreme about to begin with. Remember, polls show that 70% of Americans favor a woman's right to choose, but also oppose abortion as a means of birth control. Noonan, though, can't seem to accept this, and her stance should provoke readers to question her inflammatory rhetoric.

She also asserts that Democrats are snobs--and, losing all credulity, uses busing in Boston to make her case. In another end run, she accuses the Dems of robbing poor people through unjust taxes. (Conveniently, she can't quite remember if she gave the poor woman who had lost her money a handout. Yet, her memory seems not to have failed her when recalling other significant moments from her past.)

Andy has already provided trenchant commentary on Noonan's association of the Democrats with Mao, et al., amd I think you must even find her position at least vague here, if not completely duplicitious.

I think, though, what bothers me most about Noonan's writing--and much conservative rhetoric as well--is the buried claim that the past was--and always will be--better than the present. If we could only recapture what has gone by, we'd once again take possession of the Garden of Eden. At best, this prelapsarian fantasy pictures a world that never truly existed to begin with, and, at worst, it keeps us from imagining a present and future filled with possibility.

Noonan wishes to reclaim a vision of the past that never was, and, yet, she can't remember if she gave the woman on the subway a few bucks. I'd remember, and I know you would, too.

John