The Steamroller (Peggy Noonan on Big Government)

Opinion Journal ^ | Jan 5, 2006 | Peggy Noonan

[listenhillary]

I was thinking that quote dated from 1964. Thanks for verifying.

Here it is 42 years later and government is how much bigger? Consumes how much greater percentage of the fruits of our labor?

Jeez! This even was before LBJ tried to end poverty with more socialism! 42 years of beating our heads against the wall. Many still say if we just beat our heads against the wall HARDER, we will surely succeed.

[NeoCaveman]

Thank you Peggy for keeping it real.

[eddie willers]

Don't blame the messenger.

[7thson]

I tend to agree with you, to a point. It seems to me that these people that start from humble beginnings for the most part forget their origins as they become more successfull. It was either Adams or Madison that stated the Constitution was meant for a moral people. A people that does not believe in God will have no use for such a Constitution. For over forty years, government and business have worked to wipe out Christianity from the public arena. It is like the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" when George Baily runs through "Pottersville" in the world that came to be without him. Nothing but vice and corruption because one man was not there to stop the evil Potter. And by removing the one man - Christ - from the public arena - something has to fill the void. Slowly and slowly vice and corruption has crept on us until today we root for pro and college sports teams with thugs and criminals on them. In our grocery and convenience stores, we have magazines promoting the near nudity of women. We have sitcoms promoting vice, homosexuality, bed hopping, killing without remorse, etc. And people raised in this atmosphere achive adulthood and become employed within the government, they only carry on the ideals and lack of morals unto the public at large.

So, instead of writing about the lies and hypocrises of either party, it would do well that someone of Peggy's influence right about morals, Christianity, love, helping your neighbor, etc. But not, Peggy is already on record stating the public display of ones faith is somewhat distasteful.

I am in the process of reading John Adams by McCollough. It struck me that when people bemoan the fact that todays politics force the good minded not to enter the foray, that people such as Adams, Washington, Patrick Henry, et al, still exist today. But they are reluctant to have their name dragged through the mud. As bright and intelligent as Adams and Jefferson were, can you imagine them being interviewed by the likes of Bill O'Reilly? How about Susan Estrich? Ellis Hennican? Even those pundits we profess to like - Tony Snow, Brit Hume, Rush, Sean Hannity, Michael Graham - at the end, to them, it is just about ratings and not how it improves the country. How many times do you hear "man, we have a shootout for you guys today." The more I listen to all this noise, the more I am turning towards the Bible and Christ. Where is today's William Wilberforce?