Friday’s column from Peggy Noonan frames a major theme the general election campaign:
Mr. McCain is the Old America, of course; Mr. Obama the New.
There is something to this, of course. McCain is older; Obama is younger. Obama has demonstrated the ability to attract many young people to rallies — and the ballot box — in the primaries; though this phenomenon is somewhat overrated in the media, it could make a difference in a close election.  When considering the general 16-year cycle of “change” elections in post-WWII America, generational politics did seem to be a factor in both 1960 (JFK appeared younger, even though he and Nixon were roughly the same age) and 1992.
Some of Noonan’s purported distinctions between Old America and New America miss the mark. The one that leapt out at me was this:
The Old America had big families. You married and had children. Life happened to you. You didn’t decide, it decided. Now it’s all on you. Old America, when life didn’t work out: “Luck of the draw!” New America when life doesn’t work: “I made bad choices!” Old America: “I had faith, and trust.” New America: “You had limited autonomy!”
This nation was not forged by people who thought that life just happened to them. The West was not won by people who thought that life just happened to them. The industrial revolution, electric power, the automobile, the telephone and hundreds of other advancements of civilization were not brought into being by people who thought that life just happened to them. New America is not distinguished by those who say, “I made bad choices, ” but by the degree to which people who make bad choices are viewed as not responsible for making them.
Noonan is closer to the mark here:
In the Old America, high value was put on education, but character trumped it. That’s how Lincoln got elected: Honest Abe had no formal schooling. In Mr. McCain’s world, a Harvard Ph.D. is a very good thing, but it won’t help you endure five years in Vietnam. It may be a comfort or an inspiration, but it won’t see you through. Only character, and faith, can do that. And they are very Old America.
Except that by this measure, the 2004 election was Old America edging out New America. As noted previously:
In particular, the responses to the question of the “most important quality†of the candidates to their voters. Pres. Bush won big with those for whom the most important quality was religious faith (91%), strong leader (87%), clear stands on issues (79%) and honest/trustworthy (70%). Sen. John F. Kerry won big with voters for whom the most important quality was “will bring change†(95%), intelligent (91%), and cares about people (75%).ÂÂ
Noonan ultimately hedges on what the Old vs. New issue means for this election, though adding that “America is always looking forward, not back, it is always in search of the fresh and leaving the tried” seems to suggest an impulse that helps Obama.ÂÂ
I would suggest that America is a little bit more complicated than Old vs. New. From its founding, this nation has always struggled with how best to move toward the ideals of its founders. Over time, it has tended to shed the characteristics most inconsistent with those ideals, but in the process has looked to history as a guide to the core values worth preserving and as a cautionary tale as to how republics can fail.ÂÂ
The aforementioned 16-year cycle has tended to put Democrats in the White House, but always narrowly, just as 2004 was a narrow election. A similar victory for Obama would not mark a great sea change, but rather a continuation of the ongoing American experment.
– I’m thinking that “old America”, you know that majority of Americans by a large margin, is going to shocka the Left once again. How many lost elections does it take to make a Progressive “get it”. Their position on Iraq and the general WOT, while they act as apologists for the Jihadi murderers, that alone, has then painted into a very stoopid corner, never mind taxes and open borders. Political suicide.
Isn’t this also contradictory?
Noonan’s New America is trying to have it both ways. “I made bad choices,” sounds like personal responsibility, but “[I*] had limited autonomy,” means that those choices were artificially restricted and really comes down to eitehr “Luck of the draw,” or a conspiracy to limit people. So not so responsible as it once sounded and we all get to victims again, Yay!
* Correcting the unaccountable shift from 1st to 2nd person. Noonan used to be a better writer.
A similar victory for Obama would not mark a great sea change
except he will have both houses of congress, and perhaps a filibuster proof majority.
hahahaha
except he will have both houses of congress, and perhaps a filibuster proof majority.
hahahaha
for about two years
unless O! attempts to pull a Hugo Chavez in the meantime
Q: Which party controlled both houses of Congress in 1960, 1976 and 1992?
A: nishi is still an idiot savant.
except he will have both houses of congress, and perhaps a filibuster proof majority.
That didn’t help Jimmy Carter!
The Dems and libs have already been warning that they may not get big things done, even if O! wins.
?
MayBee,
The “.” you briefly saw was a placeholder used because pw is eating comments w/links today for some reason.
It was cute.
PW has been eating comments with links for a while. I didn’t say anything because people tend not to appreciate my links all that much. :-(
Ms. Noonan is certainly not an idiot, but you couldn’t be blamed for thinking she might be based on her last several columns. Man, is she wrong about what motivates me.
Old America has always told me that life is what happens when you’ve made other plans, e.g. life is not what happens to you but instead what you do about what happens.
Ms. Noonan runs with the rest of the BOSNYWASH media. It doesn’t matter whether the journalist is left or right, they run in a narrow track encountering only a select group of people. For any information about the rest of the country they rely on polls.
Consider this – could you imagine Robert Novak hauling himself out to Dayton, Ohio and hanging out there for a month to get a feel for the people there? Could you see Chris Matthews do that? I can’t see it. They think they are informed because they are ‘in the center of things’ but they miss a heck of a lot and their prejudices only get reinforced until something happens and they react with shock “How did me miss that?” Or they would react with shock if they were honest, instead they just mutter ‘I meant to do that’ and go right on their merry way.
They are all blind men trying to describe an elephant, and I do not think they know that they are blind.
I think by now everyone has seen that Senator Obama’s new politics is, in fact, very old politics after all.
nishi is still an idiot savant.
Except for the savant part.
Thanks for the remembo, Karl.
Choreographed by Toni Basil. Indeed.
carter didnt have a filibuster proof majority, now did he?
In 1977 and 1978 it only took 5 (R) Senators to jump the aisle to reach 67%. After the 78 election sit was a little harder, but not much.
Year Sen D R HoR D R Pres
1977 100 61 38 435 292 143 Carter
1978 100 61 38 435 292 143 Carter
1979 100 58 41 435 277 158 Carter
1980 100 58 41 435 277 158 Carter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_United_States_Congress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster
Q: Did Hillarycare make it to the floor of the Dem-controlled House, which has no filibusters?
A: nishi is still an idiot savant.
Moreover, Carter’s problems went beyond the GOP. Which people who lived through it — or bother to study it — know.
Nothing familiar about that.
yes, well, and I love how one can claim that winning all branches kills the other party. just like in 1992, the Republicans never recovered.
I would add that #20 and #22 are related, for the history-challenged idiot-savants in the audience.
Does anyone else find nishfong’s certainty that Obama is destined to be President oddly reassuring?
American politcal parties are not lock-step arrangements because we do not have a parliamentary system, matoko. Presidents do not come from the legislature, as in a parliamentary system because they are elected sperately. Senators and Representatives run their own races – perhaps with help from the president or other members from either branch in their state; perhaps not. Each member of both houses of Congress have to look at their constituents (their individual bases of support) when they decide how to vote. This makes American political parties broad coalitions before the elections.
Get yourself a Magruder’s and read it carefully.
Maybe history would be more convincing if I wrote it as a sci-fi story?
Yes B Moe. Based on past performance in both prediction and argument.
Only if you agree that authorial intent trumps any critic’s deconstruction, Karl.
The secret genius of the US Constitution is that Adams and Jefferson were actually aliens who hid their identities from Farleigh Dickinson.
The Hessians were actually droids.
surely there are already a few movies?
may have to break out The War Room again. we happened upon that in 2004 and it’s spooky how much things really don’t change.
And yes, time travel is involved. The troops at Valley Forge were rallied by Marty McFly and talking apes.
And ZZ Topp.
I think I can sell that to Disney for National Treasure III.
Have you ever read The Other Log of Philleas Fogg by Phillip Jose Farmer, Karl?
Frankly, it’d be hard to find a more pretentious collumn. She’s either aware she’s reaching, or she’s full of herself.
I know it’s faint praise, but the people who write for Protein Wisdom are not nearly as full of it as Peggy Noonan. Moving on to the possiblity of a sea change, I think Obama will win handily, but acknowledge a strong possibility that I’ll be mistaken. But whatever the margin, I think an Obama win will be the beginning of a sea change somewhat like the Reagan sea change. Reagan didn’t win because a majority of people embraced his conservatism but they were much more open to his conservatism after Reagan won. I think the same would be the case with Obama. If Obama wins, even by one electoral vote, the pressure to move in a left direction will increase exponentially and people will be much less inclined to listen to the right. If McCain wins, it’s relatively easy to see the federal government being completely dysfunctional as both the Republicans and the Democrats will be able to veto items they don’t like.
The last Democratic president to enjoy a filibuster-proof Senate majority was Jimmy Carter 30 years ago.
I apologize for not having a link to an Ivy League Professor with a statistical model to prove my point, which was, Jimmy Carter couldn’t get it done with a filibuster-proof majority!
Composition of Congress, by Political Party, 1855–2008
Sorry, I forgot to say that there is no “filibuster” in the House of Representatives, now is there?
Jimmie Carter was a conservative, Robac. And that was the problem with his leadership.
The problem with Jimmah Carter was that he lacked leadership. Conservative my ass!
conserving human rights, conserving Christianity (fundamentalist ‘member), conserving energy, most conservative of the Dem. field of ’76. What part of ‘conservative’ don’t you like?
Oh I must have forgotten his conservative leaning on the economy, military, and foreign policy.
Looks like you don’t just spew “wambats” from your ass — you also talk out of it.
Time for a mental breathmint!
Carter was more conservative than Scoop Jackson? Than Eugene McCarthy? True, he was more conservative than those shining progressive lights Robert Byrd and George Wallace. But the most conservative candidate in the field? No, not by a long shot.
Jimmah was nearly courageous enough to take a single stand on abortion:
In the Iowa caucuses, which Carter put on the map for the first time, Carter told Catholic audiences (and a gathering of bishops) that he opposed abortion and supported legislation to restrict it, thus cutting into Shriver’s support. But he told feminist groups at the same time that he supported abortion rights (indeed, he had done so as governor of Georgia).”
Demograpically speaking it really is an Old America because the New America got stupid and aborted their future.
I seriously don’t believe Noonan gets this point, that the ‘hope I die before I get old’ New America decided that when they got old they didn’t want to die.
Simply put, Obama isn’t old enough to win in November, which is why McCain doesn’t need to childish in his idiotic pandering to New America.
#35 RTO
No, though it seems much more interesting than the “80 Days” remake Disney did with Jackie Chan.
Too true. But the premis seemed to fit well with your idea of Adams and Jefferson as Aliens. They could even be of the same race and factions as Fogg/Passepartou and Mr Fixx.