As this year of imprudent surprise comes to an end, Reagan-era porcelain urn Peggy Noonan turns her forgiving gaze to the lessers—they are poor, you see. But why?
Peggy, who made her name writing speeches for Ronald Reagan before going on to a career as someone who publicly asserts that Latino deli counter workers are personal friends, is in a reflective mood. A year hath passed; another dawns; far from Peggy Noonan, lower classes suffer, and perhaps eat at the dreadful “McDonalds” restaurant. Distressing, indeed. In the spirit of openheartedness towards this nation of ours, America, Peggy dedicates her column today to the work of Chris Arnade—a fine man who left a career on Wall Street in order to spend his time documenting the lives of the poorest and most left-behind members of our society.
Great.
I’ve written of the great divide in America as between the protected and the unprotected—those who more or less govern versus the governed, the facts of whose lives the protected are almost wholly unaware.
Great.
Hey Peggy, do you know who started all this inequality that left these very people behind? Ronald fucking Reagan.
Look at this, Peggy. LOOK AT IT. Seems like this great divide really took off after 1980, right when... well, I’m not sure who was president then, and who was writing eloquent speeches in order to further that president’s political power. Perhaps you should look it up.
Peggy Noonan extends her deepest wishes for a joyous New Year to all of these people that she helped to impoverish.