Peggy Noonan Outdoes Herself, Blames America's Problems on "Adam Lamberts" of the World

For reasons I can only blame on Twitter, I read Peggy Noonan's newest column late last night and went to bed soon after. This morning I woke up thinking, "Surely, not. It must've been some sad, low-intensity nightmare. No serious person would write an article that ridiculous."

Then I remembered: Peggy Noonan is not a serious person.

Sure, she writes for a Serious paper -- The Wall Street Journal -- and is invited to share her analysis on Serious programs ("Meet the Press"). She writes like she speaks: primly, with an air of breezy, high-class intellect. I imagine she writes beautiful cursive.

She is well groomed. So well groomed, in fact, she believes it is her right -- nay, her obligation -- to publicly humiliate those who fail at grooming. (Noblesse oblige, Mika. Don't take it personally.)

The last time I read Lady Noonan, in late November, she was being driven down Manhattan's Fifth Ave -- a perennial source of inspiration -- and was so moved at the sight of the Bergdorf Goodman building ("tall, stately, mansard-roofed") -- it instilled her with a sense of deep relief:

It looked exactly as it looked 10 years ago, 20, only better. Because it's there. New York has been so damaged by the crash, and last year at this time small shops, the ones with the smallest margin for error, were closing. And now I see more that are opening, and Bergdorf's is preparing its Christmas windows. The sight of it came like an affirmation. We're still here. I am so grateful.

Emphasis hers.

It was not the first time she wrote a Thanksgiving-themed column that celebrated the survival of the ruling class as the rest of the country went to hell. After all, impressionistic validations of her own sense of privilege are her forte. (If Berdorf survives, that means the rich survive; Food stamps? Collectibles of the goblins to the north.)

But I digress.

It appears Peggy Noonan decided this week that she is done feeling grateful about the survival of luxury goods and is back to being worried.

At first glance, it appears she is concerned about the economy:

The news came in numbers and the numbers were fairly grim, all the grimmer for being unsurprising. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported this week that more than half of Americans, 55%, think America is on the wrong track, with only 33% saying it is going in the right direction. A stunning 66% say they're not confident that their children's lives will be better than their own (27% are).

It is another in a long trail of polls that show a clear if occasionally broken decline in American optimism. The poll was discussed on TV the other day, and everyone said those things everyone says: "People are afraid they'll lose their jobs or their houses." "It's health care. Every uninsured person feels they're one illness away from bankruptcy.

All too true. The economy has always had an impact on the general American mood, and the poll offered data to buttress the reader's assumption that economic concerns are driving pessimism. Fifty-one percent of those interviewed said they disapproved of the president's handling of the economy, versus 42% approving.>

At this point, I ask myself, "Where is she going with this?" After all, Bergdorf is still standing, so it can't be all about money, right?

But something tells me this isn't all about money.

Ah.

It's possible, and I can't help but think likely, that the poll is also about other things, and maybe even primarily about other things.

Hmmm…go on.

Sure, Americans are worried about long-term debt and endless deficits. We're worried about taxes and the burden we're bequeathing to our children, and their children.

Do go on.

But we are concerned about other things, too, and there are often signs in various polls that those things may dwarf economic concerns. Americans are worried about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture.