Peggy Noonan is no stranger to politics, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan has never seen stranger politics than during the 2020 presidential election.
“I have lived long enough to respect the fact that I have never lived through a political or social moment like this in my life,” said Noonan during the inaugural “Women and Leadership” series presented by Fairfield University”™s Open Visions Forum.
Noonan”™s Oct. 2 lecture came at the tail end of a week that began with the bellicose debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden and concluded with Trump being taken to Walter Reed Medical Center after testing positive for Covid-19. For Noonan, these were the latest in a series of bizarre twists and turns in a political season that has been anything but mundane.
“I guess the words of the moment are ”˜fluid”™ and ”˜dynamic”™ and ”˜changeable”™ and ”˜dramatic,”™” she observed. “My view is that the year 2020 politically has been like reading an Allen Drury novel, only he’s writing it while micro-dosing on hallucinogenics. Allen Drury, of course, was an old-time novelist who wrote about Washington and policy. With surprising and dramatic twists, I just feel like we’re caught in some crazy Allen Drury novel this year.”
Noonan admitted it was difficult to determine how the president”™s health will impact the campaign, but she pointed to polling that showed “the president trailing Joe Biden by six and seven points” since last October, with Biden showing evidence of losing his lead.
“And that lead has been pretty much impervious to events,” she said. “Whatever happens doesn’t matter ”“ he’s in the lead. Trump has a good week, Biden’s in the lead, Trump has a bad week, Biden’s in the lead ”“ it just doesn’t change.”
Noonan characterized the Sept. 29 debate as being “interesting in the way all disasters are kind of interesting.” She viewed Trump as being “belligerent to the point of nutty,” but she also complained that Biden had trouble completing his thoughts and was “what might politely be called non-forthcoming in many of his answers on key issues.” This was a debate where everyone lost, she added, including the viewers.
“I just felt that that whole debate left people right, left and center feeling distressed and worried,” she lamented.
In this election, Noonan predicted more attention will be given to the vice-presidential candidates, given the president”™s health concerns and Biden”™s advanced age ”“ the 77-year-old is the oldest man nominated by a major party for the presidency and much attention has been given to alleged problems with his mental acuity.
“It’s a freakish year and suddenly people are going to say, ”˜Hey, who is this Harris? Who is this Pence?”™” she said.
With Election Day looming on the horizon, Noonan admitted to be “very nervous about the days and weeks ”“ I hope not months ”“ after the election” if the immediate results are inconclusive and the public mood grows from impatience into violent street protests.
“It is always amazing to me that America has about 328 million people and we have more guns than that,” she opined. “We have more guns than the population of our country. I’m not sure it’s fruitful to think aloud about the reasons, but I will think aloud about my anxieties right now. America is a hot country right now ”“ it’s been hot for a while and it doesn’t seem to be getting cooler.”
Noonan has felt her own heat from many of her longtime readers who have complained angrily over columns where she has been critical of the president.
“They are mad at me now over this subject of Donald Trump, and there’s nothing to be done about it,” she said. “I kind of love them and I respect them. I try to quote them as much as I can. But we’re just not seeing the world the same way right now. And I hope the day comes when we do again.”
And while this year still has several weeks until 2021 take over, Noonan dubbed the ongoing events as “Big History” and urged people to take notes on what is transpiring, adding that in a more serene future “we will all tell our grandchildren about it.”
