In this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, in a column entitled “America and the Aggressive Left,” Peggy Noonan writes that the “constant mischief of the progressive left is hurting the nation’s morale. What follows this topic sentence is a sarcasm loaded invective detailing a number of regulations Noonan finds problematic. Some of the regulations are problematic. Yet, the column reads as if a lunatic from Fox News had ghost written the column escalating a number of examples into a false overall picture of American politics and regulation instead of the more responsible line usually taken by Noonan.
Apart from the fact that it is doubtful a real left, aggressive or otherwise, has any real power in Washington, one would certainly find no clue in the column that government regulation might be necessary to protect the environment or worker safety. Even more serious, the column lacks any recognition that an aggressive Right in this country has done its level best to make it impossible for government to function or that the Republicans have used their power to protect a wealthy elite against the interests of the people. One would never guess that Americans are concerned that our democracy has been hijacked.
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