I look forward to Peggy Noonan’s Friday columns in the Wall Street Journal. The former Reagan speechwriter has a sharp mind and a good ear. Occasionally she fails to say something useful, in my estimation, but not often.
Today’s column is the first time I think I’ve understood the Tea Party’s motivation. Is she right, or is she wrong (and I misled by thinking she’s got it)?
It’s not that I don’t understand frustration. Goodness knows, this blog and my Facebook status postings reflect a lot of frustration. But diffuse frustration (imagine a placard: “I’m confusedly pissed, and I’m going to do something silly about it”) doesn’t motivate to go out and rally.
Noonan:
No matter what level of life in which you operate, you are likely overwhelmed by forms, by a blizzard of regulations, rules, new laws. This is not new, it’s just always getting worse. Priests are forced to be accountants now, and army officers, and dentists. The single most onerous part of ObamaCare is the tax change whereby spending $600 on goods or services will require a 1099 form. Economists will tell you of the financial cost of this, but I would argue that Paperwork Nation is utterly at odds with the American character.
Because Americans weren’t born to be accountants. It’s not our DNA! We’re supposed to be building the Empire State Building. We were meant, to be romantic about it, and why not, to be a pioneer people, to push on, invent electricity, shoot the bear, bootleg the beer, write the novel, create, reform and modernize great industries. We weren’t meant to be neat and tidy record keepers. We weren’t meant to wear green eyeshades. We looked better in a coonskin cap!
There is I think a powerful rebellion against all this. It isn’t a new rebellion—it was part of Goldwaterism, and Reaganism—but it’s rising again.
That’s where I think she maybe “got it.” What do you think?
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 
America was founded by smugglers and, so, are reluctant accountants. But, by that logic, we’re not given to respecting national border lines or immigration laws either. What does Peggy think about strict immigration laws or amnesty?
The Frontier closed quite sometime ago. Probably we need to come to grips with that.
I disagree, the nation is not nearly as settled as the upper and upper-middle class like to believe that it is. It is still a wilderness for most Americans.