Peggy Noonan was the unofficial poet of the Reagan administration. She crafted some of his most eloquent speeches with him and, over time--decades, not years--was able to make her fellow establishmentarians comfortable with Reagan. 

She wrote the two most memorable speeches in Reagan's presidency. The first was his address after the explosion of the space shuttle, and the second was his speech at Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, known as the "Boys of Point-Du-Hoc" speech. 

Noonan, not Reagan, became Reagan in their eyes once he was safely dead and buried.  Every time you hear a Democrat or Pravda Media person praise Reagan, they are praising the Reagan image that Noonan built.

That's because Peggy has always been of the Establishment, if not by birth, by education and inclination. She and Dan Rather collaborated on his commentaries at CBS, and while they disagreed, it was one of her formative experiences. 

I'm not laying all this out to knock her--I have warm feelings for Peggy going back to the Reagan days and think the work she has done to promote Reagan to the elites has been helpful. She is a lovely writer, and her work exudes humanity, which means quite a bit in this harsh political world. 

One of the weirdest things about living in DC is that when things are horrible for the country, people in DC tend to feel great. And when things are better for the country, DC feels scared and threatened. They legit LOVED the last four years. And are freaking out now. https://t.co/1hHZ4JFZMb

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 31, 2025

Noonan's latest piece in the Wall Street Journal, where she writes a weekly column, strikes me as a lament of the old Establishment for what once was and gives us insight into why so many old-guard Republicans are so uncomfortable with Donald Trump. We all assume that the major reason for opposition to Trump is that he threatens the grift that became the dominant motivation for post-Reagan/GHWB Republicans, but that is only true for some of them. 

Many hate Trump, or at least fear him, because he is the wrecking ball taking out the old order in which they have become so comfortable. In their eyes, it was a good order, and for the most part, it was. Sure, there were all the flaws you find in any government, but there was also a sense that public servants were there to do good. There was order, stability, and "norms" that everybody understood. And America prospered, as did the Establishment. 

Perhaps that is looking back with rose-tinted glasses--at the time the rough and tumble of politics didn't SEEM that friendly. In fact, with the exception of Eisenhower, chaos and hostility reigned in Washington. But looking back things looked stable and predictable. 

Noonan detects anxiety about Trump in Washington, which is undoubtedly true:

Last week I had four days in Washington with members of both parties, many elected officials. The only subject was Mr. Trump.

Republican lawmakers, including those most supportive of the president, are beside themselves with anxiety. When you speak to them—off the record, between friendly acquaintances—and ask how it’s going, they shift, look off, shrug: You know how it’s going. A GOP senator who supports the president had a blanched look. “He doesn’t do anything to make it easy,” he shrugged.

What is the meaning of the averted eyes and anxious faces? It means Trump 2.0 isn’t better. It means for all the talk of the new professionalism in the Trump operation, they have to get used to the chaos again and ride it, tempting the gods of order and steadiness. After one week they concluded the first administration wasn’t a nervous breakdown and the second isn’t a recovery; instead, again they’re on a ship with a captain in an extended manic phase who never settles into soothing depression.

In a general way, also, there is something big I sensed. Among those who think about foreign affairs and world history, the great story of the past dozen years or so has been the collapse of the postwar international order that created systems and ways of operating whose dynamics and assumptions were clear, predictable, and kept an enduring peace. You can say the fall began when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 or Ukraine in 2022. Take your pick, it’s over.

I saw a broad and growing sense in Washington that American domestic politics, or at least that part of its politics that comes from Washington, is at a similar inflection point. That the second rise of Donald Trump is a total break with the past—that stable order, healthy expectations, the honoring of a certain old moderation, and strict adherence to form and the law aren’t being “traduced”; they are ending. That something new has begun. People aren’t sure they’re right about this and no one has a name for the big break, but they know we have entered something different—something more emotional, more tribal and visceral.

As a man who just turned 60 and who has lived at the fringes of the Establishment--fighting its legitimacy most of the time--I understand Noonan's and the Washington elite's fears. Things may not have been working well in Washington for decades, but they were failing in a predictable way. The alternative was chaos, and chaos is scary. 

Trump is chaos. It is his superpower. It is why he was chosen to lead. 

Because the Establishment is not just tired--it has become the biggest drag on this country. It is overwhelmingly corrupt, self-centered, hostile to ordinary people, and, in many cases, a gfift. 

Noonan, accidentally, I think, shows us why chaos is necessary at this moment in history. 

A word to Democrats trying to figure out how to save their party. The most eloquent of them, of course, think the answer is finding the right words. We need to talk more like working people, we need Trump’s touch with popular phrasing.

The answer isn’t to talk but do. Be supple. The Trumpian policies you honestly support—endorse them, join in the credit. If you think violent illegal immigrants should be removed, then back current efforts while standing—firmly, publicly—on the side of peaceful, hardworking families doing no harm and in fact contributing. Admit what your party’s gotten wrong the past 15 years. Don’t be defensive, be humble.

Most of all, make something work. You run nearly every great city in the nation. Make one work—clean it up, control crime, smash corruption, educate the kids.

You want everyone in the country to know who you are? Save a city.

Her advice to Democrats is quit being Democrats. Quit destroying things. Quit making our country unlivable. Quit being enemies of the people. 

That is good advice, of course, since Democrats have been ruining everything they touch, and the Republicans haven't been doing much better of late. They had become what the Tories were in the UK--leftist light, focused on feathering their beds, managing the decline of the nations, skimming off the top, and collaborating with the transnational elite. 

Trump became necessary because the old Establishment failed. It may not have always been a failure, but the old order was dying until Reagan gave it new life. And even he could only extend its lifespan, and the Establishment then fought him every step in the way, working day and night to destroy him. 

I understand why Noonan and many Republicans of goodwill fear Donald Trump. He IS a wrecking ball, destroying the old order. But that order has created a mess the likes of which the world hasn't seen since World War II. That these Establishment folks were more comfortable with a senile Joe Biden in the White House, spending with abandon, opening our borders, destroying our cities, and stumbling from war-to-war was not the point for them. 

Biden was comfortable for them. They understood him. He was awful in a way they understood. 

Trump is incomprehensible to them. He is destroying their world. A world in which the Establishment is unable to "make something work," as Noonan said. 

They can't. The Establishment is focused on managing America's decline in a way that makes them comfortable. 

Chaos is scary. It is also exactly what we need right now, because the stability we had meant inevitable decline.