HIGH NOON FOR NOONAN

We love editorial writers as much as the next guy.

Peggy Noonan, the Republican party apologia spokesperson the WSJ likes to roll out regularly, has her tenses badly mixed up. The Republican Party isn't "shattering." It's shattered and has been for so long it should, as is popular in Europe, adopt an acronym. LSRP as in Long Shattered Republican Party might be a decent choice.

In fact, the Journal could possibly attract more readers by running a contest to come up with the best acronym for what once was called The Grand Old Party. We seriously doubt if that was ever true or, for that matter, if there's ever been a grand party to ride heard on its subjects.

In her recent lament, "The Republican Party Is Shattering," she warns "...we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes." And that's what this upcoming presidential election, as they all are, is about: Who gets to sit in the saddle. For the incentivized to keep the status quo, Trump isn't the guy. For those who despise smothering governments, neither is Clinton nor Sanders. That leaves most caught in the famous place from Greek mythology, stuck between a political Charybdis and Scalla.

It could also be called pick your poison between two bankrupt purveyors of  more government engorgement and control in your lives. Yes, we're talking those pitiful Democrats and Republicans here  Taking oblique but no less cheap shots at those who may vote for him, she piles on the dangers of a Trump nomination and possible presidency.

Ms Noonan writes, speaking of the demise of  the Grand Old Party,"For me the Republican Party was
always the vehicle of a philosophy, conservative political thought--no more, no less." She then twists her petard of contempt for Trump supporters a little deeper with: "But it should concern his supporters that his brain seems to be a grab bag of impulses, and although he has many views and opinions he doesn't seem to know anything about public policy or the way the White House or the government works."

The problem, dear soul, is just the opposite. He knows exactly how public policy and government works. That's a major part of his appeal.

One of the few things Ms Noonan gets correct is if the party finagled Trump from a nomination he fairly won, Trump supporters, as they should, will bolt. They have in a way been more vilified than the veterans returning from the Vietnam War, maybe not spit upon in public but severely spat upon in the editorial and front pages across this nation. That's a wound that won't be healed with a quick smear of glib rhetoric once this public assassination ends.

She states she's been thinking a lot lately about the establishment and the elites. That's curious. This might come as a surprise to you, Ms Noonan, but you're one of them, hollering down at the masses from the top of your editorial mountain, telling them how thoughtless and ill-informed they are. The political sky will cave if you knaves and dolts put Trump in office.

Well, it's high noon, baby, for you and your Grand Old Party. But it's also high noon for this trumped up facade they call a government for, by and of; and we, like numerous others, say this as someone who has no skin in the outcome and no ponies in the run.

If this election with its pathetic cast of characters, as many claim, is symbolic of anything, it's all the political rot beneath the surface.