Peggy Noonan

having a positive and determined attitude similar to that of President Reagan

Reaganesque optimism, she argues, was not naivety about difficulty but a deliberate and disciplined refusal to be defeated by it.

adj. characteristic of the art of public speaking or of a public speaker

Oratorical craft at its finest does not merely persuade — it elevates the audience toward a vision of themselves they had not previously inhabited.

relating to the political ideas of Edmund Burke, especially about conservatism

Her Burkean instinct for institutional preservation sees reckless disruption as a greater danger than the imperfections it proposes to remedy.

adj. of; having the nature of; or according to rhetoric using or characterized by mere rhetoric; or artificial eloquence; showy and elaborate in style

Rhetorical grace in political speech is not ornamental — it signals respect for the audience and seriousness about the democratic occasion.

adj. of or relating to a senator or a senate

Senatorial gravity — the bearing of one entrusted with consequential decisions — has become conspicuously rare in contemporary political performance.

adj. overly excitable or irritable; changeable as to mood nature operability or the like; unpredictable

Temperamental steadiness in a leader communicates to citizens that the person holding power will not be destabilized by its inevitable pressures.

adj. characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste in manners and conduct

Decorous public conduct is not mere formality — it sustains the dignity of institutions that outlast and depend upon individual occupants.

adj. able to make something strong and healthy again

Restorative political rhetoric acknowledges national wounds honestly before offering the shared purpose that healing requires as its precondition.

adj. of; by; or as if decreed by divine providence

A providential sense of American purpose, when invoked without hubris, can inspire citizens toward genuinely noble collective aspiration.

n. a member of the nobility; adj. of noble birth; showing refinement of taste or manners.

Patrician public service — motivated by obligation rather than ambition — is a tradition she mourns with specificity and genuine feeling.

n. an object such as a coin or postage stamp made to mark an event or honor a person; adj. intended to honor the memory of

Great commemorative oratory transforms grief into civic renewal — the dead honoured not through sentiment but through rededication to their sacrifice.

adj. 1 Of relating to or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past

An elegiac quality pervades her finest columns — mourning not merely political figures but the civic culture their passing represents.

n. the language of one's country

American vernacular at its most vital carries philosophical weight that no amount of elevated diction can replicate or replace.

n. the force that pulls planets stars or particles toward one another

Gravitational historical moments demand language equal to their weight — improvisation and spin are revealed as contemptibly insufficient.

having qualities typical of a wise and skilled leader

Statesmanlike restraint — knowing what not to say and when not to say it — is among the rarest and most valuable political virtues.