Noonan on Ryan the Thinker

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin

The more I read about Paul Ryan the more I like him.  Here is an interesting article by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal drawing a contrast between President Obama, now abandoning "hope" as a campaign message and embracing fear and division, and Ryan, who challenges the President's new tack but also challenges Republicans who support "corporate welfare and crony capitalism."  Ryan says:

Rather than raise taxes on individuals, we should "lower the amount of government spending the wealthy now receive." The "true sources of inequity in this country," he continued, are "corporate welfare that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betray the powerless." The real class warfare that threatens us is "a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules, and preserve their place atop society."

In this, Ryan has much in common with Occupy Wall Street, but his ire is properly directed at the government apparatchiks and their cronies who steal from "the rest of us," instead of the "1 percent" of high earners who make money for the rest of us.  Noonan summarizes:

If more Republicans thought—and spoke—like this, the party would flourish. People would be less fearful for the future. And Mr. Obama wouldn't be seeing his numbers go up.