Life & Wisdom Quote by Peggy Noonan

A little seditious, a little suburban: that jaunty "Let's" turns an act of political antagonism into something like a group outing. Peggy Noonan knows exactly what she is doing with the phrasing. "Cause" is casual, almost mischievous, a verb you use about troublemaking kids or a harmless prank, not the machinery of state. Then she drops the target: not "the system" or "Washington", but "some senators" - specific enough to conjure names and egos, vague enough to keep the energy populist. And "distress" is the masterstroke. It's not "defeat" or "punish". It's emotional, bodily. She isn't calling for legislative wins so much as the pleasure of watching powerful people squirm.

The intent reads as mobilization through mood rather than policy: a rallying cry for outsiders who feel dismissed by insiders. The subtext is that public anger should be measured not by results but by discomfort inflicted on the ruling class. It's politics as catharsis, with a wink. Noonan, a veteran of Reagan-era message craft, is fluent in the way a breezy line can smuggle a harder edge: delegitimizing elected officials by framing them as fragile aristocrats who deserve a scare.

Context matters because Noonan's brand is establishment-adjacent moral commentary. When she reaches for this kind of language, it's not radicalism; it's elite frustration ventriloquized as grassroots swagger. The line works because it turns resentment into a social activity - a shared, low-stakes thrill - while keeping the speaker's hands clean.