Peggy Noonan’s op-ed piece in this week’s Wall Street Journal , “America Is at Risk of Boiling Over,” raises a number of interesting issues about the state of our nation and its leadership.

Ms. Noonan, a columnist and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, asserts that Americans now no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. “Parents now fear something has stopped.... But they look around, follow the political stories and debates, and deep down they think their children will live in a more limited country, that jobs won’t be made at a great enough pace, that taxes-too many people in the cart, not enough pulling it-will dishearten them, that the effects of 30 years of a low, sad culture will leave the whole country messed up. And then there is the world: nuts with nukes, etc.”

In Ms. Noonan’s view, this has created a sharply negative outlook. “Optimists think that if we manage to turn a few things around, their kids may have it . . . almost as good. The country they inherit may be . . . almost as good. And it’s kind of a shock to think like this; pessimism isn’t in our DNA. But it isn’t pessimism, really, it’s a kind of tough knowingness, combined, in most cases, with a daily, personal commitment to keep plugging.”

She faults our country’s leadership as being detached from the concerns of ordinary people. “I’m not sure they understand the American Dream itself needs a boost, needs encouragement and protection. They don’t seem to know or have a sense of the mood of the country.” As an example, she uses the failure or refusal to seal the Mexican border, despite a clear desire on the part of most people to calm down immigration.

In many ways, Ms. Noonan, while giving short shrift to areas where things have actually gotten better in recent years (for example, crime rates), is on to something. Unless serious changes are made, there is every possibility of a major fiscal crisis over the next few decades, as both the retirement of the huge baby boom generation and the installation of the new federal health care program place enormous pressure on the federal budget. There will be too many entitlements, too many retired mouths to feed and too few active workers. This could lead to potentially ruinous deficits and tax increases and probably even a declining birth rate. In addition, national security expenditures may have to be cut back, thus threatening America’s leadership position in the world.

But the situation is not insoluble. For example, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has come up with a “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which would provide for refundable credits to buy health insurance, allow for Social Security investment accounts, reduce income tax rates to two (10 per cent and 25 percent) and replace the corporate income tax with an 8.5 percent business consumption tax, while imposing strict federal spending restraints. Mr. Ryan’s plan, or something like it, would largely eliminate the budget crisis and provide hope for our next generation.

There is reason to be concerned about America’s future and Ms. Noonan is right to sound the alarm. But while she is generally correct about the detachment of many current leaders, such detachment is not a given. There is still a chance that Americans will select the right leaders with the right policies to restore our collective dreams.