George Will | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Will in 2022 | |
| Born | George Frederick Will (1941-05-04)May 4, 1941 (age 84) Champaign, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | Trinity College (BA) Magdalen College, Oxford (MA) Princeton University (MA,PhD) |
| Occupations |
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| Employer(s) | Newsweek The Washington Post |
| Political party | Republican (before 2016) Independent (after 2016) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1977) |
George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an Americanlibertarian conservative writer and political commentator. He writes columns forThe Washington Post on a regular basis and provides commentary forNewsNation.[1] In 1986,The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America".[2][3] Will won thePulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.[4]
A former member of theRepublican Party, Will was a close ally ofRonald Reagan during hispresidential campaign in1980. He assisted Reagan with debate preparation and was later falsely accused by former PresidentJimmy Carter of providing Reagan with a top secret briefing book in a scandal known asDebategate, an allegation Carter later retracted.
In later years, he became a critic of Republican politicians, includingSarah Palin,Newt Gingrich, andDonald Trump. Will's disapproval of Trump'spresidential campaign led him to become anindependent in2016,[5] and he subsequently voted forJoe Biden in2020,[6] and stated in September 2024 he would be voting forKamala Harris in the2024 election.[7]
Will was born on May 4, 1941, inChampaign, Illinois, to Louise (née Hendrickson) and Frederick L. Will.[8] His father was a professor of philosophy, specializing inepistemology, at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Will attendedUniversity Laboratory High School ofUrbana, Illinois, where he graduated in 1959.
After high school, Will attendedTrinity College inHartford, Connecticut, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion. He then went to England and attendedMagdalen College, Oxford, where he studiedphilosophy, politics and economics and received a bachelor's degree (promoted to a master's per tradition). Will then did doctoral study inpolitical science atPrinceton University, receiving a PhD in 1968 with a dissertation entitled "Beyond the Reach of Majorities: Closed Questions in the Open Society", alluding to a famous phrase fromJusticeRobert H. Jackson’s majority opinion in the landmark 1943Supreme Court caseWest Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.[9]
From 1970 to 1972, Will served on the staff ofRepublican SenatorGordon Allott ofColorado. Will then taughtpolitical philosophy at theJames Madison College ofMichigan State University, and at theUniversity of Toronto. He taught atHarvard University in 1995 and again in 1998.
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Will served as an editor forNational Review from 1972 to 1978.[10] He joinedThe Washington Post Writers Group in 1974, writing asyndicated biweekly column, which became widely circulated among newspapers across the country and continues today. As of December 2014,[update] his column was syndicated to about 450 newspapers.[11] In 1976 he became a contributing editor forNewsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column until 2011.[12]
Will won aPulitzer Prize for Commentary for "distinguished commentary on a variety of topics" in 1977.[13] Often combining factual reporting with conservative commentary, Will's columns are known for their erudite vocabulary, allusions to political philosophers, and frequent references to baseball.[citation needed] Will has also written two bestselling books on the game of baseball, three books on political philosophy, and has published eleven compilations of his columns forThe Washington Post andNewsweek and of various book reviews and lectures.[12]
From 2013 to 2017, Will was a contributor forFox News.[14][15] Prior to joining Fox News, beginning in the early 1980s, Will was a news analyst forABC News and was a founding member on the panel of ABC'sThis Week withDavid Brinkley in 1981, now titledThis Week with George Stephanopoulos. Will was a panelist onThis Week until his departure from ABC News. Will was also a regular panelist on television'sAgronsky & Company from 1977 through 1984.[12] On Sunday, March 19, 2017,Meet the Press moderatorChuck Todd welcomed Will back as a panelist, stating he had been absent from the program since 1981 and that his return would mark his 52nd appearance.[16]
On May 8, 2017, Will was announced as anMSNBC andNBC News political contributor, in which he provided regular political input on shows such asToday,Morning Joe, andThe 11th Hour. On December 3, 2020, Will received the National Society for Newspaper Columnists 2020 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award, in partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists.[17] Since January, 2022, Will has been a senior political contributor atNewsNation.[1]
Will helpedRonald Reagan prepare for his1980 debate againstJimmy Carter. Immediately after the debate, Will—not yet a member of theABC News staff—appeared on ABC'sNightline. He was introduced by hostTed Koppel, who said: "It's my understanding that you met for some time yesterday with Governor Reagan", and that Will "never made any secret of his affection" for the Republican candidate. Will did not explicitly disclose that he had assisted Reagan's debate preparation, or been present during it. He went on to praise Reagan's "thoroughbred" performance, saying his "game plan worked well. I don't think he was very surprised."[18]
In 2004 and again in 2005, Carter accused Will of giving the Reagan campaign a top-secret briefing book stolen from Carter's office before the 1980 debate.[19] In a 2005 syndicated column, Will called his role in Reagan's debate preparation "inappropriate" but denied any role in stealing the briefing book.[20] In response to Will's column, Carter wrote a letter toThe Washington Post retracting his accusations. Carter apologized to Will for "any incorrect statement that I have ever made about his role in the use of my briefing book... I have never thought Mr. Will took my book, that the outcome of the debate was damaging to my campaign or that Mr. Will apologized to me."[21]
In aWashington Post column that expressed doubt over the effects ofglobal warming, Will stated that: "According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979."[22] This and several other claims attracted the attention of environmentalists, such as British author and activistGeorge Monbiot.[23] Asked to respond, the website of Arctic Climate Research at theUniversity of Illinois states that: "We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979."[24] Will responded in a column that he accurately reported the Center's information and the challenge was mistaken.[25] This drew a second response from Monbiot, who insisted Will had not accurately reported the Center's information.[26] The debate continued in several forums, including a subsequent op-ed byChris Mooney published inThe Washington Post challenging Will's assertions.[27]
Will's June 6, 2014, newspaper column about "the supposedcampus epidemic of rape" was met with substantial criticism on Twitter,[28] with Democratic U.S. senators andfeminists also highly critical of the article. Will wrote, "...when [colleges and universities] make victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate."[29] Will's column sparked an outcry on Twitter, with professed rape victims recounting their stories of sexual assault and violence.[30] InThe Guardian, feminist bloggerJessica Valenti wrote: "It takes a particular kind of ignorance to argue that people who come forward to report being raped in college are afforded benefits of any kind."[31] In an open letter to Will, SenatorsRichard Blumenthal,Dianne Feinstein,Tammy Baldwin andBob Casey wrote:
Your column suggests that we — including some of us who have worked on this issue for many years – all have missed a subculture on college campuses where survivors of sexual assault are inducted into a privileged class. The culture you described is so antiquated, so counter-intuitive and so contrary to anything we heard that we hope you will make an effort to hear the stories survivors bravely shared with us about the struggles they face in addressing what has happened to them — often with little meaningful assistance from authorities expected to help them.[32]
TheSt. Louis Post-Dispatch dropped Will's column from its pages as a result of the column. EditorTony Messenger wrote: "The column was offensive and inaccurate; we apologize for publishing it."[33] Will responded to the senators in his blog, saying his article was based on "simple arithmetic involving publicly available reports", and that sexual assault "should be dealt with by the criminal justice system, and not be adjudicated by improvised campus processes."[34]
Will once proposed that the United States withdraw all troops from Afghanistan,[35] and defendedBarack Obama's response to the uprisings after the 2009 elections in Iran.[36] He also criticized theBush administration for engaging in warrantless surveillance,[37] and supported trials for detainees at theGuantanamo Bay prison camp. On immigration, Will supports tighter border security and a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants.[38]
Will argued that theRoe v. Wade Supreme Court decision caused a "truncation of democratic debate about abortion policy".[39] On crime, Will is opposed to the death penalty.[40] He thinks that higher incarceration rates generally make the populace safer, but favors endingmandatory minimums.[41][42] Additionally, Will is generally skeptical ofaffirmative action programs,[43] and he favors the legalization of drugs.[44] He favors restoring voting rights for people with criminal records[45] and opposes civil asset forfeiture.[46]
Will is alibertarian-style conservative who supports deregulation and low taxes as he thinks these stimulate economic growth and are more morally fair.[47] He was opposed to bothGeorge W. Bush and Barack Obama's stimulus plans.[48] Will supports abolishing the minimum wage[49] and creating voluntary personal retirement accounts in order to reduce the federal cost of Social Security.[50] In February 2013, Will wrote in support of a proposal by "relentlessly liberal"Sherrod Brown to break up consolidated banks andfinance industry conglomerates, ending "too big to fail" by restoring theGlass-Steagall Act.[51]
Will opposes attempts toregulate campaign funding, arguing that any such legislation is unconstitutional and would unfairly favor incumbent politicians. Additionally, he contends that spending money is a form of free speech and political participation. By giving the government power to regulate speech, Will believes that this will make the government "even bigger." Instead, he believes that we need "more speech, advocating less government" in order to reduce the importance of politics in our lives, thus indirectly reducing political spending.[52]
While identified with conservative politics, Will has criticized a number of individuals and policies associated with the Republican Party andAmerican conservatism. He was among the first to oppose President George W. Bush's nomination ofHarriet Miers to theUnited States Supreme Court.[53]
Will washawkish in the run-up to theinvasion of Iraq in 2003, and he expressed reservations aboutBush administration Iraq policies. He eventually criticized what he said was an unrealistically optimistic set of political scenarios. In March 2006, in a column written in the aftermath of the apparentlysectarian bombing of theAskariya Shrine inSamarra, Will challenged the Bush administration—and U.S. government representatives in Iraq—to be more honest about the difficulties the United States faced in rebuilding and maintaining order within Iraq, comparing the White House's rhetoric unfavorably to that ofWinston Churchill during the early years ofWorld War II. Will described the optimistic assessments delivered from the Bush administration as the "rhetoric of unreality."[54] He criticized the Bush Iraq policy, and broader White House and congressional foreign and domestic policy making, in his keynote address for theCato Institute's 2006Milton Friedman Prize dinner.[55]
Will was also a harsh and early critic of bothSarah Palin andJohn McCain's 2008 election campaign. He criticized Palin's understanding of the role of the Vice President and her qualifications for that role.[56] In late 2011, as the2012 Republican Party presidential primaries approached, Will said that frontrunnerNewt Gingrich "embodies almost everything disagreeable about modern Washington", and described him as "the classic rental politician".[57] In a 2013 interview withReason writersNick Gillespie andMatt Welch, Will said his views have gradually but steadily become morelibertarian.[58]
Will criticizedDonald Trump several times duringTrump's 2016 presidential campaign, calling him a "one-manTodd Akin", and urged conservative voters to "help him lose 50 states—condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials."[59] In turn, Trump criticized Will and brought attention to the fact that his wifeMari Maseng Will was an advisor toScott Walker'spresidential campaign.[citation needed] Will criticized Trump again, saying Trump was a bigger threat thanHillary Clinton. In June 2016, citing his disapproval of Trump, Will told journalist Nicholas Ballasy in an interview that he had left the Republican Party and was registered as an unaffiliated voter.[5]
In June 2019, Will asserted that the Republican Party had become acult.[60] Will supportedJoe Biden in the2020 U.S. presidential election,[6] andKamala Harris in the2024 United States presidential election.[7]
Will has three children—Victoria, Geoffrey and Jonathan—with his first wife, Madeleine;[61] their eldest child,[62] Jonathan, was born in 1972 withDown syndrome, which Will has written about in his column on occasion.[63][64][65] In 1989, he and Madeleine divorced after 22 years of marriage.[66]
In 1991, Will marriedMari Maseng. They have one child, a son named David, born in 1992 and live inChevy Chase, Maryland.[67] Maseng is apolitical consultant andspeechwriter who was in charge of communications for theRick Perry 2012 presidential campaign and worked onScott Walker's 2016 presidential campaign. She earlier worked onMichele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign, and offered her services to theMitt Romney 2012 campaign.[68][69] She previously worked forRonald Reagan as a presidential speechwriter, deputy director of transportation andAssistant to the President for Public Liaison. She also was a former communications director for SenatorBob Dole.
Will has more than once described himself as an "amiable, low-voltageatheist",[70][71] while at the same time describing his wife, Mari Maseng, as a "fierce Presbyterian".
Will, a fan of both theChicago Cubs[72][73] and theWashington Nationals,[74] has written extensively on baseball, including his best-selling bookMen at Work: The Craft of Baseball. He was one of the many interview subjects forKen Burns'sPBS documentary seriesBaseball.
Will was occasionally lampooned in the comicDoonesbury, particularly in a December 1980 sequence of strips in which several characters attend a party hosted by Will for the Reagans.[75]
Will was lampooned in a skit on an April 1990 episode of the sketch comedy showSaturday Night Live.Dana Carvey played Will as the host of the fictional baseball trivia game showGeorge F. Will's Sports Machine, in which the answers are all highflown literary metaphors that leave the contestants befuddled; the exasperated contestants finally get Will to try to throw a baseball, which he is unable to do.[76]
In theSeinfeldseason 6 episode "The Jimmy",Kramer mentions that he finds George Will attractive.[77] In the30 Rockseason 1 episode "Jack-Tor",Tracy Jordan remarks while reading a newspaper that George Will "just gets more and more conservative."[78]
In addition to more than 16 honorary degrees:
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
