George Will
George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator, who writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NewsNation.[1] In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America."[2][3] Will won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.[4]
This article is about the journalist. For the golfer, see George Will (golfer).
George Will
A former member of the Republican Party, Will was a close ally of Ronald Reagan during his presidential campaign in 1980. He assisted Reagan with debate preparation, and was later falsely accused by former President Jimmy Carter of providing Reagan with a top secret briefing book in a scandal known as Debategate, an allegation Carter later retracted.
In later years, he became a critic of Republican politicians, including Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump. Will's disapproval of Trump's presidential campaign led him to become an independent in 2016,[5] and he subsequently voted for Joe Biden in 2020.[6]
Early life and education[edit]
Will was born on May 4, 1941, in Champaign, Illinois, to Louise (née Hendrickson) and Frederick L. Will.[7] His father was a professor of philosophy, specializing in epistemology, at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Will attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, where he graduated in 1959.
After high school, Will went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion. He then went to England and attended Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics and received a bachelor's degree (promoted to a master's per tradition). Will then did doctoral study in political science at Princeton 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 from Justice Robert H. Jackson’s majority opinion in the landmark 1943 Supreme Court case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.[8]
From 1970 to 1972, he served on the staff of Republican Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado. Will then taught political philosophy at the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and at the University of Toronto. He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998.
Criticism of Republican politicians[edit]
While identified with conservative politics, Will has criticized a number of individuals and policies associated with the Republican Party and American conservatism. He was among the first to oppose President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court.[52]
Will was hawkish in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and he expressed reservations about Bush 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 apparently sectarian bombing of the Askariya Shrine in Samarra, 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 of Winston Churchill during the early years of World War II. Will described the optimistic assessments delivered from the Bush administration as the "rhetoric of unreality."[53] He criticized the Bush Iraq policy, and broader White House and congressional foreign and domestic policy making, in his keynote address for the Cato Institute's 2006 Milton Friedman Prize dinner.[54]
Will was also a harsh and early critic of both Sarah Palin and John McCain's 2008 election campaign. He criticized Palin's understanding of the role of the Vice President and her qualifications for that role.[55] In late 2011, as the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries approached, Will said that frontrunner Newt Gingrich "embodies almost everything disagreeable about modern Washington", and described him as "the classic rental politician".[56] In a 2013 interview with Reason writers Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, Will said his views have gradually but steadily become more libertarian.[57]
Will criticized Donald Trump several times during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, calling him a "one-man Todd Akin", and urged conservative voters to "help him lose 50 states—condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials."[58] In turn, Trump criticized Will and brought attention to the fact that his wife Mari Maseng Will was an advisor to Scott Walker's presidential campaign. Will criticized Trump again, saying Trump was a bigger threat than Hillary 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 a cult.[59] In July 2020, Will announced he would vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[6]
Personal life[edit]
Family[edit]
Will has three children—Victoria, Geoffrey, and Jonathan—with his first wife, Madeleine;[60] their eldest child,[61] Jonathan, was born in 1972 with Down syndrome, which Will has written about in his column on occasion.[62][63][64] In 1989, he and Madeleine divorced after 22 years of marriage.[65]
In 1991, Will married Mari Maseng. They have one child, a son named David, born in 1992, and live in Chevy Chase, Maryland, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C.[66] Maseng is a political consultant and speechwriter who was in charge of communications for the Rick Perry 2012 presidential campaign, and most recently worked on Scott Walker's 2016 presidential campaign. She earlier worked on Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign, and offered her services to the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign.[67][68] She previously worked for Ronald Reagan as a presidential speechwriter, deputy director of transportation, and Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. She also was a former communications director for Senator Bob Dole.
References in popular culture[edit]
Will was occasionally lampooned in the comic Doonesbury, particularly in a December 1980 sequence of strips in which several characters attend a party hosted by Will for the Reagans.[72]
Will was lampooned in a skit on an April 1990 episode of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. Dana Carvey played Will as the host of the fictional baseball trivia game show George 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.[73]
In the Seinfeld season 6 episode "The Jimmy", Kramer mentions that he finds George Will attractive.[74]
In the 30 Rock season 1 episode "Jack-Tor", Tracy Jordan remarks while reading a newspaper that George Will "just gets more and more conservative."[75]
In addition to more than 16 honorary degrees: