George WillGeorge F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. His latest book, "American Happiness and Discontents," was released in September 2021.https://www.washingtonpost.comSun, 16 Apr 2023 12:05:13 +00001hourly1A classless, socially fluid America? Not today, not in politics.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/14/college-education-as-political-dividing-line/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/14/college-education-as-political-dividing-line/George WillFri, 14 Apr 2023 12:02:06 +0000Post-secondary education has become a marker of status and a source of the snobbery that fuels the resentments of non-college Americans.How ‘I despise, therefore I am’ locks in the political status quohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/12/republican-democrat-poisonous-partisanship/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/12/republican-democrat-poisonous-partisanship/George WillWed, 12 Apr 2023 11:00:33 +0000Contempt for the other tribe, rather than affection for one's own, is now many Americans' animating passion.How the grim Waco siege anniversary echoes with Trumphttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/07/waco-siege-branch-davidian-anniversary-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/07/waco-siege-branch-davidian-anniversary-george-will/George WillFri, 07 Apr 2023 11:00:00 +0000Now we have Trump recently telling a Waco rally that the 2024 election will be the “final battle.” Some people — how many is unclear — really believe this. Maybe, just maybe, this is rock bottom for embarrassing U.S. politicshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/04/trump-indictment-presidential-election-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/04/trump-indictment-presidential-election-george-will/George WillTue, 04 Apr 2023 18:02:44 +0000A second Trump term is becoming increasingly improbable. That removes Biden's main rationale for a 2024 run. Bring on fresh candidates, from both parties. Chicago voters must choose further decline or a remedy for an ailing cityhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/31/chicago-mayoral-election-stark-choice/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/31/chicago-mayoral-election-stark-choice/George WillFri, 31 Mar 2023 11:00:17 +0000In Chicago, the mayoral election on Tuesday offers voters two starkly different candidates. Only one is a potential remedy for an ailing city.George Will’s 2023 Opening Day quizhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/george-will-2023-baseball-quiz/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/george-will-2023-baseball-quiz/George WillTue, 28 Mar 2023 10:00:34 +0000Swing for the fences with these 35 questions to celebrate the start of a new baseball season.Another revered high school sacrifices excellence on the altar of DEI https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/24/philadelphia-masterman-school-decline-dei/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/24/philadelphia-masterman-school-decline-dei/George WillFri, 24 Mar 2023 11:00:52 +0000Philadelphia's Masterman School, once lauded by Barack Obama, is being "systematically dismantled," according to a report by a multiracial group of parents. How government casually violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendmenthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/22/supreme-court-case-government-speech-laws/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/22/supreme-court-case-government-speech-laws/George WillWed, 22 Mar 2023 11:00:00 +0000As the Supreme Court will hear on Monday, you'd better be careful about what you say to, or write about, unauthorized immigrants. With the Silicon Valley Bank rescue, welcome to capitalism without riskhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/17/silicon-valley-bank-rescue-misguided/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/17/silicon-valley-bank-rescue-misguided/George WillFri, 17 Mar 2023 11:00:26 +0000The government's response to the banking crisis is just the latest reason for Americans' plunging confidence in their leaders and institutions.Expensively credentialed, negligibly educated Stanford brats threw a tantrumhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/stanford-law-school-protest-kyle-duncan-federalist/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/stanford-law-school-protest-kyle-duncan-federalist/George WillWed, 15 Mar 2023 11:00:17 +0000When the law school's Federalist Society chapter invited a federal judge to speak, progressives moved in to make sure he couldn't be heard. How government’s excessive reliance on plea deals can undermine justicehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/10/government-overreliance-plea-bargaining/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/10/government-overreliance-plea-bargaining/George WillFri, 10 Mar 2023 12:00:08 +0000The overwhelming majority of criminal convictions occur without a jury ever passing judgment. This is a pervasive, glaring deprivation of civil rights.Woke word-policing is now beyond satirehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/08/stanford-usc-woke-language-ridiculous/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/08/stanford-usc-woke-language-ridiculous/George WillWed, 08 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000When it comes to a political craze based on a bad idea, worse really is better. Biden and Schumer lead nonsensical progressive charge against stock buybackshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/03/biden-progressives-nonsensical-attacks-stock-buybacks/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/03/biden-progressives-nonsensical-attacks-stock-buybacks/George WillFri, 03 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000The hostility stems from foggy economic thinking and an animus against the people and processes that create the wealth that the left delights in redistributing.Why ‘Buy American’ is misguided and, alas, full of bipartisan appealhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/01/biden-buy-american-policy-bad-idea/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/01/biden-buy-american-policy-bad-idea/George WillWed, 01 Mar 2023 12:00:24 +0000On this subject President Biden and Republicans can agree: Let's raise prices on American consumers and create lots of work for lawyers and lobbyists. Glenn Youngkin is no surly GOP brawler. Many might welcome that.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/24/glenn-youngkin-affable-republican/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/24/glenn-youngkin-affable-republican/George WillFri, 24 Feb 2023 14:07:54 +0000The Virginia governor might have to enroll in scowl school if he aspires to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Putin can win only if Josh Hawley-esque isolationists multiplyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/ukraine-war-isolationists-hawley-republicans/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/ukraine-war-isolationists-hawley-republicans/George WillWed, 22 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000It's lucky for valorous Ukraine and disappointing for the Kremlin that the Republican caucus opposing military aid for Kyiv is so anemic. The Supreme Court finally gets a shot at Biden’s student-loan lawlessnesshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/17/supreme-court-biden-unconstitutional-student-loan-forgiveness/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/17/supreme-court-biden-unconstitutional-student-loan-forgiveness/George WillFri, 17 Feb 2023 12:00:19 +0000The justices on Feb. 28 will hear arguments regarding the president's unilateral, and unconstitutional, forgiveness of $400 billion in student debt. Why Americans need protection from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureauhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/15/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-unconstitutional/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/15/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-unconstitutional/George WillWed, 15 Feb 2023 15:00:23 +0000The CFPB has been an affront to the Constitution for 13 years. Now, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to weigh in.Quadrillion-dollar national debt? Chew, don’t nibble, on this math.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/10/chip-roy-on-restraining-federal-spending/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/10/chip-roy-on-restraining-federal-spending/George WillFri, 10 Feb 2023 12:00:54 +0000Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wants to restrain spending but knows that politics is the art of prudently defining the possible.How public employee unions damage schools, policing and government itselfhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/08/public-unions-harm-schools-police-government/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/08/public-unions-harm-schools-police-government/George WillWed, 08 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000In "negotiations" between government employee unions and government, the unions want what government wants: to expand, using money from the citizenry. New York’s Rikers Island is a disgraceful emblem of a benighted erahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/03/rikers-island-jail-disgrace/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/03/rikers-island-jail-disgrace/George WillFri, 03 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000The complex is not a normal jail. It is often an unmanageable, long-term warehouse for the criminal, the mentally ill and the "dope sick."Raimondo’s approach to semiconductors is a key test of her skillshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/01/gina-raimondo-semiconductor-spending-test/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/01/gina-raimondo-semiconductor-spending-test/George WillWed, 01 Feb 2023 12:00:50 +0000The commerce secretary is the Democrat most qualified to be president. How she deploys a $52 billion bonanza will be a revealing test of her skills. The Webb Space Telescope is telling humanity the history of everythinghttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/28/astonishing-james-webb-space-telescope/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/28/astonishing-james-webb-space-telescope/George WillFri, 27 Jan 2023 12:00:35 +0000The universe, as portrayed by the light that Webb gathers, is breathtakingly beautiful, and unimaginably violent.Mike Gallagher chairs a vital House committee. Its only focus: China.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/25/mike-gallagher-congress-chinese-threat/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/25/mike-gallagher-congress-chinese-threat/George WillWed, 25 Jan 2023 12:00:17 +0000The Republican congressman chairs what has instantly become the House's most important committee. Its sole subject is, essentially, the Chinese Communist Party.When colleges take political positions, they show who isn’t wantedhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/20/higher-education-political-stances-unserious/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/20/higher-education-political-stances-unserious/George WillFri, 20 Jan 2023 12:00:42 +0000Institutions of higher education are deluded if they think the larger society is interested in their advertisements of their predictable politics.Why Germany must not hesitate sending tanks to Ukraine — lots of them https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/18/germany-tanks-essential-ukraine-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/18/germany-tanks-essential-ukraine-george-will/George WillWed, 18 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000Soviet tanks stopped German aggression in World War II. There would be a dark irony if German tanks sealed the defeat of Russia's aggression today. In some Virginia schools, ‘equity’ seems to mean hiding achievementhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/13/thomas-jefferson-high-school-national-merit-controversy/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/13/thomas-jefferson-high-school-national-merit-controversy/George WillFri, 13 Jan 2023 12:30:00 +0000Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears deeply values education. No wonder she's upset that students weren't told they'd received National Merit Commendation awards. How the Dominion defamation suit against Fox News will test a Delaware courthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/11/dominion-fox-news-defamation-suit-delaware-challenge/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/11/dominion-fox-news-defamation-suit-delaware-challenge/George WillWed, 11 Jan 2023 12:00:31 +0000The challenge will be delivering justice without having a chilling effect on journalism.Wokeness in all its self-flattering moral vanity comes for a statue at Princetonhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/06/wokeness-attack-on-princeton-statue/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/06/wokeness-attack-on-princeton-statue/George WillFri, 06 Jan 2023 12:00:26 +0000The disparagement of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is more than a case of judging the past through the lens of the present. How the Supreme Court can protect charter schools from suffocating litigationhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/04/supreme-court-can-protect-charter-schools/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/04/supreme-court-can-protect-charter-schools/George WillWed, 04 Jan 2023 12:30:00 +0000The justices will decide whether to hear a North Carolina case in the latest battle of progressives' endless campaign against charters and true diversity.In unsettled times, look to Midwestern valueshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/30/praise-for-midwestern-values/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/30/praise-for-midwestern-values/George WillFri, 30 Dec 2022 12:00:28 +0000As a new year unfolds a potentially ominous future, a new book extols "the reassuring rhythm and rituals of civic affairs" that have long served the nation well. How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine altered the world in 2022https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/28/russia-ukraine-invasion-2022-change/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/28/russia-ukraine-invasion-2022-change/George WillWed, 28 Dec 2022 12:00:49 +0000The world at the end of 2022 was remarkably changed from when the year dawned. Four ways Congress could begin reversing its self-diminishmenthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/23/new-congress-must-reclaim-power/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/23/new-congress-must-reclaim-power/George WillFri, 23 Dec 2022 12:00:00 +0000The national institution most in need of repair is Congress. Here's how to stanch the leakage of power that has trickled down to the executive branch. Farewell to a strange year https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/21/george-will-strange-year-2022/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/21/george-will-strange-year-2022/George WillWed, 21 Dec 2022 12:30:43 +0000The highlights include the White House claiming "ten thousand million" jobs created, academics groveling to China and identity politics galore.How to build a university unafraid of true intellectual diversityhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/16/university-of-austin-intellectual-diversity/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/16/university-of-austin-intellectual-diversity/George WillFri, 16 Dec 2022 12:00:49 +0000Pano Kanelos envisions the University of Austin as a 'nonpartisan and politically ecumenical' campus culture of robust argument. Imagine that. How the Tillis-Sinema immigration bill would right two glaring wrongs https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/11/pass-tillis-sinema-immigration-bill-dreamers/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/11/pass-tillis-sinema-immigration-bill-dreamers/George WillSun, 11 Dec 2022 12:00:20 +0000Most Americans understand that "dreamers" are de facto Americans, not new ones. There is no political risk in at last bringing them to full civic equality. Slinking away from aiding Ukraine would be a major strategic errorhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/09/ukraine-us-aid-essential/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/09/ukraine-us-aid-essential/George WillFri, 09 Dec 2022 13:03:35 +0000Some congressional members seem inclined to practice parsimony in this century-shaping conflict. That would be a major strategic mistake.Why Doug Ducey would make a great conservative alternative to Trumphttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/07/doug-ducey-arizona-governor-2024-presidency/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/07/doug-ducey-arizona-governor-2024-presidency/George WillWed, 07 Dec 2022 12:00:00 +0000The term-limited governor has been a boon to Arizona in many ways, but especially on education and school choice.Police thought his cash was suspicious. So they took it. And won’t give it back.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/02/arizona-civil-forfeiture-nightmare/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/02/arizona-civil-forfeiture-nightmare/George WillFri, 02 Dec 2022 12:00:01 +0000Jerry Johnson says he flew to Arizona for a truck auction. Instead, he ran into a Kafkaesque tutorial in government power and civil forfeiture. How racial preferences feed grasping grievance groups and grow ever more absurdhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/30/racial-preferences-absurd-identity-politics/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/30/racial-preferences-absurd-identity-politics/George WillWed, 30 Nov 2022 12:00:26 +0000One of 2022's most consequential books shows how "identity entrepreneurs" rely on irrational classifications that mock their users’ intellectual and moral pretenses.Why toxic politics thrives in an age of plentyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/25/toxic-politics-in-age-of-plenty/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/25/toxic-politics-in-age-of-plenty/George WillFri, 25 Nov 2022 12:00:26 +0000Toxic politics might derive from the fact that humanity has solved what had been its perennial, dominating problem.Be thankful for the pugnacious Zelensky’s magnificent resistance to suppressionhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/23/zelensky-resistance-ukraine-war/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/23/zelensky-resistance-ukraine-war/George WillWed, 23 Nov 2022 12:00:09 +0000Churchill thought modern warfare obliterated the "personal factor." He later disproved that. Now we have another example of the power of individual fortitude.Sometimes a gadfly like this one in East Cleveland is just what democracy needshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/18/democracy-needs-east-cleveland-gadfly/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/18/democracy-needs-east-cleveland-gadfly/George WillFri, 18 Nov 2022 12:00:44 +0000William Fambrough campaigned for a mayoral candidate in a step van outfitted as a sound truck. Soon the police came calling. The vehicle was towed. Now he's suing. Now the GOP can repent for the Trump era by denying him the nominationhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/15/george-will-republicans-deny-trump-nomination-2024/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/15/george-will-republicans-deny-trump-nomination-2024/George WillWed, 16 Nov 2022 02:50:28 +0000The Republican establishment should act like one, impeding the proliferation of presidential candidates that would allow the Trump rump of the party to prevail.50 years later, the bell-bottomed zombie Equal Rights Amendment staggers onhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/equal-rights-amendment-resurrectionists-keep-dreaming/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/equal-rights-amendment-resurrectionists-keep-dreaming/George WillFri, 11 Nov 2022 12:00:33 +0000With a tenacity inversely proportional to their credibility, the ERA's bitter-enders insist it is "one signature away" from becoming the 28th Amendment.Election results should move both parties to introspection. Journalists, too.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/biden-democrats-self-inflicted-wounds/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/biden-democrats-self-inflicted-wounds/George WillWed, 09 Nov 2022 18:11:51 +0000Elections are increasingly nationalized and president-centric, even ex-president-centric.The 2022 campaign has taught us much about America, much of it unpalatablehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/04/lessons-from-midterm-election-campaign/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/04/lessons-from-midterm-election-campaign/George WillFri, 04 Nov 2022 11:00:55 +0000If Democrats lose the House and Senate on Tuesday, the Biden presidency will be comatose.For the good of the country, Biden and Harris should bow out of the 2024 electionhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/02/biden-harris-drop-out-2024-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/02/biden-harris-drop-out-2024-george-will/George WillWed, 02 Nov 2022 11:00:01 +0000It is frightening that Biden does not know, or remember, what he recently did regarding an immensely important policy: the executive order on student loan debt.Colleges will racially discriminate no matter how the Supreme Court ruleshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/college-racial-discrimination-affirmative-action-supreme-court/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/college-racial-discrimination-affirmative-action-supreme-court/George WillFri, 28 Oct 2022 11:00:00 +0000Two momentous cases the Supreme Court will hear Monday concern racial preferences in admissions to Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The flummoxed Federal Reserve deserves a new variation on the Peter Principlehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/26/federal-reserve-peter-principle/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/26/federal-reserve-peter-principle/George WillWed, 26 Oct 2022 12:40:28 +0000Having bungled their main job by letting inflation soar, the central bankers assign themselves a noble task that cannot expose them as failures: fighting climate change. Echoes of Youngkin as another parental revolt stirs in Virginiahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/21/virginia-congressional-election-parental-rights-controversy/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/21/virginia-congressional-election-parental-rights-controversy/George WillFri, 21 Oct 2022 11:00:00 +0000A congressional race is roiled by another controversy involving parental fury over what they consider government hostility to their primacy in raising children.Kemp’s placidity conceals an urgency about defeating Abrams in Georgiahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/19/brian-kemp-stacey-abrams-georgia-vital-election/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/19/brian-kemp-stacey-abrams-georgia-vital-election/George WillWed, 19 Oct 2022 11:00:46 +0000The incumbent Republican governor thinks that if the GOP can't reelect him this year, they're not apt to win the state, or the presidency, in 2024. Yes, Washington state is deep blue, but a Senate shocker could be brewinghttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/14/washington-state-republican-senate-challenge/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/14/washington-state-republican-senate-challenge/George WillFri, 14 Oct 2022 11:00:44 +0000Republican candidate Tiffany Smiley's closing argument to Washingtonians will be: If you like the country's current trajectory, vote for the other woman. If not ...The nuclear threat may be graver now than in the Cuban missile crisishttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/12/putin-nuclear-threat-cuban-missile-crisis/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/12/putin-nuclear-threat-cuban-missile-crisis/George WillWed, 12 Oct 2022 11:00:29 +0000What happens next, or doesn’t, will depend on the sort of skill and luck seen 60 Octobers ago.Why the West must stop Putin’s drive to export Russia’s cruel pathologieshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/07/putin-russian-cruelty-ukraine/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/07/putin-russian-cruelty-ukraine/George WillFri, 07 Oct 2022 11:00:05 +0000Moscow wants to be the collectivist alternative to open societies of rights-bearing individuals fulfilled through private rather than nationalist aspirations.Ukraine needs advanced U.S. drones that can instantly transform a battlehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/05/ukraine-war-aid-us-drones-needed/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/05/ukraine-war-aid-us-drones-needed/George WillWed, 05 Oct 2022 11:00:08 +0000These unmanned aerial vehicles can be force-multipliers. No wonder a bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress has urged President Biden to expedite delivery. Biden’s slapdash, election-season student loan gambit may be in troublehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-trouble/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-trouble/George WillFri, 30 Sep 2022 17:24:57 +0000A promising legal challenge has arisen. But how else does the loan forgiveness violate statutory and constitutional law, and justice? Let us count the ways. Sometimes, as with the college football conference upheavals, worse is betterhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/28/college-football-realignment-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/28/college-football-realignment-george-will/George WillWed, 28 Sep 2022 11:00:14 +0000Realignments in the Big Ten, SEC and elsewhere were produced by cold economic reasoning. Why Mastriano’s candidacy presents a special danger to the nationhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/25/mastriano-danger-pennsylvania-governor/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/25/mastriano-danger-pennsylvania-governor/George WillFri, 23 Sep 2022 11:00:29 +0000The GOP nominee's motives are frightening because they are pure: He has the scary sincerity of the unhinged whose delusions armor them against evidence.While Oz campaigns about campaigning, Fetterman sells a synthetic authenticityhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/21/fetterman-oz-pennsylvania-campaign-authenticity/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/21/fetterman-oz-pennsylvania-campaign-authenticity/George WillWed, 21 Sep 2022 11:00:36 +0000If the Oct. 25 debate in the Pennsylvania Senate race occurs, it could help the Republican by changing the subject from his opponent's medical condition.‘U.S. and the Holocaust’ immerses viewers in the limitations that define tragedyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/16/ken-burns-holocaust-documentary-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/16/ken-burns-holocaust-documentary-george-will/George WillFri, 16 Sep 2022 11:00:56 +0000The Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein documentary premiering on PBS rekindles an agonizing debate.Why Colorado Gov. Jared Polis could answer Democrats’ 2024 prayershttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/14/democrat-jared-polis-presidential-potential-2024/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/14/democrat-jared-polis-presidential-potential-2024/George WillWed, 14 Sep 2022 11:00:06 +0000This progressive who's palatable to nonbelievers may be just what the party needs if Biden doesn't run (and he shouldn't).Elizabeth II’s death underscores continuity in an era of disjunctionshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-george-will/George WillThu, 08 Sep 2022 18:14:45 +0000Her power consisted in her example of behaving responsibly toward duties she inherited.In the sandbox also known as academia, it’s the golden age of the grovelhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/07/historian-james-sweet-apology-progressive-academia/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/07/historian-james-sweet-apology-progressive-academia/George WillWed, 07 Sep 2022 11:00:54 +0000Historian James H. Sweet's self-abasement, after violating progressive orthodoxy, may be indicative of why so few young people choose to pursue history degrees. David Halberstam’s ‘The Best and the Brightest’ at 50 still casts a long shadowhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/31/halberstam-best-brightest-50-years-later/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/31/halberstam-best-brightest-50-years-later/George WillWed, 31 Aug 2022 11:00:51 +0000A lingering legacy of Vietnam, partly perpetrated by Halberstam’s memorably titled book, is a comfortable, self-congratulatory populism.Gorbachev’s reputation rests on the world’s amnesiahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/30/mikhail-gorbachev-reputation-george-will/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/30/mikhail-gorbachev-reputation-george-will/George WillTue, 30 Aug 2022 21:26:51 +0000Like Christopher Columbus, who accidentally discovered the New World, the former Russian leader stumbled into greatness by misunderstanding where he was going.In Colorado, this Republican offers something appealing, not appallinghttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/26/joe-odea-colorado-republican-senate-challenger/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/26/joe-odea-colorado-republican-senate-challenger/George WillFri, 26 Aug 2022 15:46:15 +0000If voters embrace Joe O’Dea’s temperate conservatism, Republicans elsewhere may be encouraged to abandon a certain former president and his imagined 2020 grievances. D.C.’s new Victims of Communism Museum tells a vital, unfinished tale https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/victims-communism-museum-dc/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/victims-communism-museum-dc/George WillWed, 24 Aug 2022 15:22:32 +0000In an elegant building at the corner of 15th and I streets, the story of anti-communism is made vivid. Why China will become ever more dangerous as its baby bust worsenshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/19/dangerous-china-demographic-decline/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/19/dangerous-china-demographic-decline/George WillFri, 19 Aug 2022 11:00:00 +0000The 10.6 million Chinese babies born in 2021 were 1.4 million fewer than in 2020 — a lower birth rate than in the great famine of the 1950s.China’s decline may be looming. Here’s how the U.S. can win, if it so chooses.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/17/how-united-states-beats-china/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/17/how-united-states-beats-china/George WillWed, 17 Aug 2022 11:00:00 +0000Today's fatalism about China is the fallacious assumption that its trajectory is inevitably upward, so it must be accommodated. Demographics tell a different story.Garland has a political duty to explain the circus perpetrated at Mar-a-Lagohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/11/merrick-garland-explain-mar-a-lago-search/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/11/merrick-garland-explain-mar-a-lago-search/George WillThu, 11 Aug 2022 22:39:11 +0000Try to imagine a justification for this flamboyant exercise of – what? law enforcement? Josh Hawley, senator-as-symptom of a broken news businesshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/10/josh-hawley-broken-news-business/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/10/josh-hawley-broken-news-business/George WillWed, 10 Aug 2022 11:00:00 +0000An absurd vote against NATO expansion landed a cable news invitation — illustrating what Chris Stirewalt deplores in his new book about journalism today.Putin is doing his best to out-fascist Mussolinihttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/05/putin-follows-mussolini-example/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/05/putin-follows-mussolini-example/George WillFri, 05 Aug 2022 11:00:01 +0000The destroyer of Italy’s parliamentary democracy has a political descendant occupying the Kremlin today.How the news business’s economics altered the news itselfhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/polarized-mainstream-media/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/polarized-mainstream-media/George WillTue, 02 Aug 2022 18:55:59 +0000Essayist Andrey Mir says media in a “post-journalism" world supply not news but “news validation.” Blaming social media for academia’s ruin misses a larger, darker truthhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/29/higher-education-decline/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/29/higher-education-decline/George WillFri, 29 Jul 2022 11:00:56 +0000Many academics are not 'captured by' Twitter; it is their 'safe space.' Their febrile shallowness is not 'Twitter-induced'; Twitter is a response to it. Now we see the wisdom of the high court’s ‘vulgar cheerleader’ rulinghttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/27/schools-violate-student-speech-rights/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/27/schools-violate-student-speech-rights/George WillWed, 27 Jul 2022 11:00:52 +0000A high-school student's puerile joke could have gone unremarked, but not in this age of social media and dithering adults. How millennials became aggressively illiberal, censorious young adultshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/08/millennials-dumbest-generation/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/08/millennials-dumbest-generation/George WillFri, 08 Jul 2022 20:25:26 +0000In his most recent book, Mark Bauerlein describes today's millions-strong youthful cohort of the sour, humorless and disappointed (with America, and everything else less perfect than they).Give Ukraine more artillery, and let the Navy break Russia’s blockadehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/06/navy-end-russia-blockade-black-sea-ports/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/06/navy-end-russia-blockade-black-sea-ports/George WillWed, 06 Jul 2022 11:00:14 +0000Naval forces should be promptly employed to break Putin’s illegal blockade before it has its intended effect of mass starvation.The EPA decision is the biggest one of all, and the court got it righthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/30/supreme-court-decision-environmental-protection-agency/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/30/supreme-court-decision-environmental-protection-agency/George WillThu, 30 Jun 2022 22:47:20 +0000If, as is desirable, the decision presages similar ones, they could, cumulatively, revive Congress by compelling it to resume its proper responsibilities. Trying to protect students from a coach’s prayers did them no favorshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/29/praying-football-coach-supreme-court-decision/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/29/praying-football-coach-supreme-court-decision/George WillWed, 29 Jun 2022 11:00:00 +0000The Supreme Court’s decision should cause timorous adults, and the fragile young people they shape, to stop fueling today’s cancel culture and the demands for “safe spaces.” The Supreme Court’s gun ruling is a serious misfirehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/23/supreme-court-gun-ruling-misfire/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/23/supreme-court-gun-ruling-misfire/George WillThu, 23 Jun 2022 23:05:53 +0000By overturning New York's concealed-carry law, the justices effectively removed from public debate the essentially legislative choice of balancing the competing values of self-defense and public safety. Business beware, ‘stakeholder’ capitalism is parasitic progressivismhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/22/progressive-stakeholder-capitalism-esg-investing/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/22/progressive-stakeholder-capitalism-esg-investing/George WillWed, 22 Jun 2022 11:00:38 +0000ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing appeals to people for whom mere business – the creation of wealth and opportunity – lacks the cachet of politics.If Powell’s Fed tenure is a success, what would failure look like?https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-inflation-bungle/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-inflation-bungle/George WillFri, 17 Jun 2022 12:07:51 +0000Inflation has nullified nominal wage gains; real wages have fallen, hurting most those the Fed most wants to help.Can America ‘do big things’ again? Ask the regulators and lawyers.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/mitch-landrieu-infrastructure-spending-challenge/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/mitch-landrieu-infrastructure-spending-challenge/George WillWed, 15 Jun 2022 11:00:00 +0000Mitch Landrieu has the task of doling out $1.2 trillion for infrastructure spending in a country where 'procedure fetish' and 'rule stupor' can bog down projects for years, if not decades. Why the Jan. 6 hearings’ vital task is to show Americans what happenedhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/january-sixth-committee-hearings-must-show-what-happened/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/january-sixth-committee-hearings-must-show-what-happened/George WillFri, 10 Jun 2022 11:00:56 +0000The committee will forfeit the public’s limited trust in it — and the public’s limited interest in it — if members pursue preexisting progressive agendas, such as abolition of the electoral college.When the pronoun police come for eighth-gradershttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/08/wisconsin-school-district-pronoun-police/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/08/wisconsin-school-district-pronoun-police/George WillWed, 08 Jun 2022 11:00:22 +0000These Wisconsin enforcers would just be a local embarrassment if their "mispronouning" complaint weren't the direct consequence of federal lawlessness with a progressive pedigree.Now is no time to go tentative on military aid for Ukrainehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/03/united-states-allies-aid-ukraine-militarily/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/03/united-states-allies-aid-ukraine-militarily/George WillFri, 03 Jun 2022 10:00:08 +0000The military and diplomatic dangers of hesitancy are mounting. Here is what victory over Russia must look like.Rescuing restaurants (again) ought to give Congress indigestionhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/congress-second-restaurant-rescue/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/congress-second-restaurant-rescue/George WillWed, 01 Jun 2022 11:00:39 +0000Arriving as federal spending has driven inflation to a 40-year high, the Restaurant Revitalization Replenishment Act indicates disregard for this rule: When you are in a hole, quit digging. The Biden presidential scorecard at 500 dayshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/27/five-hundred-days-biden-presidency/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/27/five-hundred-days-biden-presidency/George WillFri, 27 May 2022 11:00:52 +0000The public might understandably conclude that Biden is least serious when using his most alarmist words. Watch for a return of the ignominious Disinformation Governance Board https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/25/homeland-security-disinformation-governance-board-paused/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/25/homeland-security-disinformation-governance-board-paused/George WillWed, 25 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000After the 10-thumbed debut of this boneheaded idea, the DGB was "paused." That way, the Biden administration can feign deliberation while plotting its resurrection.From the Miami mayor’s office to the White House? Why not? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/20/miami-mayor-francis-suarez-republican-rising-star/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/20/miami-mayor-francis-suarez-republican-rising-star/George WillFri, 20 May 2022 11:00:16 +0000Francis Suarez, a Republican, is not coy about what he calls "the big job." Think about this when judging race-based college admissionshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/18/judging-race-based-college-admissions/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/18/judging-race-based-college-admissions/George WillWed, 18 May 2022 11:00:08 +0000The Supreme Court’s duty is to exercise its judgment, not defer to presumptions.America’s abortion debate has non-debatable parametershttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/13/americas-abortion-debate-has-nondebatable-parameters/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/13/americas-abortion-debate-has-nondebatable-parameters/George WillFri, 13 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000Americans must consider not only what abortion policy ought to be but also how U.S. policy has been an extreme outlier. She dreamed of becoming a nurse, but then ran afoul of a Texas courthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/11/texas-prosecutorial-impunity/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/11/texas-prosecutorial-impunity/George WillWed, 11 May 2022 11:00:16 +0000Erma Wilson hopes to penetrate the shield of immunity that protects prosecutors from paying financial damages when they violate defendants’ constitutional rights. Why the Supreme Court told Boston its ‘Christian’ flag ban won’t flyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/06/supreme-court-rejects-boston-flag-ban/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/06/supreme-court-rejects-boston-flag-ban/George WillFri, 06 May 2022 11:00:17 +0000City Hall had allowed hundreds of groups to display their flags but then balked at one request, citing constitutional establishment clause concerns that the justices found unwarranted. Alito’s argument is less a refutation of Roe than a starting overhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/03/alito-returns-abortion-law-to-states/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/03/alito-returns-abortion-law-to-states/George WillTue, 03 May 2022 18:41:46 +0000The leaker — probably full of passionate intensity, as the worst usually are — will leave a lingering stench in the Supreme Court building. Mike Pompeo ponders entering the presidential marathonhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/29/pompeo-presidential-run/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/29/pompeo-presidential-run/George WillFri, 29 Apr 2022 12:00:59 +0000Pompeo is exploring a 2024 election run in the orthodox way, campaigning for Republican candidates hither and yon, falling in love with Iowa’s vistas and Iowans’ wisdom, etc. Amend the Constitution to bar senators from the presidencyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/27/stop-senators-running-for-president-constitution/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/27/stop-senators-running-for-president-constitution/George WillWed, 27 Apr 2022 16:40:53 +0000The Senate has become a theater of performative behaviors by senators decreasingly interested in legislating, and preoccupied with using social media for self-promotion. Biden has a tawdry new scheme to cripple charter schoolshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/22/biden-plan-attacks-charter-schools/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/22/biden-plan-attacks-charter-schools/George WillFri, 22 Apr 2022 12:00:10 +0000The administration puts the priorities of teachers unions over those of children, even though this tawdry fidelity to a funder will exacerbate Democrats’ growing problems with Black and Hispanic voters. Unsettled governance and political loathing are as French as briehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/20/macron-le-pen-and-french-political-loathing/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/20/macron-le-pen-and-french-political-loathing/George WillWed, 20 Apr 2022 12:00:41 +0000Sunday's contest between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen is as unpredictable as it will be consequential.