On October 23, The Hill welcomed George F. Will, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator and Washington Post columnist, political analyst, and New York Times best-selling author to share his insights on the country’s tumultuous recent politics and the prospects for 2024.  

Will’s visit to Hill was made possible through The Grantham '61 Constitutional Founders Fund, established in 2022 by Shirley and Philip H. Grantham ’61, who joined students and faculty in the audience for the talk. The Fund supports programming that develops fundamental appreciation of, and robustly examines, the ideas and principles espoused by the founders of the United States of America as a constitutional republic and the concepts of "the right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which characterize free, prosperous, and equitable societies.   

Will’s talk and short Q&A were also part of a larger Town Hall series offered to students regarding civic engagement, media literacy, and other topics surrounding the upcoming election and reinforcing the School’s overall commitment to fostering a culture of curiosity, empathy, and critical thinking where students can learn from diverse perspectives and challenge their own assumptions. 

Drawing on his more than 50 years at the center of national politics in Washington, Will, a self-proclaimed independent unaffiliated with either party, explained the complexities involved in winning 270 electoral votes and the challenge of winning in a way that will enable the president inaugurated on January 20, 2025, to address pressing issues.  

As a student of U.S. history, Will believes that the current problems are not larger than those the nation has surmounted in the past, and that American democracy is sturdier than critics suggest. 

More than 200 students and faculty members gathered in the McNally room for Mr. Will’s talk which addressed a variety of topics including polarization in American history, fiscal and social conservatism, and concern over the rising temperature of political discourse in the U.S. 

Resting at the foundation of his beliefs as an American conservative, is the idea that “All men are created equal and by the creator with certain unalienable rights, and governments are instituted to secure those rights - not to give us our rights,” said Will. “First come rights and then comes government. This is how the world is supposed to work.” 

Will shared that “the fundamental task of the government exists to keep the peace between human beings,” but feels that “both parties and presidential candidates view the role of government as unlimited, which presents an enormous difficulty.” 

Will raised concerns over rising costs of healthcare and entitlement programs driving the nation’s debt and noted the “mounting deficits which we are adding in trillion- dollar tranches, not over decades, not over years, but over months” and advised students that “deficits and debt is deferred taxation” and something they will have to contend with as adults. 

Despite the many issues, Will says the “American economy today is the envy of the world with the seven largest tech companies in the U.S. being worth more than the entire stock markets of Japan, Britain, and Germany. And yet we continue to run these deficits. Nothing can stop the United States economy except our own fiscal incontinence.” 

In addition, Will addressed the significance of international trade, calling “the liberalization of world commerce since the Second World War the greatest thing that ever happened to the human race in terms of reduced pain and suffering,” noting that international trade has lifted four billion people out of abject poverty since World War II. 

Will also stressed the idea that “government can't know as much as it thinks it can know, such as what technologies are coming over the horizon that are going to be important. The fact is, when government intervenes in the economy, it invariably winds up serving big existing interests, not the interests of the future.” He emphasized the importance of economic dynamism, mentioning the impact of a number of “transformative” inventions and companies of their time (not the vision of the government) which evolved or were replaced over time including the cotton gin, General Motors, Sears Roebuck/ Walmart, IBM, Kodak, A & P/ Piggly Wiggly, Netscape/Yahoo/Google, Nokia/Apple, etc. 

Ultimately, Will said it will be up to the American people to stop the country from coming apart – it will take political courage to step in calmly and to turn the temperature down “as most Americans are exhausted and embarrassed by our public life.” But he does believe as a nation we can do it. 

Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs for the Washington Post, which he started in 1974, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. He is also a regular contributor to MSNBC and NBC News. His latest book, "American Happiness and Discontents," was released in September 2021. His other works include: "The Conservative Sensibility" (2019), “One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation” (2008), “Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy” (1992), “Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball” (1989), “The New Season: A Spectator’s Guide to the 1988 Election” (1987) and “Statecraft as Soulcraft” (1983).  

In addition to the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, Will was a finalist in the 1979 National Magazine Awards; recipient of the 1978 National Headliners Award and 1980 Silurian Award for editorial writing. In 1985, The Washington Journalism Review named Will best writer, and in 1997 he was named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal. 

Will grew up in Champaign, Ill., attended Trinity College and Oxford University, and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University.