George Will talks about the future of American democracy, Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 election and Kamala Harris
From his time teaching as a professor at the University of Toronto to his editorial perch at The Washington Post, George Will has spent his life observing the political currents of American life.
Throughout the decades, Will distinguished himself as a far-ranging writer, winning a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977 with The Washington Post and writing a bestselling book about baseball, Men at Work, in 1990. An eloquent communicator of conservative ideas, Will historically supported the Republican party until the ascent of Donald Trump prompted him to become an independent, unaffiliated with either major party.
Now, with President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, the country is poised for a defining vote that will shape a nation riddled by a divisive culture war. National Post spoke to Will about how the upcoming election might shape the United States and global politics. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
What is your read of Biden pulling out of the upcoming election? What does that tell us about the Democratic party and the 2024 election?
Much ink has been spilled about the dysfunction of the Republican party; insufficient ink has been spilled on the dysfunction of the Democratic party, which should never have allowed Biden to run again in 2024.
In complicity with their media extensions — mainstream media — the Democratic party has simply misled the American people until they got themselves into this particular disaster they’re in. Now they’re compounding the mistake and insulting the American public and insulting the deep bench of talent that they have in the governors running the country by trying to rush the coronation of someone who no one believes; Kamala Harris doesn’t believe she has reached this point in the upper reaches of American politics, either because she has shown political nimbleness or policy sophistication.
No one believes that. She was chosen because of her chromosomes and her skin pigmentation. This is the reductio ad absurdum of identity politics. So the Democrats, having made a mistake with Biden, are compounding the mistake by trying to replace an unfit president with someone much less fit than half a dozen leading Democrats.
Do you feel that Democrats just clued into this after the debate? Or do you think that they were wilfully ignorant and tried to play it off?
I think they knew; everyone who dealt with him (knew). The readers of the Will column, more than a year ago, read the following story: after his student loan forgiveness was promulgated by executive order — but before the Supreme Court swatted it down as unconstitutional — Biden had some young people into the Oval Office to celebrate student loan forgiveness.
To them, he said, “I barely got it passed by just a few votes.” There were no votes. It was not passed. He didn’t know what had been done. The idea that Joe Biden suddenly, on the 27th of June and the debate, became infirm is preposterous.
Some commentators have cast his decision as a selfless act, that of a true patriot. Do you think the decision was something Biden did for the service of America, or do you feel this was simply the result of mounting pressure from donors and supporters?
Yes. Today, the mainstream media’s song du jour, from which they’re all singing from the same hymnal, is that Joe Biden, with a gun at his head, voluntarily did the right thing. I mean, it’s preposterous. It’s — again — it’s insulting people’s intelligence. He resisted, he denied, until they showed him. Evidently, a couple of his people drove to Delaware last weekend.
It showed in polls, it showed, I think, Trump winning in Virginia and that New Mexico was in play for Trump. It was when they said you have no path to victory. That was when he quit. Dressing this up as heroic altruism when, in fact, it just was a bitter end acceptance that his selfishness had exhausted its path.
There has been a lot of talk of historical parallels. People have made a comparison between our moment and the Democratic convention in Chicago, the same city, nearly 50 years ago. Do you see any of these historical parallels at the moment?
Well, (President Lyndon) Johnson did pull out because he had shown substantial weakness against Eugene McCarthy and then Bobby Kennedy. But, I mean, Lyndon Johnson’s health and capacity weren’t the issue; it was his policies. It was: we were fighting a ground war of attrition on the mainland of Asia (Vietnam) with a conscript army for an ill-defined purpose.
That’s what had the country divided at that point.
I don’t know whether the Hamas faction of the American left is going to show up in Chicago and make a scene. I don’t know if the Secret Service will allow them near the convention centre. I don’t know whether some judge is going to be found who will say the Secret Service is violating First Amendment rights (by doing so).
There’s lots of unanswered questions at this point, but it does seem that the “Palestine shall be free from the river to the sea” people decided to take a summer vacation.
What do you think Biden’s legacy will be?
He will be remembered for this: as someone who became conspicuously senile in public. He will also be remembered for vast infrastructure expenditures that produced nothing. I mean, we need 50,000 electric vehicle charging stations. He built seven. Seven! He will be remembered for unleashing the highest inflation in 40 years. He will be remembered for being swatted down by the Supreme Court for executive overreach; remarkable, considering that executive overreach has been the unifying principle of Republican and Democratic presidents for the last 40 years.
If you were a betting person, would you lean towards the prospect of a second Trump presidency?
I suppose if I had to bet my net worth, I’d bet on that, but I wouldn’t want to bet until we’ve had two weeks for the dust to settle and for some polls to come in. I predict they will show remarkable stability in public opinion, which is people don’t like Trump; they’re uneasy with Kamala Harris; and that Trump will be ahead, generally, by the margin of error in the swing states
I expect she will pick Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania to be her running mate because, without Pennsylvania, there’s no path.
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