Good morning, it's Nov. 29, 2024, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the day of the week in which I reprise a quote intended to be educational or uplifting.
Today's quote comes from the incomparable Washington Post columnist George Will.
Last week, while half the country was reeling from the 2024 election returns (and the other half was rejoicing), The Washington Post took time out to do a little self-promotion. The best kind, really: The paper celebrated George Will's 50th year as a political columnist.
It has featured a collection of Will's greatest hits and a lovely tribute by David Von Drehle headlined "The Iron Man of American's Op-Ed Pages." (The reference is a tip of the cap to Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken and to Will's sidelight as a superb baseball writer.)
"What can be said with confidence," Von Drehle wrote, "is that Will is the Iron Man of America's op-ed pages as surely as Ripken was the Iron Man of baseball, and for many of the same reasons: native talent, self-discipline, devotion to craft, conscientious preparation and enthusiasm for the contest. Some people are born to do something and content to keep doing it."
That last line struck me, as did George's own self-reflection, delivered in his typically erudite and lyrical 750-column.
Here's the link. If it doesn't open for you, consider subscribing to the Post. Heck, George Will and David Von Drehle are worth the subscription price themselves. But if not, enjoy George's last two paragraphs:
"Amid today's rancorousness, it is difficult to remember when America's consensus was considered suffocatingly bland. This columnist, now 83, remembers when, as he became politically sentient in the 1950s, many intellectuals lamented the absence of scalding treatises about burning questions: too much Locke, not enough Lenin.
"Actually, however, in the unending American dialectic between legislatures and courts – between majorities and restraints thereon – the perennial subjects of Western political argument are constantly contested: the concepts of freedom, equality, consent, representation and justice. Americans are permanently enrolled in this seminar."
That's vintage George Will. He punctuated it with a one-sentence kicker capturing the essence of this great man.
"And being a columnist," he added, "is as much fun as can be had away from a ballpark."
That is our quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on X @CarlCannon.
