Saturday, January 19, 2019

George Will 'n' me

Sometimes I just wonder about Washington Post columnist George Will. An avowed conservative, Will was often my go-to guy when I sought out my own liberal foolishness through the eyes of someone who seemed to be intelligent. And Will appeared to have potential.

But with my own intellectual capacities dwindling, I can no longer rely on Will as once I did. He's too murky without much purpose ... or so it feels. He's too smart to no especial end. His biggest reminder these days, when I try out one of Will's columns, seems to be an underscoring of the old news adage, "Stand up. Speak up. And shut up." Will's columns just seem to linger and get longer; get longer and linger; and all the time the English in use seems viscous and dolefully 'wise' and therefore increasingly idiotic.

On the other hand, I'm pretty viscous and idiotic myself. So maybe it's me perching on some some humorless, throne-omial sit-spot. Will's Washington Post presence makes me think someone at the Post thinks he's  worth the space or golden parachute or whatever it is that compel the expulsions of his sage-sager-sagest saggacities.

But it feels increasingly like a crock of the old CBS commentator Eric Severeid ... in love with his own linguistic grandeur and perfection. Couldn't someone just give Will a job in baseball, which he is said to love? Fuck politics and 'an understanding' of it all. We get it: Trump is an asshole. Evidence can be adduced, in murky phraseology or something less freighting.

Maybe Will, like the Post itself, wants to be on board when the train pulls out of Trump's presidential station. He too wants to flong his dong and unfurl his banner: "Toldja so! .... and ever so decorously and with respect for the U.S. of A."

1 comment:

  1. I always found George Will too pompous.

    On Lawrence O’Donnell’s show he’s seemed to have softened. However, I’ve wonder if his being dropped by FoxNews caused some loss of self confidence and now he’s expressing less substance, more style.

    To his credit Will has not been shy about his distaste for Trump. Nevertheless, his new employers may not be fully on board with Will’s preferred brand of Conservative Libertarianism.

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