By Guy Page

Last Wednesday, VDC interviewed Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner George Will before his speech at the Ethan Allen Institute gala dinner in South Burlington. Part I was published Monday, June 5.

VDC: Today, a conservative and lifelong Vermonter asked me to ask you: ls there any hope for Vermont?

Will: Vermont at one point was the archetype conservative state. Now it’s the archetypal blue state. A lot of movement. Who says the movement stops, right? 

VDC: What can we do?

Pay more attention to the Ethan Allen Institute. I’m here because they’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of this think tank that does two things. First, it stops bad ideas. Good government results, first of all, from stopping a lot of bad things. But then they also have their own ideas about a dynamic society. It seems to me they understand that if we’re going to lower the temperature of our politics, we have to lower the stakes of politics. Politics permeates absolutely too much.

VDC: How do you do that?

By letting market forces allocate wealth and opportunity instead of government. That’s your choice.  Government allocation of wealth and opportunity, or market allocation. The government is going to allocate some, the market is going to allocate some, the question is the balance. 

The Ethan Allen Institute exists to correct that balance. More things allocated by the impersonal market forces of people cooperating with one another in consensual transactions. 

A market society is a polite society. What’s the first five words you hear when you walk into an American shop? ‘How may I help you.’

VDC asked how the U.S. can emerge from what Will calls the tribalism and polarization of recent years:

Will: One thing we’ve learned since the 2016 election is the power of a president to change the tone. Some people like the way Trump has changed it. Some people dislike it. But we can all agree he changed it. Therefore, it seems reasonable to suppose that a different president with a different tone could change it back. So the answer to your question is presidential leadership. 

VDC: Do you believe in God? And if so, how does your faith influence your views and your writing?

Will: As I have written, I do not. I describe myself as an amiable, low-voltage atheist. I’m not wanting to change anyone’s mind. I’m married to a ferocious Presbyterian. But I’m not included in that cohort.

VDC: What don’t non-D.C. people understand about Washington, D.C.?

Will: Congress typifies the 80-20 rule in life. 80% of the beer is drunk by 20% of the beer drinkers. 80% of the work in Congress is done by 20% of the people. And a lot of them there are really very good.

So that’s the first thing. The second – you need to understand that as government has expanded in size and in pretentions, its prestige has leaked away. What government needs is a little reflection to think about its actual competence and proper scope. If it tried to do less, it would do more.

VDC then asked Will to cite his favorite Vermont historical figures.

Will: Ethan Allen. Because he was a great patriot. At a time when everything in America was fluid, he put his stamp on events. 

Calvin Coolidge. Because he resisted the bipartisan impulse to the imperial presidency. He once said it’s very important for a president to understand that he is not a great man. That is essential to the safety of the nation.