Will Speaks at ABC Breakfast

From the Fall 1976 UNO Alumni News

 

"Personality, or character, is the fundamental issue of American Politics this year, and I think, for years to come . . ."

 

Just one comment George F. Will had to make about the disenchanted themes of our government today on October 11 as the first speaker in the 1976-77 UNO ABC "Facing Forward" lecture series.

 

Will continued that, "The American people have come to the conclusion that two of their last three presidents were a little bit strange, and they don't want any more surprises." He said, "Voters no longer decide issues. They are holding the government in their hands only for the few minutes they are in the voting booth . . . they are entrusting it to a man who will operate virtually without check and for this reason they have to be terribly sure that he is trustworthy."

 

Will, a Washington-based political columnist whose column appears in 189 newspapers, addressed himself to many topics in discussing "The Changing Face of American Politics."

 

Following are a few brief excerpts from his speech made before a group of 450 at a breakfast meeting at the Holiday Inn High Rise:

"I have been watching Washington politics now, first from the senate staff and from the journalistic community and the only solid conclusion that I've come to is that Bismark was right when he said that if you want to retain your respect for either laws or sausages, you don't want to know too much about how either is made . . ."

 

"People feel that they're having more contact with government than ever before and that most of those contacts are involuntary and unpleasant; that they are being regulated, and regulated, by and large, by non-responsive, non-elected institutions."

 

"I think the fault of our government is that it is responsive to a fault . . . I think that the government looks upon itself as a Burger King . . . that tells the people you can have it your way . . . The appetite for consuming government services has long since outrun the appetite for paying for them . . ."

 

"Government by opinion poll is government that is responsive . . . The one thing government by opinion poll can't do is lead . . ."

 

The next speaker in the ABC lecture series is Paul Parker, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative and Government Relations Officer for General Mills, Inc. Parker will discuss the world food problem on Friday, December 3.