Garry Wills

Nov 9, 2024 | almendron.com | Ben Tarnoff |Bill McKibben |Garry Wills |Linda Greenhouse

Ben TarnoffDonald Trump has spent nearly a decade discombobulating people who are paid to think about politics. His appeal has been consistently underestimated. It has also been, just as consistently, overcomplicated. The substance of his style is simple: a gleeful hostility toward the institutions that have traditionally organized American life. He positions himself not merely as an outsider but as a destroyer: someone who delights in the demolition of norms and normalcy.

Nov 8, 2024 | nybooks.com | Garry Wills |Linda Greenhouse |Michael Hofmann |Bill McKibben

Ben Tarnoff • Zephyr Teachout • Bill McKibben • Michael Hofmann • Linda Greenhouse • Garry Wills* Donald Trump has spent nearly a decade discombobulating people who are paid to think about politics. His appeal has been consistently underestimated. It has also been, just as consistently, overcomplicated. The substance of his style is simple: a gleeful hostility toward the institutions that have traditionally organized American life.

Aug 15, 2024 | motherjones.com | Garry Wills

Nothing could be more laughable than the claim of this Supreme Court to be originalist. In July, the court reached a decision that the president has broad immunity for official acts. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent, said the ruling meant “the President is now a king above the law.” This is far from what was stated in the beginning. The originators of our government said that “We the People” are our country’s sovereign power.

Aug 13, 2024 | modernagejournal.com | Garry Wills

No one in the history of political philosophy, or in most other fields for that matter, is more important than Augustine. Nor is anyone more sane, wise, memorable, and delightful than G. K. Chesterton, unless it be perhaps Samuel Johnson. That is why, in recent years, I have insisted that my students exercise their freedom to read The Confessions, Orthodoxy, or Boswell’s Life. Rarely do those students rash enough to follow my injunctions return as the same persons.

Jul 7, 2024 | chicagotribune.com | Garry Wills

We Chicagoans are wondering if it is tempting fate to hold the Democratic National Convention here in August after the 1968 Chicago convention, which occasioned what was called “a police riot,” one remasticated in the trial of the Chicago Eight, named for radical activists at the convention. I have been asked about 1968, since I wrote articles about both party conventions that year for William Buckley Jr.’s magazine, National Review.