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Week in Review: George Will says Goldwater Institute is the Gold Standard

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2018

George Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose commentary on American government has helped shape the national debate for decades. Earlier in March, the Goldwater Institute was honored to welcome Mr. Will to a special event in Arizona where friends and supporters of the Institute gathered to hear his remarks.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQOY_ZCP6DQ?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

We asked Mr. Will to share his thoughts with us about the Goldwater Institute as we celebrate our 30th Anniversary this year. You can watch our interview here, and read more below:

“The Goldwater Institute’s remarkable 30 years of uninterrupted success is important for the State of Arizona, where it’s located, where it knows the dynamics best. But also it has the infectious power of good example,” Mr. Will said. “The United States does not have a surplus of success in government over the last 30 years except from a very few mostly state-based think tanks of which the Goldwater Institute is simply the gold standard.”

Mr. Will is a careful observer of U.S. politics and is often asked to call balls and strikes when it comes to the news of the day in Washington. He’s also a student of history. We asked him to share his thoughts about the legacy of the Institute’s namesake, Senator Barry Goldwater, and what that legacy means to America today.

“Politics requires a very special patience. It’s a long game. People forget how dominant the New Deal liberal orthodoxy was in this country in 1960 when the junior senator from Arizona went to the podium at the 1960 Republican convention and said ‘Let’s wake up, conservatives, if we want to take back this party, and I think we can, let’s get to work.’ 1960. Four years later he is the nominee, 16 years after that Ronald Reagan’s the president.”

“It all started with Barry Goldwater, and what he started was to put back into the American political vocabulary the language of the Founders: first-come rights, then comes government. Government exists to protect our rights, not to give us our rights, not to tell us what our rights are, but to protect our natural rights. And that creative, indispensable change of vocabulary started in Arizona.”

We will be sharing more of our conversation with Mr. Will over the coming weeks. Also, please stay tuned for news about the Goldwater Institute’s 30th Anniversary and how you can continue to support our mission of expanding freedom for all Americans. Click here to support the Institute today.

Liberty in the News

Are you concerned about the high cost of prescription drugs? This week, the Goldwater Institute released a new report that shows there’s much more to the story about the cost and value of prescription drugs. You can read the report here and learn some important facts from the paper here.

This week, Wisconsin became the 39th state to enact a Right to Try law, protecting the right of terminally ill patients to try investigational medicines that have not yet received full approval from the FDA. Meanwhile, the story of the law’s meteoric rise on the national stage continues to captivate the nation. Read more from Goldwater Institute director of healthcare policy, Naomi Lopez Bauman.

The City of Glendale, Arizona, has created a plan to address concerns over school safety. And it’s putting school safety over politics, without increasing costs to taxpayers. Read more on our In Defense of Liberty blog.

 

 

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