It really is wonderful having George Will at Fox News where we can see him more frequently than a few minutes a week.
On Fox News Sunday, in a segment about incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Will said, "[T]here's nothing better for American conservatism than periodic examples of untrammeled liberalism...I give him three years and people will be begging for a return to something else" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS WALLACE, HOST: De Blasio's big campaign promise is that he wants to raise taxes on high earners - and there are certainly some in New York - to pay for added benefits, especially universal preschool. George, do you see this as an aberration, as a one off because it's New York City, or as a sign that there is something going on in terms of resurgence of liberalism?
GEORGE WILL: Well, I hope there's the resurgence you talk about.
WALLACE: You'd like to see that?
WILL: Oh, there's nothing better for American conservatism than periodic examples of untrammeled liberalism. Lyndon Johnson after 1964 had huge majorities in Congress, had his way. Republicans won five of the next six and seven of the next nine presidential elections. Let him have his way in New York City, and let people see what happens.
There are more than 130 contracts with public employees’ unions that’ve been held in abeyance until Mayor Bloomberg got out of there, because they assumed that de Blasio and his compliant, not to say supine city council, will go along with anything they ask for. I give him three years and people will be begging for a return to something else.
WALLACE: It is interesting, too, that while he talked about going after the high earners to help pay for added benefits for school children, there was no talk about taking on the teachers union.
WILL: No, and the universal pre-school, since there is very little social science that suggested that it does much for the children involved, the real reason for it is it does a great deal for the teachers’ unions, because you have to hire teachers who are unionized, who pay dues to the unions who pass them on in campaign contributions to people like the new mayor.
Of course, the liberal media will be behind de Blasio in unraveling all of the successful programs enacted by his more conservative predecessors and will blame it all on them when his policies fail miserably.
Funny how that works.
