Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
Interpretation
The essence of government lies in guiding how individuals live and shaping the character of its citizens.
George Will suggests that the fundamental concern of any government should be the moral and ethical framework within which its citizens operate. Rather than focusing solely on laws or policies, the primary question that should guide governance is centered on the values and qualities that society wishes to nurture in its people. This reflective approach moves beyond mere governance and touches on the deeper philosophical issues of purpose and community.
In practice
This quote can be used in a political debate to emphasize the importance of values in governance.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of america is justice and securing the blessings of liberty.
Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law.
Belgrade is the ugliest city in the world in the most beautiful place in the world.
The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.
Under the comb, the tangle and the straight path are the same.
What should we suppose must naturally be the consequence of our carrying on a slave trade with Africa? With a country, vast in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very small degree? Does any one suppose a slave trade would help their civilization?
Increasingly, corporate nationality is whatever a corporation decides it is.
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