Heritage Foundation

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The Heritage Foundation is a neoconservative "think tank" founded by Joseph Coors (of Coors Brewery), Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Richard Mellon Scaife. As such, it advocates economic deregulation and an overtly interventionist foreign policy. It publishes the quarterly Policy Review, for many years considered the preeminent conservative publication in Washington, D.C.. Like many conservative think tanks, it is full of unbelievable amounts of hot air, as evidenced in this quote, which also serves as a window into the corrupt quixotic soul of the organization:

Liberation is at hand.... A paradigm-shattering revolution has just taken place... This revolution has been so sudden and sweeping that few in Washington have yet grasped its full meaning... the entire human outlook... will change... Once this shift takes place... we will be able to advance a true Hayekian agenda, including... radical spending cuts,^[2] the end of the public school monopoly, a free market health-care system, and the elimination of the family-destroying welfare dole. Unlike 1944, history is now on the side of freedom.

—former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, in a 1994 issue of Policy Review

Amazing! And is Jesus rising from the dead (again), too?

History[edit]

The Heritage Foundation was founded with donations from the Coors and Mellon fortunes. It cut its teeth during the Reagan administration in the 1980s, when it lobbied Reagan to take a hard-line stance against the Soviet Union (they were responsible for getting Reagan to famously call the Soviet Union an "evil empire"), jeopardizing international relations in the process. It also contributed heavily to the ideals embodied in the Republicans' 1994 Contract With America. Later, the foundation became a major proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Its reputation has been only slightly tarnished by the fact that all of their predictions proved wrong.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Heritage Foundation sought to turn the reconstruction efforts in New Orleans into a test bed for all its harebrained conservative ideas: suspension of all government welfare, distribution of school vouchers, and the repealing of environmental and land use regulations in the New Orleans area.^[3]

In 2022, it used the Ukraine crisis to bizarrely claim that Vladimir Putin planned to annexe Belarus as part of a scheme to restore the old Soviet Union/Russian Empire.^[4]

Unthink tank[edit]

As a think tank, Heritage Foundation conducts studies on socioeconomic issues. Suspiciously, their results always support whatever they are already lobbying for. In one classic example, a study they conducted found that poor people aren't actually poor.^[5] They then lobbied to end welfare for the poor.

The foundation also pushed lackadaisical policies about Iraq, stating that only 40,000 troops would be needed to take over and maintain order in Iraq, that the war would be over in a couple of years at most,^[6] and that the Iraqis would greet Americans with open arms (which proved true, but not in quite the way it was intended), and that the Iraqis wanted democracy.

Yes, they do pull these studies out of their ass.

Climate denial[edit]

A number of their studies on global warming also come from the PIDOOMA department. One study they cite supposedly demonstrates that global warming will have no effect on the US economy.^[7] They also enjoy quote mining statements on climate research,^[8] parroting denialist PRATTs,^[9] and hosting other members of the denialist echo chamber, such as E. Calvin Beisner's Cornwall Alliance.^[10]

They're also unrepentant treekillers; if you wind up on their mailing list, expect to be swamped by bizarre and paranoid mailings featuring names of various conservative figureheads like Ed Meese, push polls, probably-illegal fundraising letters from out of state candidates, and weird, pro-war criminal propaganda allegedly written by the parents of misbehaving members of the US military. It's… not pretty.

IDiocy[edit]

The Heritage Foundation also promotes intelligent design. They have on several occations hosted lectures by people from the Discovery Institute such as Stephen Meyer^[11][12] and John West.^[13] They also hosted a press conference by the makers of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed announcing their intention to use the film as a platform to pass "academic freedom" model legislation.^[14]

Homophobia and transphobia[edit]

One thing all "conservative" groups have in common is an absolute hatred towards LGBTQ+ persons, and especially trans people (and in that subset, especially trans women). The Heritage Foundation is no exception to this rule. Through its subsidiary "The Daily Signal", it has published articles spouting out misinformation concerning transgender athletes, dubbing the fight for trans rights the "transgender agenda".^[16]

Health[edit]

It has a long history of ties to Big Tobacco, arguing against tobacco taxes and regulations, including tax proposals in 2007 and 2009. It received donations from tobacco company Philip Morris in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.^[17]

Friends across the sea[edit]

The organization has links to various other right-wing parties and organizations around the world. Leading figures in the UK Conservative Party have spoken at its events, including Priti Patel in 2021 and chairman Oliver Dowden in 2022.^[18][19]

Institutionalizing Trumpism[edit]

Since 2021, the Heritage Foundation has been led by Kevin D. Roberts. Unlike many past Heritage presidents, Roberts' background was not in business. Instead, Roberts previously served on the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).^[20] a Koch-funded right-wing think tank.^[21] One of TPPF's primary concerns is advocating climate change denialism and shilling fossil fuels.^[22] TPPF is also equally known for their advocacy of school vouchers, a favorite topic of Christian nationalists.^[23] Roberts was also previously the president of Wyoming Catholic College, which notably declined Title IV federal funding over concerns that accepting federal funds would prevent the college from discriminating against homosexuals.^[24][25]

Reflecting the evolution of the Republican party under Donald Trump, Roberts' hiring marked a notable shift from once standard paradigms of the Heritage Foundation, such as a hawkish foreign policy and strict adherence to free market economics. Instead, the Heritage Foundation shifted to embracing Trumpism. Indeed, Roberts stated in an interview that he believes that "institutionalizing Trumpism" is his primary role.^[26][27] Instead of being unapologetic advocates of the free market, the new Heritage Foundation declared that free enterprise must be "orient(ed) in support of the common good". Instead of taking a hawkish stance against Vladimir Putin's 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the new Heritage Foundation advocated isolationism.^[26][27][28]

Under Roberts, members of the Heritage Foundation have praised the authoritarian government of Viktor Orbán^[29]. As an example, after meeting with Orbán in November 2022, Roberts wrote the following fawning accolade on Twitter:

...One thing is clear from visiting Hungary and from being involved in current policy and cultural debates in America: the world needs a movement that fights for Truth, for tradition, for families, and for the average person.^[30]

In March 2023, the Heritage Foundation signed a cooperation agreement with the Danube Institute,^[31] a think tank / propaganda network funded entirely by the Hungarian government that seeks to provide the intellectual veneer to convert Western conservatives into adopting the Orbán model of "illiberal democracy".^[32][33]

One of Roberts' core projects is Project 2025. Created in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the project outlines an administrative blueprint to enact should a Republican ever take over the presidency.^[27] Contrary to past Heritage Foundation blueprints, Project 2025 is lighter on policy and heavier on retribution.^[34] Using various bureaucratic schemes (most notably the utilization of the Schedule F appointment), the chief feature of the blueprint is a plan to attempt to take over much of the federal government agencies by firing large amounts of current federal employees (no matter how experienced the employee) and replace them with "conservative" "loyalists".^[34] The document advocates ideological tests on federal government employees based on various bête noires of populist Republicans, such as critical race theory, woke, and climate change.^[34] The blueprint deeply embraces Christian nationalism viewpoints. This includes staunch anti-abortion positions, to the point where the Heritage Foundation advocate nationally criminializing the abortion pill mifepristone, and also advocate setting up surveillance networks for "liberal states" that in their view had become "sanctuaries for abortion tourism". Discussions of potentially reviving the Comstock Act were even present in the document. Project 2025 also endorses anti-LGBTQ positions such as opposition of gay marriage. All of this comes on top of Heritage Foundation's usual wish list of corporate favoritism, such as favorable tax incentives for corporations and anti-environmentalism advocacy.^{[34][35][34][36][37]} Critics called the plan a "far-right playbook for American authoritarianism" and "a threat to a multiracial, diverse democracy."^[38]

Tellingly, in a New York Times interview, Roberts endorsed Trump's Big Lie, stating that he did not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He also believed that Black Lives Matter "riots" were "far worse" than the 2021 U.S. coup attempt. He even offered praise for Joe McCarthy.^[27]

Due to this significant policy shift, under Roberts, multiple scholars have departed the Heritage Foundation for other think-tanks.^[29]

See also[edit]

• A member of the Cooler Heads Coalition
• Sean Hannity: Not so surprisingly, he just loves these guys.
• Project 2025: Their grand plan to turn the country into a white nationalist theocracy.

External links[edit]

• Heritage Foundation
• Sourcewatch entry

References[edit]