The Heritage Foundation, the preeminent conservative think tank during the last 45 years, has imploded, the result of the ongoing battle in the conservative movement over the issue of antisemitism.
Dozens of Heritage staffers have resigned or been fired over the last several weeks, with most of the top scholars leaving due to Heritage President Kevin Roberts' inartful defense of Tucker Carlson, who conducted a non-confrontational interview with rabid antisemite Nick Fuentes.
At first, Roberts refused to apologize to staffers and scholars for the video, but later, he was forced to admit it was a mistake. Nevertheless, the video is still on the Heritage website, and staffers keep exiting.
What happened?
In the 1980s and '90s, Heritage was the brain, the nerve center, the soul of the conservative movement. Much was made of the Heritage Foundation's 900-page "Project 2025" blueprint for the second Donald Trump presidential term. In 1980, Heritage published a 3,000-page manifesto named "Mandate for Leadership," which contained every central idea that the right pushed for the next 20 years, most of which went from the pages of the Mandate to the president's desk to be signed into law.
Heritage scholars convinced Ronald Reagan of the value and necessity of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as "Star Wars." Heritage scholars created the "Reagan Doctrine," a foreign policy framework that helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union.
The 25% tax cut, welfare reform, and later in the 1990s, the "Contract With America" that led to the first Republican House of Representatives majority in 40 years in 1994 were just a few of the Heritage Foundation's ideas that became law.
Heritage accomplished more in a shorter period of time than any other organization in American history. The left had no answer for it. They still don't. And now, the right doesn't have Heritage.
What happened was simple: intellectual conservatism died. "Big idea" conservatism died. The consensus that allowed the "Age of Conservatism," which I believe will be seen as lasting from 1975 to 2008, has died.
The death blow to Heritage was largely self-inflicted. It has resulted in most of its best and brightest leaving for Mike Pence's Advancing American Freedom (AAF), which is now positioning itself both intellectually and politically to become the nervous system of the right.
“AAF is honored to welcome these principled conservative scholars to the team,” Pence, who has been the target of Trump’s ire since the former vice president certified the 2020 election results, said in a statement. “They bring a wealth of experience, a love of country, and a deep commitment to the Constitution and Conservative Movement that will further the cause of liberty.”
Andrew Olivastro, chief advancement officer at The Heritage Foundation, said in a Monday statement that the think tank’s “mission is unchanged, and our leadership is strong and decisive.”
“Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. A handful of staff chose a different path — some through disruption, others through disloyalty,” Olivastro said.
In his statement, Olivastro said several of the departing staffers were “terminated for conduct inconsistent with Heritage’s mission and standards” last week, adding that “Their departures clear the way for a stronger, more focused team.”
Legal scholars Charles “Cully” Stimson and sometime PJ Media columnist Hans von Spakovsky were slated to step into positions at Heritage's Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies when they abruptly resigned on Monday.
“We joined Heritage because of its leadership in the conservative movement, guided by Ed Feulner and General Meese for over 40 years," they announced. "We regret leaving what has long been the premier conservative institution where we have spent so much of our legal careers but feel we can no longer carry out that mission established by them.”
Heritage got in trouble when it became an ideological ally of right-wing politicians instead of a clearinghouse of conservative ideas from everyone on the right.
A list of the scholars who have worked at Heritage over the years reads like a "Who's Who" of American conservatism.
- Russell Kirk, Distinguished Scholar. The "master of words" who delivered the first formal Heritage lecture in 1980. Kirk's The Conservative Mind electrified the conservative movement in the 1950s.
- Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow. A primary architect of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which shifted focus to work requirements.
- Norman Ture, Tax Policy Expert. Developed the supply-side tax cuts that became the foundation of "Reaganomics."
- Stuart Butler, Policy Director. Originally proposed the idea of "enterprise zones" and early models of market-based health reform.
Other notable figures who frequently collaborated with or lectured at Heritage during this window included former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who conducted her own conservative revolution and became a patron of the foundation in her post-prime minister years.
Unless Heritage can remove the stink of defending and apologizing for Jew haters like Fuentes, the organization will disappear. It's already lost its swagger as the right's intellectual champion. Whether it can build itself into something helpful again remains to be seen.
