Family is the most important aspect of a person’s life, but dealing with family members can sometimes be exasperating. They know how to push your buttons. They can make you furious. But in the end, family is family and most have your best interests at heart and will support you to accomplish your goals.
The conservative movement is like a family – one, big, occasionally disagreeing family. The Heritage Foundation has been the leader of the family for decades. But it assists, and is supported by, hundreds of other think tanks and conservative organizations. There are squabbles, just as there are probably arguments around your family dinner table on holidays. But in a moment of trouble, everyone in a family will rally to help each other.
We’ve seen squabbles in public recently, especially at December’s Americafest. The free exchange of ideas on the right led to some disagreements there, and the media was happy to blow it up into a major disagreement. Of course, this isn’t the first time. There have been squabbles in this movement for decades, so they bother liberals more than they bother conservatives.
In fact, this is the origin of where many of today’s competing organizations came from. Other groups split off as members of the conservative movement when they disagreed about various policy matters.
New groups formed decades ago as people asked big questions: Should the movement focus more on the Soviet Union (when it existed) and less on family issues? Should it be more concerned about taxes and less about regulation?
These groups splintered off but remained part of the family. And when it mattered: at election time, they followed the leader: The Heritage Foundation. Its book Mandate for Leadership provided a blueprint for generations of conservatives to follow, and each success led to greater accomplishments. In 1980 conservatives elected Reagan. In 1994, they elected Gingrich. Today, Republicans control all three branches of the federal government.
Because Heritage’s leadership over the decades has paid off, it was time to update the mission. Heritage 2.0, the program that is underway now, is an evolution of strategy that will allow the Foundation to continue to lead.
A key to the future strategy will be helping build stronger families. Heritage is providing leadership by focusing on flourishing families, community stability, and maintaining American cultural values. It is going to the mat to oppose the political culture which does not prioritize family or treats them as some left– wing ideological battle to be won at the expense of parents and children.
The Heritage Foundation’s goal is to restore the family values that our country’s political institutions were originally grounded in. You can’t have a healthy political environment if the country is governed by narcissism, with everyone doing what is best for himself instead of working to build a better community or country. America’s stability depends on family– centered legislation.
In the District of Columbia, Heritage’s backyard, and the seat of American government, we see the effects of family breakdown. “Close to 80 percent of babies in Wards 7 and 8 are born to unmarried parents,” notes Heritage scholar Delano Squires. “These are also the parts of the city where 60 percent of homicides occur.”
But help is available. “One federal grant provides $35 million for marriage education programs,” Squires writes. “A local church could use this type of grant to run a marriage boot– camp for cohabiting couples with children, where successful completion of the program would mean participants are ready to say, ‘I do’ by the end of their training.” As Heritage President Kevin Roberts put it at Americafest, “We have to make sure that all of our policies, including tax policy and safety net reform, focus on the future of the family.”
Another big step for conservatives will be Heritage’s efforts to promote the dignity of work and the future of free enterprise.
Work gives people personal dignity and economic independence. It helps improve civic participation. Heritage expert E.J. Antoni notes that the country is already making progress. “All the net job growth over the last year has gone to American workers, not their foreign– born counterparts,” he writes.
He adds that the private sector is benefiting because the administration is getting rid of federal workers. “The nation went from hiring to firing federal workers, which in turn went from increasing to decreasing the headline jobs numbers.” By removing barriers to private sector employment, Heritage is promoting economic policy that is rooted in human empowerment and growth.
The left is eager to fracture the right, but we aren’t falling for it. The Heritage Foundation isn’t perfect, but it is doing a good job of providing leadership across the spectrum, and a few internal arguments won’t change that dynamic.
Peter Mihalick is former legislative director and counsel to former Reps. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, and Rodney Blum, Iowa Republican.
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