The Heritage Foundation, 1974

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When conservatism was young in the 1970s, the movement had grand visions of what it could accomplish. Many of the activists who were involved in building the movement had aspirations that they could fundamentally transform public opinion and shift national debate toward the right.

This was the reason that proponents of conservatism in the 1970s devoted an inordinate amount of energy to the politics of ideas. They hoped that they could combat the intellectual firepower of liberalism in the universities, media, and think tanks (organizations of experts on social policy).

Within the Nixon administration, speechwriter Patrick Buchanan had been urging fellow Republicans to take these steps, if they wanted to really change Washington. The attention paid in these years toward the marketplace of ideas captured a moment when most conservatives felt that they were outside the political establishment. Once they entered into the halls of power, they retained grandiose visions of what they could accomplish.

Founding of Conservative Journals
List of conservative magazines or journals and their first-year publication date.

Their goal was to transform the way that Americans thought about politics. During the 1970s, there was a massive proliferation of philanthropists and business leaders who funded the creation of new think tanks and the reorganization of existing institutions.

The most important was the Heritage Foundation. In 1973, a group of conservative entrepreneurs teamed up to establish the organization. It was aimed to match the liberal Brookings Institution, the prestigious think tank in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, which had been influencing politics since the Progressive Era. They dreamed of having a direct impact on congressional debate and to put forward ideas that a Republican president could carry with him into the White House.

Edwin Feulner had been an aide to Congressmen Melvin Laird and Phil Crane as well as an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Paul Weyrich was an aide to Colorado Senator Gordon Allott and the innovator who used direct mail to reach conservative donors. Each had become greatly frustrated with Republican President Richard Nixon (1969-1974). They believed he had a constant inclination to court the center of the political spectrum.

Edwin Feulner and Paul Weyrich Give a Speech for the Heritage Foundation, ca 1988
Photograph of Edwin Feulner and Paul Weyrich giving a speech for the Heritage Foundation.

Feulner and Weyrich, both of whom were the most important conservative entrepreneurs of the period, had a number of eye-opening conversations with conservative Republican legislators. After having been defeated on several key bills, the congressmen expressed to them their regret that they did not have the kind of well-produced information that liberal organizations regularly distributed to Democratic legislators. During committee hearings and floor debates, as well as in discussions with the media, liberal politicians could count on a wealth of data to defend their positions and their vote. Conservatives were left scrambling on their own to explain their positions.

Weyrich met with James Lucier, a legislative assistant to Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, and Victor Fediay of the Library of Congress. All three agreed on the need for an institution that could produce and promote conservative ideas. They were not as good when it came to money. After speaking with Frederic Rench, a Wisconsin businessman who strongly supported conservative causes, they concluded that they were in need of a much better business plan.

Fortunately for them, Rench helped them put a plan together. After they had their proposal in place, they approached the wealthy beer magnate Joseph Coors, whom Weyrich had known through his work for Allott. Coors was the youngest brother, one of many owners in the family's Colorado beer business. He was searching for new conservative causes to which he could give his money

Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees Members Ed Feulner, Bob Dee, Bob Krieble, Lew Lehrman, and Joseph Coors at a meeting in the 1980s
Photograph of five board of trustees members at meeting in the 1980s.

Coors had been a long-time supporter of conservative causes, including Barry Goldwater's candidacy in 1964 against Lyndon Johnson. When approached with this particular proposal, Coors was on the fence at first. He was thinking about giving much of his money to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). AEI was an old and established think tank that had been founded in 1938 when the conservative rebellion against President Roosevelt had gotten underway.

What made their effort distinct was the vision of combining first-rate intellectual firepower with practical, politically oriented publications. They were able to articulate this vision during a pivotal meeting with Coors. Lyn Nofzinger, one of the top legislative assistants for Richard Nixon, arranged the meeting. The beer magnate asked why he shouldn't support the more established American Enterprise Institute rather than give money to their untested proposal.

For dramatic effect, Nofzinger made his point by pulling an old AEI report from his bookshelf. He scanned the study with a puzzled look, as if to signal that it was a relic. He then brushed off some of the dust that had collected on the cover, and said: "That's what they're good for — collecting dust . . . What we need are studies for Congress while legislation is being collected."

Image of The Heritage Model from regular funding to political victories on Capitol Hill and a president.

Persuaded by the presentation, Coors agreed to invest in the new operation. Other donors followed, including the John Olin Foundation and Richard Scaife, one of the heirs to the Mellon estate who had been one of Barry Goldwater's first supporters.

On February 16, 1973, the Heritage Foundation was incorporated and opened a few days later. Soon after its formation, the Foundation forged connections with former California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1975 when he launched a primary challenge to Republican President Gerald Ford. Heritage also worked with Reagan on his radio shows that were broadcast to millions of listeners who religiously tuned in to hear Reagan's innovative ideas on issues like tax reform and deregulation.

Ronald Reagan Radio Address, 1979
Image of Governor Ronald Reagan giving a radio address in 1979 about capitalism.

The creation of the Heritage Foundation symbolized the marriage between ideas and conservative politics that was so important in these early years. It was a moment when a large number of conservatives were not yet as focused on the nuts and bolts of holding power and the compromises and deals that required. Instead, they were more concerned with the bold messaging and rhetoric that was involved in building an opposition movement.

Ed Feulner, the former head of the House Republican Study Group, became Heritage's president in 1977. He embarked on an even more aggressive strategy to promote the ideas of the foundation among politicians and journalists. For example, he created the Resource Bank, assembling a group of right-wing experts who were put on tap for conservative politicians. He raised millions of dollars from conservative foundations and big businesses, such as General Motors, vastly expanding the reach of the organization.

Feulner required all his scholars to write briefer position papers that followed the "briefcase test" — a "busy executive can throw it [the study] into his briefcase and read it in an hour or less." Older foundations, like the American Enterprise Institute, restructured their operations to model themselves after Heritage. Newer conservative foundations, like the CATO Institute, sprang up based on the Heritage model.

Founding of Conservative Think Tanks
List of conservative think tanks and their founding years.

In 1980, the Foundation published the Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration. The document was over 1,000 pages long and covered a wide range of policies facing the nation, from health care to taxation to national security. Reagan was captivated by the report and circulated it to everyone in the cabinet. The recommendations were incorporated into many of the proposals that he then sent to Congress.

President Reagan with his Cabinet, 1981, and Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration, 1981
Photograph of President Reagan with his cabinet in 1981 and a pamphlet of the Heritage foundation’s mandate for leadership.