Heritage Foundation

Neo-Conservative Christian Think Tank

  • Canadian Far-Right-AIQ is Canadian
  • Religious Right
  • Council for National Policy-CNP –
  • The Heritage Foundation was established by CNP Founder Paul Weyrich, with Edwin Feulner & Joseph Coors
  • 1990 Mandate for Leadership 6/10 Heritage suggested budget reforms included in Bush Budget.
  • 1990 The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators by William Bennett (Divisive; suggesting decline post-civil & women’s rights)
  • Opposed 1993 Clinton Health Care Plan
  • 1994 Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, Co-authored by House Majority Leader (1995-2003) Dick Armey, (R-TX 26th)
  • 1995, Heritage published the first Index of Economic Freedom, co-authored by policy analyst Bryan T. Johnson and Thomas P. Sheehy

Wikipedia “The Heritage Foundation was founded on February 16, 1973 by Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Joseph Coors.[5][6] Growing out of the new business activist movement inspired by the Powell Memorandum,[7][8] discontent with Richard Nixon‘s embrace of the “liberal consensus” and the nonpolemical, cautious nature of existing think tanks,[9] Weyrich and Feulner sought to create a version of the Brookings Institution that advanced conservative activism.[5] Coors was the primary funder of the Heritage Foundation in its early years.[5] Weyrich was its first president. Later, under president Frank J. Walton, the Heritage Foundation began using direct mail fundraising and Heritage’s annual income grew to $1 million per year in 1976.[10] By 1981, the annual budget grew to $5.3 million.[5]

Heritage advocated for pro-business policies, anti-communism and neoconservatism in its early years, but distinguished itself from the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) by also advocating for Christian conservatism.[5] Through the 1970s, Heritage would remain small relative to Brookings and the AEI.[5] 

Approximately 60% of the 2,000 proposals were implemented or initiated by the end of Reagan’s first year in office.[11][13] Ronald Reagan later on said that the Heritage Foundation played a “vital force” in the successes during his presidency.[12]

Heritage was influential in developing and advancing of the so-called “Reagan Doctrine,” a Reagan administration foreign policy initiative in which the U.S. provided military and other support to anti-communist resistance movements fighting Soviet-aligned governments in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Nicaraguaand other nations during the final years of the Cold War.[14]

Heritage also advocated the development of new ballistic missile defense systems for the United States. Reagan adopted this as his top defense priority in 1983, calling it the Strategic Defense Initiative.[11] By mid-decade, The Heritage Foundation had emerged as a key organization in the national conservative movement, publishing influential reports on domestic and defense issues, as well as pieces by prominent conservative figures, such as Bob Dole and Pat Robertson.[15] In 1986, Time called Heritage “the foremost of the new breed of advocacy tanks”.[16] During the Reagan and Bush administrations, The Heritage Foundation served as the President’s brain trust on foreign policy.[17]““

December 7, 2016, Heritage Foundation signed the first fundraising agreement with CA:

Trump’s Data Firm Is Selling A Top Conservative Think Tank Its Trump Voter Playbook Daily Beast The Heritage Foundation hasn’t always agreed with the president. But it recognizes the cash that his followers can bring. Lachlan Markay September 29, 2017 “Three weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, a data company owned by one of his wealthiest supporters began cashing in. The company, Cambridge Analytica, inked a deal with the nation’s leading conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, for the purpose of hitting up Trump voters for donations.

The marrying of the two institutions was made easier by a shared principle. Cambridge Analytica is run by Rebekah Mercer, who with her father provided major cash infusions for Trump and groups supporting him during the 2016 campaign. Mercer is also a board member of the Heritage Foundation, the nation’s flagship conservative think tank.

But the alliance also reflects a new reality within the broader conservative universe. Trump didn’t just bring an idiosyncratic set of political priorities with him to Washington. He brought a massive amount of first-time voters and supporters as well—individuals that establishment institutions like Heritage would want to mine for dollars.

Heritage had used Cambridge Analytica’s services before. From late 2015 through June 2016, the firm provided “statistical models to identify new donors” and developed digital ads for the group, according to documents Heritage filed with New York regulators.”