Sunday, November 5, 2017

DJT and the Heritage Foundation

A year ago this week Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States. Two days after the election, an article in the Washington Examiner began, “The Heritage Foundation might be the biggest winner of 2016.”

Introducing the Heritage Foundation 
The Heritage Foundation (HF), founded in 1973, is a conservative think tank that according to one ranking organization is the third most influential of the nearly 2,000 think tanks in the U.S.
The HF was established largely due to the work of Paul Weyrich (1942-2008) who, incidentally, was also co-founder (with Jerry Falwell) of Moral Majority in 1979—and the one who coined that name.
From the beginning a major funder of the HF was Joseph Coors, Sr., (1917-2003) of the Coors Brewing Company. Coors also was a generous donor to Moral Majority and other Christian Right organizations and movements.
According to their website,
The mission of The Heritage Foundation is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
While it is no longer on their website, I noted in my 2/20/11 blog article that the Heritage Foundation was then making the following appeal for new members (and for funding):
Become a Member: Donate to Heritage – Join Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and more than 710,000 conservatives in fighting liberals and advancing conservative principles as a Heritage Foundation member.
Influence of the Heritage Foundation 
In a May 2017 article in Marketplace, Atlantic staff writer Molly Ball related that soon after Reagan was elected President in 1980, the HF presented him with 2,000 ideas in a 20 volume package. Reagan handed out those ideas to every member of his Cabinet in their first meeting. 
By the end of Reagan’s first year in office, the HF estimated that 60 percent of those ideas had in some way been put into practice by the President.
Through the years the HF has been characterized as a right-wing think tank seeking to abolish civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws, affirmative action, rights for the handicapped, and arms control.
The strongly fiscal conservative stance of the HF was seen in its selection of sitting S.C. Senator Jim DeMint, a leading figure in the Tea Party Movement, as its new president in 2013. He served in that position from 2013 until May of this year.
Influence of the Heritage Foundation on DJT 
Without question the HF has sought to influence DJT as it did Reagan. A statement they released on March 24 announced, “Trump Administration Budget Looks a Lot Like Heritage’s Plan.” 
The HF also seems to have had considerable influence on the tax cut plan long promised by DJT. On Oct. 17 he spoke to the HF and called for them to support his tax reform efforts. That seems to have been a redundant appeal, for many of the reform proposals were the HF’s suggestions to begin with.
The House version of the tax plan released last week—and crafted only by the GOP—will likely be altered in multiple ways before the final vote is taken. And it still may not pass. But as it stands now, it definitely seems to provide “an enormous bonanza for the wealthiest” people in the country. (See “Shameful GOP Tax Plan Taxes Reality,” posted on 11/2.)
Moreover, this tax overhaul plan would also allow churches to endorse political candidates, a position favored by the HF’s DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society.
We citizens of the U.S. who don’t like the way the country is going under DJT need to be aware, and beware, of the Heritage Foundation.

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for reminding your readers of the Heritage Foundation, an organization that is effectively opposed to traditional, Adam Smith capitalism.

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    1. Thanks, Bruce. It was good to hear from you, my only Thinking Friend who lives in Montana.

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  2. Here are brief comments received a few minutes ago from local Thinking Friend Lonnie Buerge:

    "Thanks, Leroy, although this is frightening and gives me a sense of dismay. From your piece, it becomes even clearer that the current administration is not an aberration but just a continuation of a slide that we have been on for awhile. That is even more disappointing since I want to see the DJT administration as abnormal."

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    1. Thanks for sharing your comments, Lonnie. I do think that many aspects of the DJT administration are "abnormal"--but, unfortunately, its fiscal policies seem to be "just a continuation of a slide," as you said.

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  3. Excellent piece, Leroy! And a valuable warning!

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    1. Thanks, Anton! -- And thanks for linking to the article on Facebook!

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  4. They are certainly on one of the poles of the diversity within American politics and American Christendom. Both ends think they have the answer. Neither pole is worth celebrating, but both extremes continue to gather a larger following, and intentionally drive wedges. Lord forgive us all, we know not what we do.

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  5. Thanks, Leroy, for focusing upon the HF (Heritage Foundation). I chortle when I come to foundation's language of Traditional American Values. What would those be: traditional European values? As you know I have been drawing closer to people in the MidAmerican Indian fellowships (Chicamauga Cherokee peoples). I can only say that their values are traditionally American (too), and quite different from European Christian politico-economic values.

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    1. Good point, Milton. I'm sure that for the HF--as well as perhaps for most Americans--"traditional American values" could not be thought of as anything other than the values brought to this continent by the first English (Christian) "pilgrims" who came to this country.

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  6. And here are Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson's comments:

    "I’m fully in agreement with your final statement, Leroy. The Heritage Foundation represents the worst of our national perspectives. Just looking at the names connected with it is enough to cause alarm--Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Jim DeMint, and Donald Trump. Go their route and we will move from democracy to plutocracy and possibly dictatorship."

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Dr. Hinson.

      Yes, the way things are going--as seen in the makeup of DJT's Cabinet and the proposed GOP tax plan--it seems as though the country is moving toward plutocracy.

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  7. This morning I received the follow comments from Thinking Friend Virginia Belk in New Mexico:

    "Amen and Amen to your final statement in this blog!

    "Last spring, I heard about Nancy Isenberg's book, "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America." I read about 75 pages before my summer activities interrupted my perusal. However that bit I read helped me understand why DJT appealed to the electorate which elected him.

    "It appears that the HF is doing all it can to perpetuate the class system under the alias of 'the American People'; I haven't any remedy or plan for combating the injustices, yet but unless we understand why things happen as they do, we cannot possibly figure out a solution to the dilemma."

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Virginia. I always appreciate hearing from you.

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  8. Local Thinking Friend Charlie Broomfield made these comments in an email received yesterday:

    "Thanks for writing about The Heritage Foundation. It is an important subject that any American concerned for the future of our country should be well aware of.

    "Emphasis should be placed on your statement that there some 2000 'Think Tanks' in the United States. In fact a vast majority of these are very conservative and many, if not most, are affiliated with the Religious Right.

    "Unfortunately, liberal Think Tanks are greatly outnumbered by conservative ones."

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  9. Thanks for your comments, Charlie.

    In terms of numbers you may be right, but there don't seem to be many highly influential Religious Right think tanks. On the list of the top 50 think tanks that I referred to in the article, the only one linked to the Right was the Discovery Institute, which was ranked as #33.

    In the top twelve, though, were #4: Human Rights Watch ("liberal"), #7: Brookings Institute ("progressive"), and #12: Center for American Progress ("liberal"/"progressive").

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  10. Earlier today I discovered that a document of which I was totally ignorant is celebrating its 800th anniversary today. My ignorance was not happenstance, but rather the direct result of the widespread action of conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation. This ancient document was long considered equal to, if not even more important than its peer, the Magna Carta. November 6, 1217 the Charter of the Forest was sealed in Saint Paul's, and conservative forces have been against it ever since. It remained a cornerstone of the British Constitution until the Tories repealed it in 1971. This charter was about protecting the environment and the rights of the people to access to the commons.

    To read more, check this link: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/11/youve-never-heard-charter-important-magna-carta.html

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    1. Thanks, Craig, for this interesting information about the Charter of the Forest--which I don't remember ever hearing anything about.

      Although I had preliminary plans to write about the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta on June 15, 2015, I failed to do that. And now I have also failed to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest--but at least you have called it to our attention. -- Thanks!

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