The Heritage Foundation’s Odd Shift Left

For those of you unfamiliar with the eclectic world of D.C. think-tankery, the Heritage Foundation has long been the undisputed king of conservative doctrine. Think tanks are policy-research hubs, housing scholars and analysts and former Hill staffers, that formulate new ideas for government officials. Though they often claim apolitical stripes, these guilds of high nerdery are typically aligned with political factions, whether it is the American Enterprise Institute powering conservative thought or the Center for American Progress introducing the latest terrible new idea from the progressive Left.

For decades, Heritage has been a titan in the field. Its most potent claim to fame is its defense chops. National-security strength is a centerpiece of the conservative case for America. We’re good at it, and voters acknowledge that reality. Of the past eight presidential elections, the only time a Republican has won the popular vote was in 2004. That was a national-security election, with the 9/11 attacks, terrorism, and a war in Iraq (that would soon turn south) at the top of voters’ minds. Over the course of multiple conservative presidencies, Heritage lorded over this realm, jealous in its defense of the crown jewels of the Republican platform.

That was then. Today, the organization sounds like Bay Area Democrats:

Community note aside, this has long been the rallying call of the Left. Take money from defense and pump it into domestic spending. There is a profound policy error here as well, in that most of our aid to Ukraine is what D.C. dweebs call “drawdown authority.” It’s a “color of money” term that means, in English, the overseas transfer of existing bombs, bullets, missiles, and tanks that are otherwise collecting dust on the shelves of American armories. In short, unloading old kit that was purchased years ago.

Heritage will take this sentiment a step further with a paid ad ahead of tonight’s debate on the Ruthless Podcast. (Aside: This is an entertaining gem of a program that you should subscribe to posthaste.) The short commercial is something of a non-sequitur, comparing an apple (the mundane transfer of old military equipment to Ukraine) to an orange (the government’s disastrous response to the Maui fires).

But beyond that logical pretzel, it is a profound example of acting against your own stated interest. A defeated Russian army enables the American military pivot to China that Heritage seeks. That is an impossible outcome if we have an empowered Russian army, fresh off a vanquish of Ukraine, squatting along a newly drawn border with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. That’s a recipe for a greater, not smaller, U.S. military presence in Europe.

There is an unusual political dimension here as well. The target of Heritage’s ad is conservative presidential candidates. Or, at minimum, voters who would influence those conservative candidates. But almost everyone on the stage tonight is on the record supporting aid to Ukraine. There is a small exception in VivekGPT, the candidate who sounds like he outsourced his policy shop to an AI algorithm, but the rest of the lot are more or less in agreement.

Ukraine is seen as Biden’s war. That makes it tough for some conservatives to swallow. Understandable. But no matter the color of your political jersey, Russia’s defeat is in America’s interest. Putin is in a de facto alliance with China, and as such, a defeat for Moscow is a defeat for Beijing. We’re bleeding Putin’s army white with some off-the-shelf equipment and without putting a single American soldier in harm’s way. If you’d said that was a possibility during the Cold War, you’d have needed to get your head examined.

Tonight, you may see an ad that acts in opposition to that outcome, that amplifies all the bad impulses of the progressive Left, that works against its own stated institutional interests, and that seeks to influence candidates on a topic where those candidates have already spoken.

It’s a bizarre fight to pick when there are so many other pressing challenges before us, such as illegal immigration, fentanyl, crime, education, and inflation. To borrow from Heritage’s own ad, a penny spent arguing against a policy that enjoys broad, bipartisan support in the presidential field and the American public is a penny unspent on those higher priorities, where conservatives have a natural advantage over the Left. It is, in short, giving President Biden a pass by fighting on his turf, rather than hitting him on the border and inflation, where he’s weak.

Heritage still boasts some wonderful scholars in the national-security space, so the strange decisions of the brass over there should not overshadow the good work that is being done in the trenches. Nonetheless, it has been a strange twist of fate to see this once mighty pillar of conservative dogma talking like the comments section of the Huffington Post.