What Do Conservatives Want?

WE put bits in the horses’ mouths that they may obey us,” observed St. James, “and we turn about their whole body. . . . Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.” For years, the Heritage Foundation has been one of Washington’s leading conservative tongues, turning out fact sheets, analyses, and reports for the edification of the capital’s law-and opinion-makers. In the fall of 1979, Heritage decided to attempt yet a greater thing: a compendium of policy recommendations for the next President. Twenty teams of staff members and outside consultants were marshaled, each team assigned to some branch or activity of the Federal Government.

Eleven months, $100,000, and 250 man-years later, the teams were ready with their conclusions. Ed Meese, then director of Reagan’s transition team, told Edwin J. Feulner Jr., president of Heritage, that the Reagan operation “would be relying heavily on it.” At 3,082 pages, the Heritage document runs twice as long as War and Peace. Tolstoy, of course, was only chronicling the rise and fall of Napoleon. The Heritage Foundation offers an Owner’s Manual for the Federal Government.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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WE put bits in the horses’ mouths that they may obey us,” observed St. James, “and we turn about their whole body. . . . Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.” For years, the Heritage Foundation has been one of Washington’s leading conservative tongues, turning out fact sheets, analyses, and reports for the edification of the capital’s law-and opinion-makers. In the fall of 1979, Heritage decided to attempt yet a greater thing: a compendium of policy recommendations for the next President. Twenty teams of staff members and outside consultants were marshaled, each team assigned to some branch or activity of the Federal Government.

Eleven months, $100,000, and 250 man-years later, the teams were ready with their conclusions. Ed Meese, then director of Reagan’s transition team, told Edwin J. Feulner Jr., president of Heritage, that the Reagan operation “would be relying heavily on it.” At 3,082 pages, the Heritage document runs twice as long as War and Peace. Tolstoy, of course, was only chronicling the rise and fall of Napoleon. The Heritage Foundation offers an Owner’s Manual for the Federal Government.