Ed Feulner was there at the beginning of the modern conservative movement, and if the passing of so many of our old comrades in arms has made me 001, Ed certainly qualified to be 002. Few people received more mentions in my book TAKEOVER, than did Ed Feulner, and few contributed more to the rise and successes of the conservative movement than Ed did.
Back in 1975, we of what reporter John Filka then called the “New Right” believed that having a plan and coordinating our efforts on the conservative agenda was the only way to achieve success. We soon formalized a breakfast meeting every Wednesday from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. To the extent that Hillary Clinton’s vast right-wing conspiracy ever existed, it met at my home in McLean from 1975 until 1984.
Among the indispensable regulars at the breakfast were Ed Feulner of the Heritage Foundation, Terry Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute, Ron Godwin of the Moral Majority, and Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus.
Ed Feulner’s motto was “onward, always,” and that spirit was in large measure what defined the “New Right.”
What made the New Right different from the Old Right was not ideology; what distinguished the New Right from the Old Right was that we were operationally different. The Old Right had become defeatist; they were used to showing up and getting beat two to one and then retiring from the fight until the next vote.
However, in the same situation, those in the New Right would cinch up their belts, organize, call meetings, develop plans, and send out a couple million letters explaining why the way to win the next battle was to defeat those who voted wrong—be they Democrats or Republicans—and keep pushing forward toward our goal of having conservatives govern America.
And few contributed more to achieving that goal of having conservatives govern America than did Ed Feulner.
Several years before we began meeting Ed had recognized the need for an organization devoted to crafting conservative policy recommendations that was independent of the Republican Party and the Republican congressional leadership and, with the help of a small group of conservative thinkers and donors, the Heritage Foundation was born.
Feulner’s aim in founding Heritage in 1973, alongside fellow builders Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors, was, as Illya Shapiro so deftly put it, to create an organization capable of advancing bold policies across all three legs of the Cold War–era conservative stool: free-market economics, cultural traditionalism, and anti-Communist foreign policy.
Ed Feulner’s crucial contribution to the New Right and the modern conservative movement was his insight that we conservatives needed to sell our ideas by publishing policy papers before legislative or executive action, rather than afterward.
And to do that we needed a permanent institution in Washington where conservative scholars and researchers could work to craft real world recommendations to conservatives in government.
The first real test of Ed’s idea was the Heritage Foundation’s 1980 Mandate for Leadership, a thick book of policy prescriptions and legislative recommendations that became a blueprint for Ronald Reagan’s first term agenda.
The idea was so successful the Heritage Foundation has continued to issue similar recommendations in presidential election years ever since.
Thanks to Ed Feulner the idea that conservatives should have institutions to educate, activate, and energize voters that weren’t mere appendages of the national Republican Party or the Washington political establishment has spread far beyond DC. Thanks to Ed Feulner and the success of the Heritage Foundation similar conservative institutions have been founded in many state capitols, all in some degree modeled on Ed Feulner’s idea for the Heritage Foundation.
In addition to our mutual commitment to preserve constitutional liberty under God’s laws, Ed Feulner and I shared a devout Catholic faith, and it is through that faith in God’s omnipotence and mercy I believe my dear friend Ed Feulner walked in God’s grace and so, at the end of his journey, has come to eternal life.
O MOST powerful and glorious Lord God, the Lord of hosts, that rulest and commandest all things; Thou sittest in the throne judging right, and therefore we make our address to thy Divine Majesty in this our necessity, that thou wouldest take the cause into thine own hand, and judge between us and our enemies. Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come and help us; for thou givest not always the battle to the strong, but canst save by many or by few. O let not our sins now cry against us for vengeance; but hear us thy poor servants begging mercy, and imploring thy help, and that thou wouldest be a defence unto us against the face of the enemy. Be thou our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, and be thou the Saviour and Deliverer of our departed friend, and your tireless servant-warrior, Edwin Feulner, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.*
*Inspired by the Campaign Prayer Book (1892)
- Ed Feulner
- Heritage Foundation
- Conservative Movement
- Morton Blackwell
- New Right
- Conservative agenda
- Grassroots organization
- Republican party
- Paul Weyrich
- policy papers
- Ronald Reagan presidency
- Onward Always
