Back in the early 1990s I had the privilege of being chosen to be a Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. It didn't help my academic career, of course, but I was proud of it anyway.
But in recent years, either I've changed or Heritage has. They've taken a lot of positions that strike me as inconsistent with the sort of conservatism I learned from reading Russell Kirk and more consistent with a sort of nationalist populism:
- Going all in on an uncritical, unthinking embrace of the worst excesses of Trumpism.
- Supporting Trump's bogus election fraud claims.
- Increasingly nativist positions on immigration.
- Replacing thoughtful analysis with partisan bias.
- Climate change denial.\
And now this:
The Heritage Foundation has filed a lawsuit against President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers, claiming it is a "gross abuse" of government power and a violation of personal liberty, the conservative think tank announced Monday. ...
The lawsuit says the mandate also "exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause," and would "impermissibly" compel citizens "to act as the Government would have them act."
I'm as opposed to letting the government mandate that we all eat our broccoli as the next guy, but we're talking about a virus that has caused a global pandemic that has cost over 777,000 deaths in the USA alone. Plus, as Omicron demonstrates, allowing people to remain unvaccinated creates opportunities for the virus to evolve. The situation is different in kind and not just in degree.
Plus, one cannot help but wonder how far Heritage would press the point. Would it now oppose mandatory Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis shots for K-12 kids? How about Polio? How about Measles, Mumps, and Rubella? Would it have opposed mandatory smallpox vaccinations? How about quarantining TB patients?
The Black Death killed up to 200 million people. Would Heritage have opposed using a vaccine mandate to stop it?
The Heritage Foundation I was proud to be affiliated with would not have put MAGA politics ahead of the public good. But apparently this new era Heritage is fine with doing so.
