What Is the Future for Conservative Ideas?
Dan Drezner writes about what the shake-up at the Heritage Foundation means for the future of conservatism, via his Washington Post column.
Earlier this week, Kay Coles James stepped down as president of the Heritage Foundation, along with Executive Vice President Kim Holmes. James was appointed in 2017 to repair the carnage wreaked by Jim DeMint when he was Heritage’s president. While Heritage under DeMint wielded more political influence, the caliber of ideas took a beating.
Assessing how well James did at this job reveals some interesting fissures within the conservative movement after four years of Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal editorial board thanked James and Holmes for “right[ing] the ship when it was foundering.” RealClearPolitics’s Philip Wegmann used the exact same metaphor in characterizing James as having “stepped in to help steady the ship.”