[StBernard] Heritage Is Fighting Back

[Westley Annis]

I recently read a heartfelt letter that's been featured on many Internet
forums and circulated via email. It is signed "Alisa Wilson, Ph.D., Beverly
Hills, Calif." She was responding to a Wall Street Journal op-ed from last
year headed "Where's the outrage?" I'm sure her sentiments would resonate
with millions of Americans right about now. She begins, "I can tell you
where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged,
well-educated, upper-middle- class woman." In nearly 900 words she describes
the reason for her outrage: 

*	"I am outraged that my country, the United States of America, is in
a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore,
just what's fair. Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and
borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the
government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure?

*	"I am outraged that the country that welcomed my mother as an
immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family
learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and,
worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.


*	"As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the
environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put
a bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to
establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco."

As I said, I'm sure millions of Americans share Ms. Wilson's feelings about
such things. I constantly hear much of the same from Heritage members as I
travel around the country. But here is the part of her letter I want to
underscore: 

	"The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The
outrage is here, but no one is listening, for who am I? I am not a
billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement. I
am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of
the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like
Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.
The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how
to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change..So, America,
although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged,
well-educated, upper-middle-class woman is powerless to do anything about
it."

The key word is powerless. Many Americans are outraged by what is happening
in and to their country, but they feel powerless to do anything about it.
That's a self-defeating combination: Where outrage motivates, powerlessness
enervates. Where outrage energizes us to fight, powerlessness tells us to
give up.

But we're seeing many signs that this sense of powerlessness is ebbing. And
as it does, people are fighting back. Over the past few months we've seen
hundreds of thousands of ordinary working Americans, people not given to
political activism, standing up and speaking out. 

The spark that touched off this continuing blaze of action was probably Rick
Santelli's now famous rant in February on the trading floor of the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange. His televised tirade resonated with working Americans,
because he spoke what was in their hearts and minds: "The government is
promoting bad behavior."

That moral and political theme continues to be amplified by spontaneous Tea
Party protests nationwide. On tax day, April 15, at least a million
Americans gathered at approximately 3,000 Tea Parties across America to
protest the tax-and-spend agenda enacted by Washington liberals. More Tea
Parties have been popping up since then, and Internet blogs are crackling
with plans for more protests on July 4.

Another sign of a conservative reawakening in America is the amazing and
unexpected success of Mark Levin's book Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative
Manifesto. Published in March, it is already in its 18th printing, with a
million copies in print. More than 1,000 readers have posted reviews on
Amazon.com, with an average rating of 4.5 stars. The book's publishers got
it right in this press release: "Mark Levin's message has obviously struck a
chord beyond his substantial fan base. He is now reaching an even wider
audience of citizens across the political spectrum."

Reaching ever wider audiences is one of the central goals of Heritage's
10-year Leadership for American campaign, launched in 2007. We're making
steady progress toward that goal.

One measure of our success is Heritage membership. With the exception of two
years in the mid-1990s, our membership has remained in the 200,000s for the
past 20 years. Since the launch of our Leadership for America campaign,
we've increased our membership by about 60 percent, passing the 450,000 mark
in May. Our 10-year goal is 1 million members. Our May President's Club
meeting here in Washington attracted 1,000 members; 400 were with us for the
first time, which is a new record. And 250 were Young President's Club
members, all under age 40.

We're also making huge gains in mass media. From January through April,
Heritage experts made 369 TV appearances, an increase of 184 percent over
the same period last year. They also made 562 radio appearances, an increase
of 121 percent. Heritage Web sites received 3.4 million visitors during this
period, a 78 percent increase. And our "Morning Bell" email subscriptions
have grown 129 percent since January.

As we continue to expand our reach, more and more Americans recognize our
name and view us favorably. In 2007, our tracking surveys found that only 32
percent of Americans had ever heard of The Heritage Foundation. Today, 53
percent know who we are, and the number who view us favorably has more than
doubled in the past six months. 

This is important because the Heritage name, more than that of any other
organization in America, has become synonymous with conservatism. Most
liberals have abandoned their label, and begun calling themselves
"progressives." Conservatives aren't doing that. We are proud to be
conservatives, and we are confident that our ideas deserve wider currency.



Ideas are the key. We must change the climate of ideas in America. For now,
liberals hold political power and are making political gains. But they are
powerless to turn collectivist schemes into successful policies. 



Ideas are the key. We must change the climate of ideas in America. For now,
liberals hold political power and are making political gains. But they are
powerless to turn collectivist schemes into successful policies. For
evidence, look no further than California, a testing ground for liberal
ideas. 

George Will recently summarized the results. Over the past four years,
despite the influx of illegal immigrants, the state's net population dropped
by 1.4 million. California's business costs are 20 percent higher than in
other states. Income and sales taxes are among the highest in America, and
unemployment is above 11 percent and rising. "California," Will notes, "has
become liberalism's laboratory, in which the case for fiscal conservatism is
being confirmed." Yes, and it is also confirming Margaret Thatcher's
observation that the facts of life are conservative.

Californians leaving their state are motivated by the same impulse that is
prompting Tea Party Patriots to speak out across the country: They believe
in personal responsibility and limited government. They do not want to live
under a nanny state that holds them responsible for other people's welfare.

As liberals advance their agenda in Washington and its costs mount up, more
and more ordinary Americans are becoming outraged. Our message to them and
to Anita Wilson is simply this: You are not powerless. You have a voice in
The Heritage Foundation a voice that you can trust to remain on principle
and on message. 

Thank you for all you do to keep Heritage growing and spreading the
conservative message to ever larger audiences. We appreciate your generosity
and your loyalty more than you can know. Together, we're making a
difference. Stay the course.

Sincerely,

 Ed Feulner
Signature<http://members.myheritage.org/images/content/pagebuilder/10453.gif

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Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President