The conservative Heritage Foundation has long been building an army of young economists, politicos, and staffers inside the concrete walls of its sprawling Capitol Hill campus. Now, they have a new barracks for that legion.
Heritage President Kay Coles James helped a cluster of donors cut the ribbon on the brand new, nearly $15-million-dollar E.W. Richardson Building on a rainy Wednesday morning. Five dozen students will charge through its doors with their parents, their suitcases, and all their collegiate swag this Saturday as part of an initiation into the crack corps of students who make it into the country’s premiere conservative internship.
Before they arrive, Heritage lived it up during an opulent opening ceremony complete with a military color guard, wine and espresso bars, and remarks by the junior senator from Texas.
“This new building will house interns,” Sen. Ted Cruz told a crowd of donors, dignitaries, and at least one WWII veteran all packed together into the Foundation’s seventh floor auditorium. “It will train young men and young women — just starting their careers, coming to Washington — how to fight effectively for freedom, to learn how to win.”
Heritage has never gotten tired of winning and it prides itself on “building for the next generation.” That means building a right-leaning beltway elite.
Heritage recruits hundreds of interns to learn conservative orthodoxy — “freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society” — while working summers in Washington, D.C. They have trained 4,000 so far since they started in 1999, an impressive bunch that includes the likes of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Rich Lowry of National Review, and this reporter (since my summer internship, the application and screening process has become a lot more rigorous).
It’s no vacation. Interns sometimes endure a grueling 50-60 hour work week. They help Heritage Action lobby Congress. They research public policy alongside foundation scholars. They whip the country into a conservative frenzy with a full-stack media team. The newest building, explained Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James, is part of that effort. “The building itself,” she said during prepared remarks, “is a key weapon in the arsenal we’ve assembled.”
The apartments, which sleep two to three tired interns at a time, can best be described as a cross between a dormitory and a Hyatt. The accommodations are luxurious and, at $800 a month, the rent is a steal in D.C. Units come with a full kitchen, with at least one flat screen television, with air conditioning, with tiled bathrooms, and with walk-in closets. They are fully furnished. Interns need only bring their own bed sheets; Heritage promises to take care of the rest.
More than luxury, there is built-in ideology. The building is named for the late E.W. Richardson, a bomber pilot whose B-24 liberator was shot down over Europe in February 1945 and who watched the rest of World War II from behind barbed wire in a German POW camp. He became a car dealer after the war as well as the owner of television station, a cattle rancher, and finally a Heritage donor. His likeness is everywhere. A replica bomber wing hangs on the wall, his medals are displayed prominently in the atrium, and the message is simple: Match his warrior ethos to fight for a conservative America.
Pursuing that mission, Heritage has become a juggernaut. The complex takes up the better part of a city block, a three building juggernaut on Mass. Ave. just within sight of Congress.
“It’s true that you can look out our windows and see that capitol,” James told the crowd. “But I prefer to think of it the other way around. Our elected officials know we are watching them closely because they look out of their windows, and they see Heritage.”
They see the same building — the expansion is part of a years-long plan. But they don’t see the same Heritage — the staff has changed radically in the last year. Former President Jim DeMint was ousted after an ugly knife fight with the board of directors last May. CEO of Heritage Action Michael Needham packed up for the offices of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., this April. Some whisper that Heritage is not the same crusading force for conservative good it was during the Obama administration.
On the job five months now, James exudes nothing but confidence. “We are bigger. We are stronger,” she declared. “We are more determined than ever to win this battle to save this nation that Abraham Lincoln correctly called the last best hope of Earth.”
Win or lose that fight, they certainly have the best dorms.
