Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts Criticizes RINOs Karl Rove and George Will
Jose Nino
|
In a Twitter thread that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted on December 1, 2022, the new Heritage president criticized conservative pundits Karl Rove and George Will.
Roberts described Rove and Will as “elitists” and declared that it is “comical” for them to “lecture conservatives” owing to how they are “out of touch with reality” and “living in a bygone era.” Roberts’ comments referred to a discussion about conservatism’s future that featured Will and Rove at the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Presidential Library.
Roberts proclaimed that Will and Rove “didn’t understand conservatism” prior to the LBJ Library event, because “they have no idea what is motivating working-class conservatives,” and he attacked their views on foreign policy and mass migration.
Roberts then criticized “these pundits still clamoring for ideas espoused by John McCain & Ted Kennedy,” stating that “gay marriage, open borders, and Bush’s foreign policy” are the “opposite” of conservatism’s future.
He also took issue with Rove’s “complaints about a certain ‘element’” of the conservative movement that Roberts believes Rove despises in the same way that Democratic Party elites look down on working class voters. Roberts is of the view that “the elite political class” is “out of touch … with everyday Americans,” noting that “the chattering class thinks the peasants need to pipe down.”
Back in October 2021, the Heritage Foundation tapped Roberts as its president.
Traditionally a hawkish think tank, Roberts put Heritage on the map a few months ago by opposing the reckless spending Congress was promoting through its lavish aid packages to Ukraine. In previous decades, Heritage could be counted on to be an enthusiastic booster of hawkish foreign policy moves. However, it now seems that the populist realignment has made a major impact on Heritage’s foreign policy outlook.
As the American nationalist Right continues gaining traction, legacy institutions in the conservative movement will be compelled to change lest they want to be rendered irrelevant.
Share: