SUBSCRIBER PREMIUM: Heritage Foundation Leader Kevin Roberts' Book is Horrifying
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In this bonus episode, the discussion centers around JD Vance's controversial comments on family values, focusing on his interview with Dana Bash where he criticized childless individuals and politically framed 'anti-family' culture. The episode delves into the broader ideological underpinnings connected to Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation, exploring their critical stance on contraception, IVF, and childlessness. The discussion also connects these views to a historical context, referencing the religious right and exploring the concept of 'common good conservatism.'
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00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:20 JD Vance's Controversial Comments
04:12 The Heritage Foundation and Paul Weyrich
05:34 Kevin Roberts' Book and Its Implications
13:26 Common Good Conservatism and Its Influences
15:47 Conclusion and Subscription Offer
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Welcome to our bonus episode for this week, and I want to do a little bit of story time.
I know some of you out there love this, and I want to talk about, once again, J.D.
Vance and Kevin Roberts.
Yesterday, Sunday, J.D.
Roberts was sitting down with Dana Bash in an interview on CNN, and Bash asked him about his now-infamous comments about childless cat ladies.
And pointed out that Pete Buttigieg has two adopted children with his husband and that Kamala Harris is a stepmother to two children, Doug Eamhoff's children from another marriage, and asked, are they childless, you know, in your mind?
And it was really a moment to call him on what he said.
And he backtracked and said, oh, I would never call that.
And he talked about his own stepmom.
I'm pro-family.
I want us to have more families.
And obviously, sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes for medical reasons, sometimes because you don't meet the right person.
But the point is that our country has become anti-family in its public policy.
Let me just give you an example of this.
So after our second child was born, my wife and I, we have three little kids.
After our second child was born, I think it's important for us to be pro-family.
That's all that I've ever said.
Well, if you want to be pro-family, I want to, because you do criticize, as you just did, the Democratic Party for being anti-family.
You called out Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg in particular.
Kamala Harris has two stepchildren.
Pete Buttigieg and his husband have adopted twins.
Do you recognize them as parents and more broadly as being part of families?
Well, of course I do, Dana.
I mean, you know my life story.
I was actually raised.
I was raised.
Dana, I was raised.
One of the first people that I gave a hug to after my RNC convention speech was my stepmom.
He's been an incredibly important person in my life.
So she's not childless.
My kids call her mammal.
Of course she's not childless.
But you told her that.
The criticism, I certainly did not call my own stepmother childless.
No, no, no.
Kamala Harris.
I criticize Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exists in American leadership that is anti-family.
I never, Dan, I criticize people for not having kids.
I criticize people for being anti-child.
So the question then is, well, why would you say that?
And I think there's two things to point out even before we answer that question.
And the number one is it's...
Incredibly insulting and demeaning to talk about anybody without children for whatever reason, don't even need to go into the reasons, as less than a human being, less than a citizen, less than a family, whatever.
So, Vance did that.
There's no way of getting around it.
And the question is why?
Like, what is behind this?
Because he can't seem to stop talking about it.
On CNN, if you watch the interview, he basically says, well, I think they're anti-family.
And this is like this just perpetual talking point.
And it's not new.
If you've listened to this show, if you've listened to my work, if you've listened to or read the books of many other colleagues and scholars of ours, you know that this idea of family values goes back to the religious right to the 60s and the 70s.
And the idea was is that you basically turn issues that you're against, issues like gay rights and women's freedom and liberation and equal rights under the law and So it's not new, and I think most of you know that.
The question is, why does J.D.
those are anti-family, that somehow women in the workforce or no-fault divorce or ERA amendments are anti-family.
So it's not new, and I think most of you know that.
The question is, why does JD Vance keep at it?
Because he can't seem to stop.
His wife came out with some statements that seem to just make it worse, and so on and so forth.
So, here's one way to follow, I think, the ideas.
I think most of you know by now that J.D.
Vance wrote the foreword for the book by Kevin Roberts.
Kevin Roberts is the leader of the Heritage Foundation.
Now, if you've been following the show here for a couple of weeks, you know, and I've talked about, the Heritage Foundation was founded by Paul Weyrich.
Paul Weyrich is the guy that many of you will see on social media in the very famous clip saying, I don't want everyone to vote.
In fact, when more people vote, we lose.
So as conservatives, we should not want people to vote.
That's Paul Weyrich.
He started the Heritage Foundation along with a couple of other people.
He started ALEC.
He was integral in the beginning of the Council for National Policy.
So if you read my book, if you read Ed Nelson's great book, Shadow Network, you'll see that.
There's a new book out called The Radical Mind by Chelsea Eban.
I'm hoping that I'll be sitting down with Dr. Eben here soon for an interview, but it's a really good portrait of Paul Weyrich.
And one of the things that I think Eben's work does is remind us is that Paul Weyrich was a radical Catholic.
He was a reactionary Catholic.
Now, I'm not going to get bogged down into Weyrich today.
All I want to do though is point out that if you think of the Heritage Foundation, As founded by a reactionary Catholic who rejected Vatican II, then Kevin Roberts, the current leader, who is also a reactionary Catholic, makes a lot of sense.
This is what the Heritage Foundation was founded as.
It's the worldview that shaped it.
And so, just keep that in mind here.
Now, Roberts writes this book, and it's now delayed.
They're not putting it out because it's been deemed so toxic to the Trump campaign.
But nonetheless, J.D.
Vance wrote the foreword, and Media Matters and other outlets have galley copies of the book.
So they might be pulling the book from the shelves, but some of the advanced copies have made it out there.
So what we find in the book, according to Media Matters, who has the copy and who is reporting on this, looking at an article by Madeleine Peltz and with contributions from Justin Horowitz, what Peltz and Horowitz report is in the book is this.
In the copy reviewed by Media Matters, Roberts, who is the architect of Heritage-led Project 2025, just remember that, everybody.
Heritage Foundation is where we got Project 2025, rails against birth control, in vitro fertilization, and abortion.
He says that having children should not be considered, quote, an optional individual choice, but a social expectation or a transcendent gift.
So Roberts is saying something that Vance won't, because it would be way too explosive.
He's saying, having children should be an expectation, and it should not be an individual choice.
I want everyone just to put a pin in that idea, that individual choice is not what matters.
I'm going to come back to it in a minute.
Having children should be a social expectation.
He says that contraceptive technologies are revolutionary inventions that shape American culture away from abundance, marriage, and family.
He says they are a snake strangling the American family.
Okay.
I want to put a pin in two things.
One, individual choice.
That's, I'm going to write that on the board.
So if we're in class, I'd be writing this on the board.
Individual choice and abundance.
Okay.
Just stick with me here, right?
Individual choice and abundance.
Now, one of the things that Roberts sees is a direct line from contraception and having children as a basic individual choice to a change in culture.
And here's a quote, if you change a culture on a profound level, you can break the most basic functioning elements of civilization.
In the case of contraceptives, we are a society remade according to a research agenda set by the Party of Destruction.
So you can see what the argument is.
Contraception has changed the ways that people have sexual lives, the ways that they think about getting pregnant, the ways that they think about family.
All of that is different.
I agree.
A lot of books written about this.
A lot of books written about the ways that contraception has changed people's sex lives, people's family lives, just work lives.
I mean, in terms of people who can get pregnant, contraception is a big deal.
But Roberts makes a link here between the changes contraception has wrought and breaking the most basic functioning elements of civilization.
This is why he attacks IVF.
Page 64.
Once you understand this pattern of individual choice masking cultural upheaval, you'll see it everywhere.
IVF seems to assist fertility but has the added effect of incentivizing women to delay trying to start a family.
So IVF is a problem, because not only is it, in his mind, an abortive technology, if the embryos aren't used, etc., or don't become fetuses, but it is part of this whole changing the most basic functioning elements of civilization.
Okay?
Now, he also rails against childlessness.
Page 47.
A childless society becomes decadent and nostalgic.
Aging, barren societies literally become consumptive, taking on higher levels of debt and depleting savings.
They become less and less capable of innovation.
Getting married and having kids, on the other hand, gives you skin in the game for the future of your country.
Now, think about what J.D.
Vance said about people who have children getting more of a vote.
That's exactly what Roberts is saying here.
Getting married and having kids gives you skin in the game, forces you to grow up, give up childish things.
I'm quoting here.
It grounds you, gives you a sense of purpose in life, and helps generate community, gratitude, and joy.
They're basically saying that people should be expected to have children, which means they should be expected, it seems, to have heterosexual relationships, and there's a heteronormative approach here.
And that without children, You are not somebody who has skin in the game in terms of the future of your country, your community, or anything else.
This is why Vance, the guy who wrote the foreword to this book that I'm quoting, talks all about people who have children getting more of a vote in the United States, okay?
And here comes the kicker, page 69.
It's about a dog park.
Believe it or not.
He talks about a dog park in Washington, D.C., and he says there's too much room for dogs to play and not enough for the children.
Okay.
And he blames this on the anti-family culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government.
There it is.
Anti-family.
Kamala Harris.
Antifamily.
Despite the fact that she's married and has two stepchildren.
Pete Buttigieg.
Antifamily.
Despite the fact that he's married and has two children.
Tim Walz.
Somehow.
Antifamily.
Despite the fact that he has two children.
Conceived, by the way, by way of IVF.
Anti-family means that you don't share this worldview that Roberts has.
That's the code.
The code here, anti-family, there's no way to get through that unless you're willing to accept that being pro-family means pro-heterosexual couples expected to have children above and beyond their personal choice.
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