The Daily Signal - Kevin Roberts Explains His Top Priorities as Heritage Foundation’s Next President

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

The Heritage Foundation announced Thursday that Kevin Roberts will serve as the organization’s next president.  Roberts says he is eager to advance the conservative movement and address some of the most pressing issues facing our nation today.  "The top three [critical issues that we are facing right now] are education, education and education,” Roberts says, adding that conservatives will miss an “opportunity of a lifetime” if we cannot come together and address what is “broken about the education system.”   The immigration crisis at America’s southern border and the “administrative state, the power of the executive branch to do the legislating rather than the legislative branch [doing it]” are also critical issues Roberts says he looks forward to working to fix.  Roberts is coming to the Washington, D.C. based think tank after serving as president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) He joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss his vision for the future of The Heritage Foundation and the conservative movement.  We also cover these stories: YouTube temporarily suspends Steven Crowder, host of the "Louder With Crowder" podcast, for “hate speech.”  The Supreme Court changes the way it handles asking questions during oral arguments.  Benjamin Franklin Day Elementary in Seattle, Washington, cancels its Halloween Pumpkin Parade because school officials say it “marginalizes students of color who do not celebrate the holiday.”  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, October 15th. I'm Doug Blair. And I'm Virginia Allen. The Heritage Foundation announced Thursday that Dr. Kevin Roberts will serve as the think tank's next president. Roberts is coming to the Heritage Foundation after serving as the president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation for five years. Previous to that, he served as president of Wyoming Catholic College from 2013 to 2016. He joins the Daily Signal podcast to discuss the most critical issues facing the conservative movement today and his vision for the Heritage Foundation moving forward. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe.

And now on to today's top news. YouTube has temporarily suspended a conservative talk show host from its platform for what YouTube says is hate speech directed towards the transgender community. Stephen Crowder is host of the Louder with Crowder podcast. On Wednesday, Crowder's lawyers received an email from YouTube saying the podcast host was banned from uploading videos to the platform for one week. The reason for the ban? YouTube said Crowder's September 30th show contains a segment that targets the transgender

community in an offensive manner. For example, by indicating that trans people pose a rape threat to women. But Crowder's team says they don't see how anything on the September 30th show could qualify as hate speech. During the episode, Crowder discussed a specific news article that says female prisoners are becoming pregnant by biological men who identify as women. Under California law, male prisoners who identify as female can be transferred to female prisons and placed in selves with women. Crowder talked about the issue during the September 30th show, YouTube has now removed. Crowder responded to the situation on Twitter, writing a hard strike from YouTube, and wow, this is terrifying. We covered specific documented instances of rape at YouTube.

says not allowed. All parents should take note, if you believe in the insane notion of biological sex, you will be silenced. On Thursday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from Rhode Island, criticized comments made last month by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito at Notre Dame Law School, where Alito argued that the court was being unfairly maligned by the media as being too partisan. In an op-ed published by Salon, the senator argued that the criticism was valid and that the court had brought the media scorn on itself. In the piece, White House wrote, Understand that you have felled your nest, not us.

The Supreme Court must now at least match every other political institution with a renaissance of transparency. Democracy demands it. And the court that dark money built has squandered the benefit of the doubt. Generally, the Supreme Court enjoys high approval readings from the American public. However, after a series of high profile and content, controversial rulings, including the termination of federal eviction moratoria and the continuation of Texas's pro-life bill, approval sharply dropped as marked by Gallup. White House's comments

come as the Supreme Court Commission set up by President Biden is set to release a draft report outlining their findings, per the Washington Post. The Supreme Court has changed the way it handles asking their questions during oral arguments. Now, after each lawyer has given their oral arguments, each justice is given the opportunity to ask any questions they wish in order of seniority. Justice Clarence Thomas appears to have taken a liking to the new Q&A structure. He was known for rarely asking questions but has become an active questioner this term with the new format. Justice Sotomayor says the change was instituted in part because female justices were being interrupted during their questioning.

Maure spoke Wednesday at the New York University School of Law and said studies conducted of the High Court showed that female justices were interrupted more than male justices. She said she had noticed the pattern and responded by interrupting back, which she noted was not ideal. The system appears to be working because justices have not cut one another off since the new questioning format was implemented. Students at Benjamin Franklin Day Elementary in Seattle, Washington will have a different kind of Halloween this year after the school's annual Halloween Pumpkin Parade was canceled because, according to a school official, it marginalizes students of color who do not

celebrate the holiday. In a statement to local radio network KTTH, an unnamed Seattle Public School spokeswoman said, Historically, the Pumpkin Parade marginalizes students of color who do not. not celebrate the holiday. Specifically, these students have requested to be isolated on campus while the event took place. In alliance with SPS's unwavering commitment to students of color, specifically African-American males, the staff is committed to supplanting the pumpkin parade with more inclusive and educational opportunities during the school day. Additionally, a letter from the school asked parents to avoid sending their children to class in costumes, claiming

costume parties often become an uncomfortable event for many children. In an interview with KTTH's Jason Rantz, local parent David Malkin claimed that Benjamin Franklin Day Elementary's racial equity team that made the decision declined to consult parents on their thoughts. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Dr. Kevin Roberts, President-elect of the Heritage Foundation. Are you interested in becoming a journalist and learning how to report the news in Washington, D.C.? If so, consider applying for the Daily Signal internship. The application deadline for the spring program is today, October 15th. So be sure to get your applications in quickly. During the course of the internship, you will have the opportunity to not only hone your skills as a writer,

but also learn about America's first principles as a member of the Heritage Foundation's Young Leaders Program. You will have the chance to explore some of the biggest policy. issues facing America today while building lifelong friendships with fellow heritage interns. If you want to apply, visit heritage.org. Click on About Heritage at the top of the page and then click Careers. There you will find the link to the Young Leaders Program with the application. And again, that deadline is today. So be sure to apply now.

It is my distinct honor to welcome to the Daily Signal podcast for the first time, hopefully first of many, Dr. Kevin Roberts, the newly announced president of the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Roberts, thank you for being here. Thank you so much. And, you know, this is an opportunity for me to ask you to call me, Kevin. Thank you so much. You know, we are at such a critical moment right now within the conservative movement for America. What do you think the direction of the conservative movement is right now?

Where do we need to have our focus? Where should we be headed? Look, I understand why people are worried about the movement and worried about the country. As a historian, I guess, having that long perspective, I'm less worried about the future of the movement. And what I mean by that is not to sound dismissive of people's concerns is that the movement every couple of generations goes through sort of a rebirth. And this is healthy. And in fact, this is not something that happens on the left. And I don't mean to speak disparagingly of friends who are left of center.

But just in terms of it as a movement of intellectual history of ideology, the left just eats itself. That's happening right now. The right doesn't do that. And the reason is because we're always tethered, we're always moored to the eternal principles. That's often where the pain points are. You know, what is freedom? What's the government's role in how some people are defining freedom? I think the future conservative movement to get to the heart of your question is that it is a movement that's going to be a big tent in the best sense of that word.

and the role that heritage can play uniquely as it always has is to be a fusionist force in that. So not just sort of putting our hands up in the air and saying we can define conservative to be whatever it is, but we're actually going to chart a path in terms of intellectual heft as well as policy solutions. And I am really excited about helping to lead that effort. Well, we are honored to have you here. Now, when it comes to issues, what do you think are some of the most critical issues that we are facing right now and especially as we look towards the next year in America. The top three are education, education and education.

And what I mean by that is if the experiences we've all had as Americans over-aught COVID shutdowns, over the indoctrination of our kids, whether it be through critical race theory or teaching transgenderism to kindergartners, has not shown that there is something terribly broken about the education system, then we're missing the opportunity of a lifetime. And I mean that literally. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for people on the center right to show other Americans who are only paying attention to the problem and haven't really thought about the solutions, that the way to fix this is to empower parents. And then parents can decide how they're going to use that new power, where they're going to educate their kids. But to move off of my joke about the top three issues all being education, I would say, and this will not be a surprise given my time in Texas.

The border crisis is not just a crisis in our immigration system, which heritage has always led in thinking about how to fix. But it is a crisis of American rule of law because literally every state and almost literally every American county has been affected by this, by the number of illegal aliens who've been transported around the country. And even beyond that, because I care about those human persons, even though they're here illegally, as a society, we're talking about, undermining rule of law in every policy area, which leads me to the third issue, which, and this is a huge problem long running, that President Trump was just beginning to get his hands on, praise God, and that is the deep state. You know, the administrative state, the power of the executive branch to do the legislating rather than the legislative branch doing the legislating is a

huge issue, and I look forward to helping get it fixed. All right, well, let's talk a little bit more about education because, as you say, that's so, so critical. And I know it's an issue. that is personal to you. You started your career in the field of education. You were a college professor. You headed a private school. You were president of Wyoming Catholic College. One of the biggest issues within education right now, one of the biggest debates, is critical race theory. Explain a little bit of your thoughts on critical race theory. Sure. I've taught every level of education from pre-K to graduate students. And I say that because it's important to know, that I understand when parents hear the phrase critical race theory and what they think it is

is something innocuous, maybe even something good. And so someone listening to this conversation, if they believe that critical race theory ought to be taught, I can almost guarantee you it's because they believe that critical race theory is the well-intentioned desire to teach the ugly chapters of American history. When I was a historian, a professor, my expertise was known in African-American history and slavery and the slave trade. And so I've done a lot of research in this. And I know that a lot of people are well-intentioned when they want to teach those ugly chapters. We ought to. The problem is that's not what critical race theory is. Critical race theory, any critical theory defines us by just immutable characteristics,

our skin color, et cetera. And the fact that this is being taught in curricula in almost every school district in this country is one of the five most egregious things that's ever happened in education period. And I just want people who are motivated by this that if they're going in and talking to their school board members and the school board members are saying, we don't teach that in this school district. I'm not going to suggest the school board member is being dishonest. They may not know, but I would bet you a dollar it's happening. And if we don't get that fixed, then we are going to lose one of the most beautiful achievements in all of human history. which is actually implementing an American law the beautiful words of Martin Luther King in 1963, that all of us should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin.

Thank you so much. Now, one of the other issues that is facing conservatives, that conservatives are really navigating through is the issue of big tech. The Heritage Foundation does not receive donations from any large tech companies. Will that continue under your leadership? Absolutely. It is a closed door. And just to put a little color on that, if you don't mind, I will be very blunt.

A couple of big tech companies have tried to buy off the organization that I've been leading, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. They've been trying to buy me off, and they've never had access to us. And they never will of me or of the Heritage Foundation under my leadership. Excellent. Thank you. Now, as you mentioned, you are coming to us from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where you have served as president for five years.

And at a moment when many conservatives are fleeing to Texas, you decided, no, I'm going to come to D.C. Why? Well, we were not looking to leave Texas. Texas is our adopted home state. When we moved to Texas from Wyoming several years ago, we thought that would be the last move. Clearly, the Holy Spirit had other plans. And I think what Providence is trying to show all of us

is that the feelings we have about this country being at a crossroads are real. And they're long running. They're not just about the current presidential administration. But I think for us as a family, even though we would frankly love to stay in Texas, we knew that we were called to do something big for this country. And obviously, it's a big deal to be associated with heritage, to be leading heritage. my wife and kids are willing to move from this great state up to the area of the swamp in order to make sure that we play the tiny role we're going to play in saving this country.

It's worth it. And then I'll also say we look forward to participating in turning Virginia red again. Well, and I know you homeschool your kids, you're moving your family up here with you. As you say, why did you and your wife make that decision that you wanted to homeschool your four children? We never thought we would. As you mentioned, I started the school, John Paul the Great Academy in Louisiana, and our oldest three kids attended a few years there before we moved to Wyoming. And we started homeschooling in Wyoming because there was a dearth of options. And so we did it the first year and it went fine.

And then we did it the second year and it went even more fine. And then by the third year, it was part of our family life cycle. And so for me, living now in Texas, obviously that will soon change. When I come up to D.C., which I do a few times a month, often our high high school, school-age son will come with me for a couple days because he can do his classes while I'm conducting business meetings. And so we're going to continue homeschooling. Most importantly, because for us as a family, we believe that the curriculum that we use instills in our kids a love for what is good and beautiful and true. And the second thing is we are called to do that.

If my wife were visiting with us, that's what she would say. But not everyone is. And having known many former homeschooling families who've decided to enroll their kids in schools, that's okay. People shouldn't feel guilty about that. What's beautiful about the growth in homeschooling is that it teaches Americans right now that Americans in 2021 are just as focused on self-governance as they were in 1776, and we're very privileged as a family to be able to be part of that effort. Absolutely. Who are some of your personal heroes within the conservative movement, people that have really impacted you personally. Gosh, it's a long list, but I'll mention just a few.

Starts with Ronald Reagan. I mean, I came of age as a young conservative during his presidency. My grandparents in Louisiana, who were registered Democrats, all the very conservative, loved Governor Reagan, and then Reagan, who was doing his talk radio broadcast in the 1970s. I listened to some of those as a four or five-year-old boy. So Reagan, for sure, Jack Kemp, because of the innovation that he brought to conservatism. I'm a historian, so I gravitate to Russell Kirk. And I will say, and I don't mean this to be patronizing, but I just mentioned to all of our colleagues here at Heritage that I cut

my teeth as a 13-year-old conservative reading some heritage tracks. Dr. Ed Fulner is one of the people who really helped me, and it's many, many years before we met personally, understand what it meant to be conservative. And the reason I think that I'm attracted to what all of those guys said and did was their inherent optimism. That to be an American conservative is to be optimistic about our future because we do have the privilege of waking up in the greatest country in the history of the world. Absolutely. As you're stepping in to this new role, if you would, just maybe share one or two top priorities for your vision for heritage as we move forward. Thank you for that question. The first is to make sure that everything we're doing in

our policy work on the heritage action side, in development, in communications is focused on winning. And what I mean by that is that it's very tempting when you're running large organizations like Heritage is, like I have been leading, to think that we can do everything well. And we need to be really, really good internally about deciding what our metrics of success are so that when we engage, we can almost guarantee that we're going to pass good legislation or kill bad legislation. The second priority will be to make sure that the entire country and then the entire world knows that the great foundation that the Heritage Foundation has because of excellent leadership over many years is merely going to be that.

That in fact we're going to come in with a huge burst of energy that rejuvenates not only the institution but also the movement writ large. And I think in very short order, because every single person in this institution is so virtuous and so committed, people will pay attention and we're going to be winning. Excellent. Well, Kevin, Dr. Kevin Roberts, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations to you and welcome aboard to the Heritage Foundation. It's the greatest privilege of my life, and I'm thrilled to be here. It's an honor to have you.

Thanks. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast. on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all on Monday.

The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Virginia Allen and Kate Trinko, sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, please visit DailySignal.com. Thank you.