Emily’s father, Fritz was eager to speak with us. Fritz emailed, “your listening is a big deal imo (In My Opinion). Happy (eager) to participate.” Emily (see blog “Racine Arts and Business) had mentioned in passing that her father had written the original business plan and prospectus which became the Heritage Foundation. She put us in touch with each other. And as Dave and I sat at the back table in the RV we spoke by phone with Fritz who was with his wife in South Carolina where they have their main residence.
Early life and development of Freedom Philosophy
Fritz was born in Racine. He is now in his 80’s. His mother: British, “Anglican and fiscally conservative” emigrated to the Racine area in the early 1900’s. His father “came off a bankrupt farm in Iowa,” lost a sports scholarship at Grinnell College due to poor health and was dying his whole life, although he lived to 79. He “was in advertising and marketing.” He worked for Hamilton Beach then, with a partner, bought the carpet cleaning product line when Hamilton Beach was unloading it. The business did well and is still operating from the Racine Business Center.
Fritz is Episcopalian (although later in our conversation informs us that the Episcopal Church has “lost its way”), went to Wharton School and served in the Army as a 1st Lt.. He took over the business with his brothers from their father: “I was the one who got the opportunity...or got stuck with it.” [Later Fritz regretted this statement, “sounds negative.”]
In the late 50’s, the UN was running a nationwide program called “Great Decisions.” Fritz and his wife joined a group of six couples. They would meet monthly and discuss a case study furnished by the UN of a “problem” somewhere in the world. The leader would also receive the UN “solution.” Over time Fritz noticed that all of the UN “solutions” were what he called “collectivist.” This bothered him. What impressed him further was that three of the couples who were Jewish friends usually agreed with these collectivist, liberal/Left (“although I wasn’t political or thinking politically at that point”) solutions. And Fritz, shocked by the Holocaust, believed it occurred partly BECAUSE of the collectivist regimes of the 30’s and 40’s.. It was that study group experience which led Fritz to “decide to dedicate the rest of my life to promulgating the Freedom Philosophy. “Not election politics, but the theory, the education side.”
Fritz is Episcopalian (although later in our conversation informs us that the Episcopal Church has “lost its way”), went to Wharton School and served in the Army as a 1st Lt.. He took over the business with his brothers from their father: “I was the one who got the opportunity...or got stuck with it.” [Later Fritz regretted this statement, “sounds negative.”]
In the late 50’s, the UN was running a nationwide program called “Great Decisions.” Fritz and his wife joined a group of six couples. They would meet monthly and discuss a case study furnished by the UN of a “problem” somewhere in the world. The leader would also receive the UN “solution.” Over time Fritz noticed that all of the UN “solutions” were what he called “collectivist.” This bothered him. What impressed him further was that three of the couples who were Jewish friends usually agreed with these collectivist, liberal/Left (“although I wasn’t political or thinking politically at that point”) solutions. And Fritz, shocked by the Holocaust, believed it occurred partly BECAUSE of the collectivist regimes of the 30’s and 40’s.. It was that study group experience which led Fritz to “decide to dedicate the rest of my life to promulgating the Freedom Philosophy. “Not election politics, but the theory, the education side.”
From Freedom Philosophy to the Heritage Foundation
Fritz dove into the study of the Freedom Philosophy. He studied the early sentences in the Declaration of Independence.
Back to the Declaration:
We ask Fritz to “break down” the Declaration of Independence for us following his studies. He does:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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| Fruits of Thomas Jefferson's Labor |
Endowed by the Creator: “that is the spiritual antecedent.”
With certain unalienable rights: “that is the moral antecedent.” “So it is spiritual and moral. So if I have the right to my life spiritually and morally two things of importance result:
- “I have the rights to the “fruits of my labor” which may not be creating steel, it could be crafting ideas or doing art or working at a job or just fishing with Thoreau or somebody.”
- “Whatever I claim as an inalienable right I need to grant to you or I do not have a moral position.”
Peter: How did you come up with “Fruits of our Labor?”
Fritz: From the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. It said life, liberty and property that is how it was first written. And that didn’t make the cut. I think it sounded like all of these rich guys doing this, it sounded too self serving. So they replaced it with Happiness, and happiness would be the release of natural human energy by free people. I can release my energy the way I can, or I want. I decide if I’m going to release that energy in work or for this cause, or that cause, my cause or her cause. And that is why freedom leading to the the free market system has worked better than any other system over the millenniums. It is the moral and logical climate for maximum release of that natural human energy. Controlled by the individual, that release becomes the fruits of his or her labor. And that would be the pursuit of happiness as determined by individuals, not by outside forces.
Fritz: The Declaration was followed by the Constitution, which was the follow up. It was created as a document of restrictions on the “outside force” of government. Not granting rights.
Fritz: The Declaration was followed by the Constitution, which was the follow up. It was created as a document of restrictions on the “outside force” of government. Not granting rights.
FEE - Free Market Economics
Fritz found the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in Irvington NY, founded in 1946 and led by Leonard Read. FEE’s mission is to "inspire, educate and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical and legal principles of a free society." He dove in, taking weeklong and weekend seminars, bought the offered library of relevant texts and strove to reach the third level of leadership -- where upon he would be a “go to person” to people wanting to understand these ideas. He studied the “Austrian School” economists von Mises and F.A. Hayek and, of course Milton Friedman of Chicago to learn how the Freedom Philosophy applies to economics. Fritz explains, “Free Market economics has a moral and spiritual context. I or my group can’t take from you and give to my cousin unless you and your group have the right and permission to take from me or my group and give to your cousin.”
Pulled into Politics
By the 1960’s Fritz had met a number of political “players.” As he says, “I got sucked into politics and turned out to be good at it. Too bad.” Early in the 60’s Paul Weyrich, a future founder of the Moral Majority and Heritage Foundation, became Fritz’ mentee. Paul grew up in Racine. He was very conservative, devout, “orthodox” Catholic and a politically active. Fritz became a prominent, award winning Young Republican. And like many young “business types” he campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964. “Ten days before the election I made a serious (not a joke, but just for $10) bet that Goldwater would win. And when he lost 60:40 I realized I didn’t know what I was doing.” Fritz decided that if he was going to dedicate himself he needed to understand it from the ground up. “I began working on voter identification and turnout.” He means getting like-minded conservatives registered and turning out to vote. “Being a Republicans was not my priority, rather, being a free market conservative. Yes, Goldwater got the nomination, but many Republicans were squishy back then. Lots of ‘Rockefellers.’ Someone said, ‘If you want to suppress free enterprise, send a bunch of business people into the schools.’”
1969 - Gets a call from DC
In 1969 Weyrich calls Fritz. He and a couple of friends have figured out how liberal Democrats get liberal/left policy crafted and passed in not so liberal Congress. Fritz recounts how Weyrich explains it, “They have ‘inside’ study committees within Congress and because it is official they even have floor rights. And the ‘outside’ [policy think tank] is Brookings Institute.” He wants Fritz’s help. So Fritz insists they come to Racine (“Everyone in DC has their datebook out thinking about the next meeting before THIS meeting begins”). They spend a couple of days together. Fritz asks, “Do you have a business plan? A budget? A prospectus? Weyrich answers, “What are they?” So Fritz “gets” volunteered to write them. He spends six months on and off, in the sub basement of the Capitol Building: “SB6, a 20’x20’ office, all by myself.” He writes the plan for what becomes the “outside” “policy purity” conservative think tank. Then he says, “Adios” to Weyrich and leaves it to him to sell it. [In a later email Fritz adds, “Weyrich also leads establishing working groups “inside” the Senate and House.”]
The Heritage Foundation is Born...and the Contract with America
Joe Coors (“I didn’t know him at the time, but we became close personal friends”) finally was the one who funded its founding. Finally in 1973 Heritage Foundation was formed. Fritz served as its Secretary for many years and is still closely associated with it. He suggested Dave and I go and meet with the current Director.
“Then the Reagan years…”
Then in ‘82 Fritz gets another call for help from DC. He insists the group come to Racine and he designs and facilitates their meeting which includes Newt Gingrich, his current wife, Weyrich and a few others. The meeting became the beginning of the Conservative Opportunity Society which, twelve years later, in 1994 becomes the Contract With America.
Policy Purity and Integrity
Fritz is very critical of politicians who are not “pure” [later Fritz uses “transparent”] in their policies and do not demonstrate integrity. He explains that the Contract With America was good example of Gingrich setting clear policy goals and then delivering on them. Several times in our conversation Fritz criticized “squishy” Republicans who were too willing to “go along to get along.” “They listen too much to the media or their lobbyists in Washington.” “Trading favors.” They “cause the system to be opaque, inconsistent and foundering.”
Fast Forward to 2017
Peter: With your Pure Freedom perspective, where do you think we are right now?
Fritz: Cautiously optimistic.
The Integrity of Trump
Fritz: The reason I put it that way [“cautiously”], is that Trump’s policies seem spot-on while his style is, if it doesn’t make someone totally upset, it certainly makes one nervous about what a loose cannon he is. On the other hand, it is important that he speaks up, confirming that he is doing what he said he was going to do [for] his constituency.
Peter: Back to the integrity…? Is that what you were talking about?
Fritz: Exactly. Donald Trump is not a lovable person, personally, at least that is what he is in his civilian life. But he is trusted to say what he thinks and do what he says. That is one definition of integrity. He won on that, he got to that third level of leadership (production...people follow because of the results) because people were attracted to him, because he is trying to tell it like it is. The heartland, some because they are quite well informed, others just from a visceral reaction were thinking things were sick east of the Alleghenies, west of the Rockies and within the Beltway of Washington DC. They don’t know why things are sick, but it just doesn’t work. These guys in DC say one thing, and vote one way, and then come out to the district and say something else. Promises are not being kept. This is just going down the tubes creating general unrest. In contrast, like the "Contract with America" in 1994, you had the Trump promises of “gonna do this, this, and this, and this and here’s why.” And it resonated with these people who were wondering what is going on in this country, all the way down to my job, and if not my job, my church or school or my moral position, and Trump appears to be trying to do what he said.
Fritz: Some easy-to-see examples of Trump doing what he said he was going to do. Getting out of the Paris Accords - terrific idea. Getting out of UNESCO - terrific idea. Now getting these ideas out [past the media] is another story. Thus [I’m] guardedly optimistic.
Fritz: Some easy-to-see examples of Trump doing what he said he was going to do. Getting out of the Paris Accords - terrific idea. Getting out of UNESCO - terrific idea. Now getting these ideas out [past the media] is another story. Thus [I’m] guardedly optimistic.
The Message Control of Trump...and the Fake News of the NYT
Fritz: And meanwhile [Trump’s] got twitter and social media going. In a way he HAS to do it. In a way I wish they had a little better way of doing it, but the press is so rabidly, actively, cynically, sadistically attacking anything Trump, and his administration, and any policies, that he can’t get the word out unless he gets it out directly. The media agenda, because it is so active, is breathtaking. So the tweeting is a good thing, but it makes me nervous the way that it is managed, particularly with Trump popping off and shooting from the hip. But I give him a pass on it.
Fritz recently wrote an opinion piece in the local Camden, South Carolina paper recounting an incident in the 1980’s when a well reported NYT’s article about an event he attended, had an inaccurate final paragraph. And that paragraph was then picked up by and further twisted the NYT editorial team over the next four days. Fritz, shocked, spoke with a former editor at Time Magazine who explained, “Fritz, an editor added the ending to the reporter’s story. They (NYT) do that all the time ... nothing new.”
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| Fake News Source |
Fritz’ option piece ends:
Apparently the NYT fake news penchant was so common to them, as not to deserve even further discussion. Stunning and frightening ... and that event took place in the mid 1980’s.” That NYT’s penchant is common knowledge among national media editors, my guess is Reichert knows it as well. So I’ve not picked up ... or believed ... a New York Times newspaper in over 30 years.
Conservative America
Fritz helps us to understand how he sees the conservative factions. There are four groups. And it seems some overlap.
- Libertarians
- Social Issue Conservatives. These are the “true believers, evangelicals.”
Country Club Republicans. Not sure where they stand. Grudgingly Trump. Some big business. Some Wall Street. They have big Washington representation. Their attitude is: “they are going to spend it, so we might as well get our share.” Fritz says, “I don’t trust them. I’d give them the benefit of the doubt but am skeptical of what they do.” 4. “Total Integrity” [Later Fritz calls them “Economic”] Conservatives. This is a Trump base at least in the Presidential election. It includes “blue collar, American, Patriot/realist, wage earner, Boy Scout leaders. Church goer. Small business owners are “basically conservative. They would tend to be more reliable. They retain some integrity.”
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| The Birthplace of the Republican Party - our visit to Ripon, Wisconsin |
How Trump Won
Fritz: If you look at 2016 there is the Trump reason for attracting voters. Hillary had NO message. Trump had a message and repeated it ad nausea. No reason to vote for Hillary except that it is her turn. That was the Bob Dole situation.
How about 2020?
Fritz: You know Trump will have a message. Whether or not the Democrats will have a message is not clear. Because they don’t have a party if that means cohesiveness. They are coalitions of interest groups (in a positive sense) and they pull different ways. The Sanders campaign was an example of that, and he was not that radical relative to the Democrat current trends. The Union segment. The Left. So whether they will have a message that will resonate I don’t know. The republicans will have a message that will resonate, though they did not in 2008 or 2012. Will it win, we’ll see?
Issues:
We then shifted gear to specific national issues:
Climate Change and The Paris Accord
Peter: The Paris Accord and Climate Change: How do you see this?
Fritz: All overblown by questionable data. In the sense of Mankind's effect on the climate. The climate changes all the time. Growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan I observed water levels change in 5-8 year cycles, washing away some of our land -- not the house but the land and then the lake goes down again. It’s like not recognizing that the best conservers of the wild game environment are the gun guys, the hunters. All overblown on questionable assumptions and untrustworthy data. And questionable ethics in terms of developing and reporting the data to ascribe mankind's effect on climate change. And those numbers aren’t in. And the science is suspect. It is barely science and other panels have highlighted that. And it goes to other issues and to the man on the streets west of the Alleghenies, something is screwy. The Paris accord has massive economic impact potential globally, but as you get into it, it is mostly smoke and mirrors. And that has been the way with so many important issues. They have been finessed to support the "go along to get along" men in the striped pants and the hanger on. Okay, France is really hot on this, so we’ll support them, so they’ll support us over here in Africa. All the political trade offs that go into that kind of stuff. Not transparent. I don’t trust it any more.” Mantra for the new millenium may be ‘stay positive but nurture a healthy skepticism.’
Peter: Why would the existential objective be, that Liberals or Progressives or the NYT would want, that would tie man’s impact to the environment?
Fritz: That’s a hell of a question. I don’t know. It’s being driven by fanatical religious fervor. So on one hand we should be studying climate all the time because it is always changing. But the climate realities have been hijacked. Let's start with a new clean sheet of paper. Let’s start over and get it right.
Health care:
Peter: How about healthcare?
Fritz: Don’t get sick. That goes beyond any ideological divisions. The question of healthcare and safety net healthcare -- when you get right down to it, what it is all about -- it goes beyond any partisan or boundaries
Peter: How would the Declaration of Independence see the delivery of healthcare?
Fritz: It would at best be looking through the glass darkly. The market has been so distorted. As an example, this week insurance companies want to cross state lines. The fact that by law they couldn’t cross state lines is a critical distortion with consequences we can’t measure. How do we afford the people, who can’t afford the disasters. Should stay open, evolving without political, opportunistic compromised open markets.
Bipartisan Solutions?
Peter: You’ve been at the table (an advocate, a partisan advocate) that has gotten us to where we are today. Is there a way to find some middle ground or is it a winner take all?
Fritz: I think we are going to have to depend on people like Heritage from the free market limited government side and whoever on the other side -- maybe Brookings on the other side, I don’t know who on the left, the Liberal side, not meaning that in a negative way. [Fritz added later: But they are so prone to distorting reality that bad legislative decisions are made. Dig into the 1978 Community Reinvestment Act (Dodd and Frank debut). It led to the crash of 2008.]
Peter: Have you ever sat down with Brookings to have these types of conversations?
Fritz: No, not personally, but our Heritage people have.
Peter: How would Heritage redesign our system to address these imperative issues? Obviously what we have is not getting us what we need.
Fritz: I can’t help you on that. I wish I could. [Fritz later adds, It is the right question but the answer can’t be articulated in a few words. Still it’s mission statement Heritage frames the issues regarding what principles to follow trying to “fix” stuff.
Mission: To formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, independent freedom, traditional American values and a strong defense.
Vision: To build an America where freedom, opportunity, property and civil society flourish.
He finishes with, “These are solid ideas, not empty words!"
We thanked Fritz for the conversation, and he was eager for us to call him if we had more time.
Follow up Emails:
After we spoke for about 90 minutes Fritz followed up with this email:
Guys...as was pulling out of Paris, Trump's adios re UNICEF-Iran-et al reinforces:
Guys...as was pulling out of Paris, Trump's adios re UNICEF-Iran-et al reinforces:
- Critical strategic issue: integrity re doing what he promised &/or inferred...and
- Tactics of: putting issue balls into the courts of Congress plus removing the previous veils of secrecy/ineptness hiding various suspect "deals" domestic & international.
Above is why, imo, DT campaigns(s) 2016 resonated a'la 1994's Contract With America.
Forgot to mention...we didn't vote Trump in the Primaries…
-- Peter
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