Thursday, December 18, 2008

Paul M. Weyrich, "Father of Conservatism" Dead at 66



Paul M. Weyrich, 66, who helped found the Heritage Foundation and at one time was one of Washington's most visible conservatives, died this morning. At his death, he was president and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

Heritage announced this morning: 'Paul M. Weyrich, chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and first president of The Heritage Foundation, died this morning around 1 a.m. He was 66 years old. Weyrich was a good friend to many of us at Heritage, a true leader and a man of unbending principle. He won Heritage's prestigious Clare Boothe Luce Award in 2005. Weyrich will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, including son Steve, who currently works at Heritage.'

GROVER NORQUIST of Americans for Tax Reform e-mails us a tribute: 'Paul Weyrich created institutions and networks that incubated new and old powerful policies and strategies to advance liberty. ... He brought leaders of various freedom impulses together. Most of the successes of the Conservative movement since the 1970s flowed from structures, organizations, and coalitions he started, created or nurtured. Paul also lived a balanced life with work, family and his faith. We will miss his puns and wisdom and hard work.'

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online, who had the first word of his passing, called Weyrich 'a Washington conservative institution' and 'a patriot who lived a long life serving his nation.'
Spinal injury and disability

In 1996, Weyrich was diagnosed with a spinal injury. From 2001 until his death in 2008, his injury left him in a wheelchair and in constant pain. Complications from a fall in September 2004 required the amputation of his legs in July 2005.

Quotes by Paul Weyrich:

  • "We are different from previous generations of conservatives…We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country." -Soloma, John. Ominous Politics: The New Conservative Labyrinth, 1984, Hill and Wang, New York.
  • "The real enemy is the secular humanist mindset which seeks to destroy everything that is good in this society." - The Rights and Wrongs of the Religious Right, Freedom Writer, Institute for First Amendment Studies, October 1995.
  • "Christ was crucified by the Jews.... He was not what the Jews had expected so they considered Him a threat. Thus He was put to death.", Indeed, He is Risen!, April 13, 2001 [24]
  • "We have to stop the movement of all our manufacturing to China and other foreign countries. If that requires tariffs, starting with tariffs to protect industries of strategic importance, so be it. " [25]
  • "If we want to stop or at least reduce outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, we should tax outsourcing. In my view, that would be a good new tax." [26]
  • "I asked [Yegor] Gaidar why it was that he thought free-market efforts in the Soviet Union were being trashed by American media when the reality was far different from what I was seeing. He replied with a stinging answer, one I never will forget. He said, 'Well, the Soviets spent millions of dollars infiltrating your media. Just because the Soviet Union went away doesn't mean these people have gone away. They are still there.' Of course, I knew this."[20]
  • Source:Wikipedia





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