Paul Weyrich, Populist

A reader offers a personal remembrance of Paul Weyrich: 

He had a hand in creating not only Heritage and Free Congress and Moral Majority, but in building the careers of literally hundreds of younger conservatives who through the years have now grown to positions of high authority all across the country. I was honored and blessed to be among those whose career he helped.

So much of what my distinguished friends on the Left have been struggling to copy with the development of several new organizations and the use of similar strategies are things that Paul created, often far behind the scenes. His regular meetings with top organization leaders drew the powerful and mighty. Senators, White House senior staff, House leadership and more, all had their reasons to come to Second Street to meet with Paul Weyrich. Often, it was to ask for his help, whether it was to get legislation passed, to garner support for a new strategy, or to gain approval for a potential candidate.

In person, he was an amazing man, intimidating, smart. And so he asked me to co-chair one of the coalition groups he led back in the 80s, I was honored and eager to be able to learn more from such a powerful person who spent so many hours teaching hundreds of leaders of outside organizations, Hill staff and leaders inside the Reagan Administration. And on those occasions when the Reagan White House failed to live up to Weyrich's expectations, Paul was not afraid to let them know of his displeasure, respectfully brushing past what he considered weak excuses to continually press for adherence to conservative principles, even to the President himself . . . Without him, Washington would be much less open to hearing the voices of Main Streets all across the country. 

I was also struck by Weyrich's commitment to opening up Washington's power corridors to rank-and-file activists. And for all of his innovations—the Heritage Foundation and the Moral Majority among them—Weyrich brought the conservative movement more power through very old school tactics, largely by getting conservatives in the same room to argue about priorities and plot strategy.

• Read more about how Weyrich founded the Christian right.
• Read more by Dan Gilgoff.