An e-mail re early-morning Corner talk:
Hi Kathryn,
I too really enjoyed reading the article in today’s NYT on the current crop of Heritage interns. I’m still in close touch with many of my former Heritage intern alums (summer class of 2002) and we’re quite jealous that we missed out on living in those luxurious dorms! (although my stipend did allow me to survive living in a basement apartment in a less-than-glamorous section of N.E. Washington).
Although we did predictably break down along libertarian-traditionalist lines, some fissures produced more numerous discussions than others. For instance, we were relatively united on U.S. foreign policy issues, but the question of same-sex marriage and the future possibility (at that time) of a Constitutional amendment, was probably the most popularly debated issue of the summer (especially for those over 21 during the post-softball game victory celebrations). During my time at Heritage we also had an early-morning American political theory reading group that was graciously led by Matthew Spalding. A few of the hardcore libertarians were quite unflattering toward Abraham Lincoln, blaming the origins of “big government” on his administration. Those fans of Strauss and of the American founding period looked more toward the Progressive era for the intellectual origins of the federal government’s expansion and for many of the ideas-now-taken-as-axioms by today’s Left (which I look forward to reading more about in Jonah’s pending book).
We also had many related discussions on whether/ how the state should either exist to promote freedom, virtue, or both. I noticed that those of us from northeastern or secular schools such as Amherst (me), Harvard and Chicago often learned a lot from our peers at Catholic U., Notre Dame, and other similar institutions during these discussions. Political dorks we were, but outside of those discussions great continuing friendships were fostered that still continue.
Throughout my internship, we were able to learn directly from Lee Edwards and former AG Meese as well as hear from some terrific speakers (Dinesh D’Souza included). Overall, my summer at Heritage was a fantastically engaging intellectual and personal experience that my fellow alums still reminisce about when we get together in Washington. I also found that when it came time to seek a post-college job in Washington, the Heritage name was very helpful. Thanks for the link and keep up the good work!
P.S. Before I came to Heritage and with the exception of some wonderful people at Amherst, (Hadley Arkes especially) NR and NRO were pretty much my only links to people who shared my beliefs. Many other interns at Heritage shared my perspective and so it was even more terrific to debate the latest NR article or position stated from up above by the editors.