Heritage Foundation Mocked for Defending British Monarchy From American 'Radical Left'

One of the U.S.'s most powerful conservative think tanks is being mocked for its plans to host a March 25 event that defends the British monarchy and blasts the "radical left" for undermining American democracy.

Confused critics and left-leaning Americans are questioning the underlying "conservative" principles of the Heritage Foundation after the powerful nonprofit announced it's hosting an event entitled "The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left's Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail." Political pundits noted on Saturday that opposition to the British monarchy is "about as foundationally American as you can get," but a recent interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry by Oprah Winfrey revealed an unabashedly pro-monarchy embrace of the Crown by many of today's U.S. conservatives.

"Accusations of racism within the royal family are not the point. The aim of modern liberalism...is to tear down everything the monarchy represents: tradition, authority, virtue, duty, love of country, and biblical religion," the conservative nonprofit wrote on its website Friday.

"MAGA leaders have shown more support for Putin's dictatorship and the monarchy than our democracy," the vehemently anti-Trump Lincoln Project tweeted in response to the Heritage Foundation Saturday.

"The Heritage Foundation has killed satire," reads one top reply to the think tank's pro-Crown event announcement. Numerous threads began outlining conservative ideological roots ranging from William F. Buckley to James Madison.

The Heritage Foundation posted that the "radical left has seized upon Oprah's televised spectacle" to complain about racism instead of seeing how the British Royals have for centuries helped shaped America's "conservative" worldview. The piece briefly mentions that Great Britain's involvement in the African slave trade and expansion of a "massive colonial empire" were values that American conservatives could never support.

"Because undermining the monarchy has never been a part of American democracy, apparently," tweeted Aaron Mehta, editor at Defense News, mocking the Heritage Foundation announcement Saturday morning.

The Heritage Foundation, a group that Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently labeled the "biggest and best-funded think tank in Washington," published a piece Friday that accused modern American liberals of only wanting to "tear down" all traditions. In contrast to the American radical left, Joseph Loconte, director of the Simon Center for American Studies and a Heritage Foundation Fellow, described the British monarchy as "one of the most consequential conservative institutions" in the world.

The upcoming March 25 event in defense of the Crown prompted social media debates over the definition of "conservative" political ideology and the "odd" bond between today's Republican Party and British monarchs. Left-leaning U.S. critics accused the Heritage Foundation of having been "loyalists" to the Crown during the American Revolution in the 1770s.

In a Facebook post last week, the Heritage Foundation warned that liberal U.S. groups only want to "cancel" anything they find offensive or too traditional.

"For months, Americans have witnessed the radical left attempt to disparage Washington and the Founding Fathers as racist bigots or paint anyone who didn't unflinchingly support Black Lives Matter as abnormal. This type of rhetoric will tear America apart," the Heritage Foundation wrote Friday.

"[T]he new pro-monarchism on the US right, which seems to flow downstream from hostility to Meghan Markle, is a fascinating development. It goes without saying that rejection of the British monarchy is literally about as foundationally American as you can get. But it's worth stepping back and appreciating the radicalism of this stance for Americans in the final decades of the 18th century," tweeted Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall, highlighting the Founding Fathers' political ideologies and split from the British King George III's rule.

Newsweek reached out to the Heritage Foundation Saturday morning for additional comments about next Thursday's event.