The Blueprint: Powell’s Memo
Lewis Powell intended his 1971 memo, “Attack on American Free Enterprise System“, to be a strategy for the business community to assert itself more in the country’s intellectual and political life. What began as a response to the perceived overreach of federal regulations became instead a blueprint for culture change that favored resistance to the federal government and long term investment in changing the political direction of the country.
Within a decade of the memo’s release, the number of companies with public affairs offices in Washington had increased from 100 to more than 500 while the number of companies with registered lobbyists had risen from 175 to almost 2500. While assembling this army of policy warriors gave the business community the means to respond to further progressive policy proposals, Powell did not believe that uncoordinated activities by individual corporations could affect the kind of change he sought.
He wrote, “Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.”
In particular, he wanted to change the liberal underpinnings that permeated American academics, art, media, AND its politics – the cultural stew that produced the kinds of regulations being promulgated in defense of consumers, workers, and the environment. For Powell, it was not enough to simply argue against such progressive policies that in his view misleadingly pitted business against community and rich against poor. He believed that a network of scholars and respected expert thinkers representing conservative views could and should redefine the common ground that those progressive policies aimed to protect.
He also believed it vital to target the judicial system for the appointment of justices and judges whose legal training was shaped by conservative views. As Powell wrote, “Under our constitutional system, especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic, and political change.” He cited the ACLU as a liberal entity that had experience promoting the appointment of judges in this manner and wanted to see a similarly equipped conservative organization take up the cause on behalf of business.
Finally, he recognized that “the entire program”, as he phrased it, required an active and aggressive media presence and the utmost care in brand management. Powell understood that long-term, lasting change required appealing to the hearts and minds of the public at large. He advised that all channels of communication had “to meet the most exacting standards of accuracy and professional excellence” so that the views they advocated would be met with “respect for their level of public responsibility and scholarship”.
