** Money into Power, via Intelligence **
‘The Thinkers’ traces the rise of modern think tanks as an unseen influence of American policy. The pivot point is 1973, when the Heritage Foundation was founded—not just another research shop, but the first to openly embrace ideological warfare. Heritage became the Fox News of think tanks: fast, partisan, and media-savvy. The others followed. What began as university-adjacent, data-driven analysis evolved into a partisan arms race. RAND begat Heritage begat the current ecosystem—ideological, nimble, and well-funded.
One of the book’s sharper claims is that diligence itself has been outsourced. Where congressional staff once did the grinding work of research, now think tanks fill the gap—with all the attendant donor incentives.
This isn’t about corruption in the usual sense. It’s about a structural shift: intelligence as a commodity, policy as performance. Think tanks now devote excess capacity not to slow deliberation, but to chasing headlines. Stay on the narrative, stay relevant, stay funded.