Two longtime Intercollegiate Studies Institute board members have stepped down from the august right-of-center organization, saying it has fallen victim to a “post-liberal hijacking” as the battle for the soul of the conservative movement spreads beyond the Heritage Foundation.
Christopher Long and Thomas Lynch said they resigned at the end of Friday’s board meeting after the panel rejected their call to fire ISI President Johnny Burtka over what they describe as the institute’s shift from “educating for liberty” to platforming unorthodox figures hostile to the nation’s founding principles.
“ISI has largely abandoned its on-campus philosophical programming, which equipped future leaders to better uphold American ideals,” they said in an open letter posted late Monday on X. “Instead, it focuses on ideological and political podcasts that introduce audiences to alt-right online personalities, such as Tucker Carlson and others who seek to undermine the liberal ideas of the American Founding.”
They said the “fundamental shift in ISI’s focus was done behind the board’s back.”
Their departures came with the conservative ecosystem already reeling from the crisis at the Heritage Foundation, which has seen a rash of resignations over President Kevin Roberts’ defense of podcast host Mr. Carlson’s interview with Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes.
The foundation was dealt another blow with the departure of former Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann, who said Sunday that she has resigned from the foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
“I resigned from the Heritage antisemitism task force because Heritage leadership failed to stand against the voices of antisemitism on the political right,” Ms. Bachmann, dean of Regent University’s Robertson School of Government in Virginia Beach, told Newsmax.
“Inexplicably, consistent voices of antisemitism on the political right were embraced and, worse, defended by the leadership of Heritage Foundation,” she said.
Her decision to leave came even though the task force announced last week that it will split off from the foundation and expand its mission to include fighting antisemitism on the right.
Mr. Roberts has rejected calls to resign, saying he wants to stay and clean up “the mess,” while insisting that Heritage will hold the line against antisemitism “even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.”
Both Mr. Roberts and Mr. Carlson also figure into the ISI resignations. Mr. Roberts sits on the ISI board, while the organization featured Mr. Carlson as the keynote speaker at its 2023 gala and gave one of its three $75,000 annual fellowships to the Tucker Carlson Network.
November 10, 2025
An Open Letter to the Conservative Movement
The battle for the heart and soul of the American Conservative Movement is being fought on many fronts, with the latest trench warfare occurring in the boardrooms of its long-standing and most influential foundations…
— CG Long (@FrankChodorov) November 10, 2025
In their statement, the former ISI board members said the institute launched in August without the board’s knowledge a video series called Project Cosmos featuring a host of prominent voices discussing the “future of civilization,” including post-liberal thinkers Patrick Deneen and Curtis Yarvin.
Post-liberal ideology calls for replacing bedrock conservative ideals such as limited government, individual rights and free markets with a “communitarian” form of government that emphasizes the “common good” as well as heritage, tradition and culture.
“In their minds, the Declaration and Constitution must take a backseat to usher in a new, post-democratic, post-capitalist economic system that advocates isolationism, an immigration ban, and a domestic policy that blurs distinctions between church and state,” said the Long and Lynch statement. “While often described as MAGA or populist, this group is more tightly aligned to the philosophy of media crank @TuckerCarlson than President Trump’s agenda.”
Mr. Yarvin, a computer engineer who favors replacing democracy with a CEO-style accountable monarchy, has made controversial statements such as, “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.”
Mr. Deneen, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, swung back by saying he served as a faculty mentor and regular speaker at the ISI Honors Program from 2005-15, and that the “notion that I represent some new radical presence is a bald faced lie.”
“It was only under the Presidency of Chris Long that a narrow ideological litmus test was applied – only right liberals need apply – and I, among others, was purged for over a decade,” said Mr. Deneen on X. “Johnny Burtka restored I.S.I. to its longstanding commitment to engaging a wide range of conservative voices.”
Rod Dreher, an author and self-described post-liberal conservative, called it a “filthy smear to try to tar Johnny with Nick Fuentes!”
“What this looks like to me, from Messrs. Long and Lynch — both financiers, according to their biographies — is an attempt to silence important and needed conversations with figures of the New Right who must be engaged if conservatism is to be relevant,” Mr. Dreher said on Substack. “Conservatism is not a church, with fixed dogmas and an authoritative hierarchy, but a way of thinking about politics and their relation to life and tradition.”
The post touched off heated debate on social media, with comments ranging from, “It’s time to pass the torch” and “The old ways did not work” to “This is tragic. All the longstanding conservative groups have been infiltrated.”
Founded in 1953 by conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., the ISI seeks to promote the “core ideas behind the free market, American Founding, and Western civilization” in higher education.
Heritage and ISI may not be the only venerable conservative institutions facing a challenge from within for the future of the movement, said the ex-ISI board members.
“Supporters of ISI, Heritage, and other mainstream conservative institutions must be on notice that the programs and purposes they are funding may no longer be what they think they are,” said the Long-Lynch statement. “Today is the time for choosing. We hope all conservatives will choose to fight on the side of William F. Buckley, Jr. and give no corner to those preaching White supremacy, antisemitism, eugenics, and bigotry.”
Mr. Long, who previously served as ISI president and CEO, is the former CEO and co-owner of the hedge fund Endowment Capital Group. Mr. Lynch, founder of the investment firm Mill Road Capital, is the former chairman of the board.
The Washington Times reached out to ISI for comment.
