"There are so many people and institutions that come to mind for their role in the success we celebrate tonight," President Ronald Reagan said at the 1981 Conservative Political Action Conference , just two months after his inauguration. "Intellectual leaders like Russell Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, James Burnham, Ludwig von Mises." And Frank Meyer, who had "fashioned a vigorous new synthesis of traditional and libertarian thought—a synthesis that is today recognized by many as modern conservatism."

Meyer, Reagan said, believed that "a respect for law and an appreciation of tradition" should "motivate us even as we seek a new economic prosperity based on reducing government interference in the marketplace. Our goals complement each other." Though Reagan did not

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