00:00:00:00 – 00:00:32:05

Emmett McGroarty

Welcome to conversation, the Belmont Abbey College podcast. This podcast aims to form and transform our community so that each of us reflect God’s image. I’m Emmett McGroarty, executive director of the Belmont House at Belmont Abbey College, and I’ll be your host for today’s episode. We’re thrilled to be joined by the Honorable Richard Graber, the president of the Bradley Foundation.

 

00:00:32:07 – 00:01:13:06

Emmett McGroarty

Today, we’ll dive into Rick’s career in politics. The role of the Bradley Foundation in the trajectory of American conservatism. Our guest, Richard Graber, has been the president and chief executive officer of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation since 2016, and has served on its board of directors since 2014. He previously held several executive positions at Honeywell International, including as its Senior Vice President for global, Global Government Relations from 2006 to 2009.

 

00:01:13:08 – 00:01:53:08

Emmett McGroarty

He served as the United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic, where he actively engaged the Czech government on a number of issues, including President Bush’s proposed missile defense system, as well as matters concerning transparency, corruption and judicial reform. Prior to his time in Prague, he practiced in the international corporate and government relations groups at the Reinhard Horner Van Buren law firm in Milwaukee, and from 2004 to 2006 served as its chief executive officer.

 

00:01:53:10 – 00:02:18:21

Emmett McGroarty

Rick earned an AB magna cum laude from Duke University and a Juris Doctorate from Boston University Law School. Ambassador Graber, welcome to Belmont Abbey College.

 

Richard Graber

Thanks so much. It’s a great pleasure to be here. So we’re wondering in the first instance if you could tell us about the Bradley Foundation’s mission and maybe a little bit about.

 

00:02:18:23 – 00:02:42:09

Richard Graber

Sure. Well, I think it’s important to start with the history. It really goes back to two brothers who grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the early 1900s. Their names were Lynde and Harry Bradley. They didn’t grow up with much, There was really no father in their household. Their mother had to rent out rooms in their house to make ends meet.

 

00:02:42:11 – 00:03:09:04

Richard Graber

Neither brother graduated from high school. Obviously. Neither went to college. But they were curious. They were tinkerers. They were inventors. They were entrepreneurs. And first the older brother lined, and then Harry joined him in trying to build a company, trying to build a business. And it was tough. There were years when there was virtually no revenue.

 

00:03:09:06 – 00:03:37:17

Richard Graber

There were lawsuits flying around for inability to pay rent to pay employees. The partnered with a bad guy in Michigan at one point that almost bankrupted the company. But every time they landed on their face, they got up and they kept working at it. It’s a great American story of trial and error and eventually enormous success.

 

00:03:37:19 – 00:04:02:10

Richard Graber

They built a company called the Allen Bradley Company and the south Side of Milwaukee that, its first product was a controller, which was something that sped up and slowed down motors. They got patents in that they developed it, they worked on it. And again, a company that started from nothing ended up being a $1 billion plus company.

 

00:04:02:12 – 00:04:24:17

Richard Graber

That was really their life. Harry Bradley lived at the factory. He, his wife would drag him to the suburbs of Milwaukee on the weekend, but he couldn’t wait to get back to the factory on Sunday evening for another week. And then he’d walk the shop floors. And the third shift, it was. It was a great story.

 

00:04:24:19 – 00:04:51:02

Richard Graber

When Bradley died in 1942. Harry Bradley in 1965. The company was ultimately sold in 1985. So long after they’re both gone. In what was the largest sale of a privately held business ever at that point in time. A good chunk of those proceeds from that sale in 1985 ended up in it today. What it did.

 

00:04:51:02 – 00:05:13:08

Richard Graber

The Bradley Foundation. So our job at the Foundation has been to try to figure out how to spend their money. And it’s their money, in a way that they would approve. And our board of directors has taken a lot of time thinking about that. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of writing. There’s no direction in our foundation bylaws.

 

00:05:13:10 – 00:05:39:20

Richard Graber

There’s no guidance. What we have to do. It really has been an effort to try to discern what these two brothers thought and what they would want to spend their legacy on. So we’ve come up with four major areas of consideration and I think are very consistent with their philosophy. First and foremost, they believed in free markets.

 

00:05:39:22 – 00:06:12:07

Richard Graber

There’s a lot we don’t know, as I said, but it is very clear from their writing that they did believe in free markets and limited government. And the ability to be an entrepreneur and ability to do what they did, which was to fail and pick themselves up and succeed. They believed in our constitutional order, federalism, separation of powers, individual liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of religion were things that they clearly cared about, they believed about and informed citizenry.

 

00:06:12:09 – 00:06:38:16

Richard Graber

And that has resulted in our support of things like school choice in this country. Bradley Foundation was at the very front end of the school choice movement in this country, which happened in Milwaukee. School choice started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and that’s been a 35 year experiment in Milwaukee. To the point where today, nearly 50% of the kids in Milwaukee do not go to a traditional public school.

 

00:06:38:18 – 00:07:19:00

Richard Graber

It’s somewhat unique. Not that there aren’t problems, but, it really was a pioneer. And in that sense, they also believed in a strong civil society. They believe that the best way to solve problems in our in our country and in our communities is, not through another government program, but through, private volunteer organizations, neighborhoods, churches, and, again, the nonprofit organizations that every community in this country has, and you could see it in the way they treated their employees at one point in thousands and thousands of people worked for the Allen Bradley Company, and it was like family to them.

 

00:07:19:03 – 00:07:50:05

Richard Graber

It was a neighborhood unto itself. So those are the core areas that we focus on and we try to spend our money and we don’t, of course, don’t do the work. We give away money to grantees like your university. Like your college. That does a great job. And it’s our job to try to find those people like you all to continue on this mission in a way that the brothers would approve.

 

00:07:50:06 – 00:08:30:16

Emmett McGroarty

Well, you termed it a great American success story. And I’m thinking, what is a great American success story? And if we think back about it, think back to colonial times, and the founding generation, as Clarence Thomas likes to call it, that really, did it together. A plan for independence and shepherded the country through those first few years and brought us the great Constitution we have today.

 

00:08:30:17 – 00:09:04:00

Emmett McGroarty

It seems to me the American story is really about perseverance and ingenuity and creativity. And it’s certainly a success. But it seems too that there’s another element to it is this element of really building up society, looking outward. And that seems to be the legacy they left behind in their lives. And with the Bradley Foundation.

 

00:09:04:01 – 00:09:50:02

Richard Graber

Well, I think that’s right. And I think it’s really about American exceptionalism, which the brothers believed in before they even talked about American exceptionalism. The brothers believed in that. And there is something unique in this country. And I’ve had the opportunity to live and work, all over the world. And one of the things that you really start to appreciate, and as a citizen of the United States is that unique DNA, that unique character that is generous, that likes to give back, that believes in the power of neighborhoods and people getting together.

 

00:09:50:04 – 00:10:15:07

Richard Graber

There’s something special about it. That just doesn’t exist. And in other places, I remember when, and working at the embassy, I thought it would be fun to have the embassy staff, which in my case were mostly Czech people, to do a philanthropic event some weekend. And I said, you pick out whatever you want to do, and we’ll go do it as a team and as an embassy.

 

00:10:15:09 – 00:10:43:13

Richard Graber

It was a very difficult concept for them. This is Europe. This is a more remote place and, you know, in Africa or, or a place like that. This is Europe. But it took a lot of prodding and pushing. But then when we did it, they got it and it was really a fun event.

 

Emmett McGroarty

At the heart of it, it almost seems as if it’s really about human dignity.

 

00:10:43:18 – 00:11:13:06

Richard Graber

Every person has dignity and deserves a chance.

 

Emmett McGroarty

Recognizing the dignity of others. You really sort of affirm your own dignity. Right? And that seems to be at the heart of these great American stories.

Richard Graber

It doesn’t guarantee success. You’ve got to work for that. And you have to have the kind of initiative. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

And the humility that we might have to go back and reconsider things.

 

00:11:13:08 – 00:11:59:09

Emmett McGroarty

But far too often you hear that Americans are selfish and inward looking. Is that the case? 

 

Richard Graber

No, I don’t think that’s the case at all. Americans are the most generous people on earth. More giving, more caring, more generous. It is part of our DNA as a country. And I just don’t buy that.

 

Emmett McGroarty

It seems that I remember the great British historian Paul Johnson said that you wrote that book on the history of the American people, and it was really an homage to the American people.

 

00:11:59:11 – 00:12:35:04

Emmett McGroarty

And, and he said, well, the Americans will, will look for in search, over and over and over again on and dwell on the problems of their society until they get it right, until they solve it. Is that the [case]. 

 

Richard Graber

Yeah. I mean, Americans do persevere, there’s no doubt about that. I think our civil society is.

 

00:12:35:06 – 00:13:08:14

Richard Graber

A little more troubled than it was, perhaps, if that’s the right word. I think we have less of that power of a neighborhood, with kids outside playing catch, things like that. It’s a little more structured. And we’ve had this. Centralization, this move towards a larger and larger government that has tried to fill that vacuum, but the government can’t.

 

00:13:08:18 – 00:13:41:15

Richard Graber

No government program can solve some of the problems that face every urban area, every rural area in this country. It’s people helping people that solve those problems, not government programs. And I think that’s proven Johnson’s Great Society, which really lurched this forward, didn’t work. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Alexis de Tocqueville said that, the spirit of the Republic lies in the idea of lies in our, our local government.

 

00:13:41:15 – 00:14:14:17

Emmett McGroarty

The idea that’s true government would have independence and power in any. He likened it almost to the he said it was so close to the family. It’s almost as if families and local governments were created by God, you know, countries…

 

Richard Graber

I mean, when you think about it, local government at least should be more important to every one of us than what they’re doing in Washington.

 

00:14:14:17 – 00:14:35:08

Richard Graber

It’s closer to home. It’s school boards. It’s city councils. It’s town boards that are affecting your day to day life a lot more than, some of then just function in Washington, D.C., for sure.

 

00:14:35:10 – 00:15:01:22

Richard Graber

Again, I think it’s getting harder and harder to get people to spend the time to do their service on those local town boards. And it and a lot of times with, you know, with some of the polarization and vitriol that we hear, it’s a thankless job for which you don’t get paid much or anything. And that’s too bad because these are really, really important jobs.

 

00:15:01:23 – 00:15:34:15

Emmett McGroarty

It seems to me with the local government, there’s really two goods produced. There’s the policy or the project that’s arrived at, but then secondly, there’s the personal bonds among the citizenry. And maybe you don’t get agreement, but you at least work with someone else to try and understand their point of view.

 

00:15:34:17 – 00:16:02:13

Richard Graber

And in case you lost a little bit of the ability to have a civil conversation, and maybe part of that is due to the way people get information, the impact of cell phones and social media that people are more into the screen than they are talking to their neighbor. Something to work on.

 

00:16:02:18 – 00:16:33:00

Richard Graber

What about centralized government?

 

That is that it’s not what the founders envisioned, but by any means. And, it makes it just that that is not the answer. That’s not that’s not the genius of our Constitution, which very much contemplated, as a federal government, but also state governments and local governments. Where most of the action was intended to happen.

 

00:16:33:02 – 00:17:10:08

Emmett McGroarty

It seems to me either way, there’s probably more dialog. There are more encounters with other people if it’s decentralized. 

 

Richard Graber

Absolutely. I mean, it just has to be the case that that’s true. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

And so that would mean then that centralization would never work. Even if you got a completely efficient centralized government, that centralized government is never going to produce those personal bonds that are a developed community.

 

00:17:10:08 – 00:17:41:23

Richard Graber

You can’t, it just can’t. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Would it also do you think it has downstream effects in terms of taking away from parents the opportunity to be people of substance and importance and guys of their children? 

 

Richard Graber

Well, of course, and we’ve seen it in education, in, in K-12 education with, with some in many respects cutting parents out of the whole equation.

 

00:17:42:01 – 00:18:06:11

Richard Graber

And this is why you’ve seen the response, particularly after Covid to school choice to parental choice to return some of that power, some of that decision making where it should be. I mean, who knows what’s better for a child than their parents? It is not a bureaucrat in the state capital. It is certainly not a bureaucrat sitting in Washington DC, far away.

 

00:18:06:13 – 00:18:33:05

Richard Graber

Those are not the answers. Education is the great example of where it should be very local. Let the parents decide. And to us at the Bradley Foundation, the more options, the better. Whether it’s home schools, charter schools, voucher schools, public schools, public schools are a big part of the equation. But give parents a choice and educate them on what those choices are.

 

00:18:33:07 – 00:19:10:19

Richard Graber

But trust people, trust parents to make the right call. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Now, of course, there are situations where parents can’t or won’t make those decisions, but I would be on the side of trusting parents. Is there is or perhaps, a habit that has fallen into disuse as education has become more centralized. Parents have sort of maybe lost that habit, that legacy of getting involved in, in their children’s education, knowing what they’re being taught, knowing what books they’re reading.

 

00:19:10:19 – 00:19:36:11

Richard Graber

Maybe but I think Covid woke him up. There’s a movement across this country, and we’re seeing it right now. I mean, look, look at the states that now have some sort of choice program. It’s incredible. And then Bradley’s again been involved in school choice for 35-40 years. And there have been moments of rise, but there have been moments of flat or nothing.

 

00:19:36:13 – 00:20:06:03

Richard Graber

We’re in one of those moments right now, a reawakening which I take as a positive. Now, the easiest part of that whole process is passing a law. The hardest part is, all right, now, what do we do with this law? You need teachers. You need buildings, you need to engage parents. It’s not easy. But we are at the front end of this country of some dramatic change, the way we educate our children.

 

00:20:06:03 – 00:20:26:02

Richard Graber

And it’s time because the results, for the most part, aren’t good. It’s not to say there aren’t great schools. There are great public schools. But there are a lot of really bad ones that aren’t working well, and we need to do something about it. It’s a civil right. We owe it to our kids and we need that. We need that informed citizenry.

 

00:20:26:03 – 00:21:06:14

Richard Graber

If this country continues to be the greatest place on earth. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

It does seem to be one of the most heartening trends in the United States. 

 

Richard Graber

Absolutely. It’s very exciting. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Yes. Yeah. Well, on that issue of Americans being, allegedly, being inward looking and selfish, you’ve served as the CEO of a huge foundation, of an international, of an international company and of a prominent law firm.

 

00:21:06:16 – 00:21:44:18

Emmett McGroarty

Is capitalism, do you think it is, it causes one to be inward looking or is it more outward?

 

Richard Graber

Oh, I don’t think so. I would say outward. And the reason is and people dispute this, but capitalism, at least capitalism in the United States, has created more opportune 90 more jobs, more life fulfilling activities than than any system that has ever been.

 

00:21:44:20 – 00:22:16:23

Richard Graber

That doesn’t sound like an inward looking system by any means. No. Does that mean that every single person within our country is going to succeed? Does that mean that everyone you know is entitled to, you know, a stipend of some sort? No. You have to work for it. But if you have the opportunity and if the system can create more opportunities, that’s success.

 

00:22:17:01 – 00:22:46:11

Richard Graber

And that’s why people flock to this country for those opportunities. Again, I go back to my days in Prague. You know, during the economy, there’s an element of the society there that yearns for the old days of communism, where everyone got something. And so in that sense, it was kind of comfortable. And at times capitalism is uncomfortable because at times you’re going to fail.

 

00:22:46:13 – 00:23:15:14

Richard Graber

But the beauty is you could come back and try again. And in a lot of societies, it’s not the case. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

It seems to me, listening to the story of the Bradley brothers, it seems to me there was the fellow Allen, who I suppose he looked at the Bradley brothers and he saw in them something special. He understood that they had a gift, a gift of perseverance, a gift of knowledge.

 

00:23:15:16 – 00:23:47:23

Emmett McGroarty

And he invested in them. It seems like, the cap that what that story is saying is a good capitalist, seeks to try to understand another person’s gifts. 

 

Richard Graber

I think that’s right. It’s a great story. The story of Allen Bradley. Allen was Doctor Stanton Allen, who was a friend of Line Bradley and he saw potential lying in Bradley and he loaned him I think he actually gave him $1,000 in seed money to start their company.

 

00:23:48:01 – 00:24:11:04

Richard Graber

And for that he got top billing on the Allen Bradley Company, which is a great story. But you’re right. I mean he saw something there. He served as a mentor. And, you know, $1,000 didn’t sound like a lot. And it’s not a lot, but it was more then than it is now. But, you know, a relatively small amount of money.

 

00:24:11:04 – 00:24:42:16

Richard Graber

But look what it turned into a multibillion dollar company that sold for a whole lot of money and benefited a lot of people. It is just those two brothers, and it’s now owned by Rockwell. And the company continues on. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Well, school choice now is, nationwide movement. And, it faced tremendous legal hurdles. From the get go.

 

00:24:42:18 – 00:25:12:10

Emmett McGroarty

But bit by bit.

 

Richard Graber

It took some courage, you know, it wasn’t all the Bradley Foundation. It took some courageous leaders at that time. And Wisconsin, Governor Tommy Thompson and, an African-American state legislator, Polly Williams, a man named Howard Fuller, the unlikely bedfellows that came together with an idea. And look what’s happened. And it couldn’t happen in other countries.

 

00:25:12:11 – 00:25:42:18

Emmett McGroarty

And it seems to me that this is a story, though, that happens in small ways, in big ways, all across the country. Yes. And I remember growing up there, there was a fellow who had a TV repair shop in the little downtown section of our neighborhood, and but his passion beyond the repair shop was teaching children how to play baseball.

 

00:25:42:20 – 00:26:06:11

Emmett McGroarty

And that’s what he was doing. He was investing in children. He had no children of his own, but that’s what he was doing. It seems to me that’s in the same spirit of the Bradley brothers. It’s another one of those great American stories. And you travel across the country and, and you see little shops and in their advertising, the civic projects, they’re engaged in.

 

00:26:06:13 – 00:26:40:06

Richard Graber

And, you know, at the Bradley Foundation, we make a lot of grants every year, and they can range anywhere from $10,000 to millions of dollars, some of the most satisfying and effective grants. We make our ten to $15,000 to local organizations in every community in the country that have these organizations, people that are helping people one life at a time with drug addiction or, healing, emotional issues, you name it.

 

00:26:40:08 – 00:27:01:17

Richard Graber

Those are the heroes that no one ever hears about in every community in America that are making a difference. And you don’t see them on TV, you don’t read about them, but they go to work every day. They’re prepared to get up in the middle of the night to to deal with an issue of, of a particular person.

 

00:27:01:17 – 00:27:30:03

Richard Graber

They’re working with that. That’s America. And like you’re your  friend, the coach, baseball. It’s affecting people’s lives in a way that they don’t appreciate at the time, but over time really do come to appreciate it. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

And people remember those. And it seems like everyone has those stories of the great teacher, the coach. Or the or the fellow who gave them his original job or invested in him.

 

00:27:30:05 – 00:28:04:19

Richard Graber

We take that for granted in this country. And it is, I tell you, it is not like that everywhere. It is just not.

 

Emmett McGroarty

My father used to say, what’s the difference? What’s the big difference? Do you see between the United States and other countries? And of course, I didn’t know the answer the first time you asked me, but he said, you know, in America, if there is a problem or if there’s something that needs to be done, people will get together and say, how are we going to get this done?

 

00:28:04:19 – 00:28:36:10

Emmett McGroarty

How are we going to fix that? In most other countries, people sit around and say, well, I wish the government would come in and take care of it…

 

Richard Graber

…let the government do it. I do think one thing we we don’t do enough in this country is celebrate those successes and celebrate and just take a breath every now and then and say, boy, you know, it’s really good to be an American with so many are looking at everything through the lens of race or gender or, sexual preference.

 

00:28:36:12 – 00:29:16:07

Richard Graber

And it’s very divisive. It’s very dangerous for this country. We got to get back and we can. Thinking about all the good that is happening, instead of focusing on what’s not quite right. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

We’ve struggled for over 100 years with ideologies that are contrary to the founding, with the idea of progressivism that people really don’t have the dignity to create their own lives is really what progressivism came down to.

 

00:29:16:09 – 00:30:05:22

Emmett McGroarty

We’ve struggled with conflict ideologies. And it seems to me a conflict ideology is real, it’s a disheartening worldview. It’s a disheartening worldview because what you’re saying is that people can’t really build up something great. We can’t build society, if we adhere to conflict ideology. It seems to me then that someone who came up with a great idea, which is sort of turned inward or wouldn’t dedicate himself or herself to building out a neighborhood or making a better place, for the next generation.

 

00:30:06:00 – 00:30:29:01

Richard Graber

It’s more fun to be optimistic and to try to work to improve things than to look at everything with a negative lens. I think you’re right. 

 

Emmett McGroarty

Was that really the spirit of the founders? Was it really they’re trying to build a better society for the next generation?

 

Richard Graber

I think so.

 

00:30:29:01 – 00:30:53:02

Richard Graber

And it’s never going to be perfect.

 

Emmett McGroarty

But that makes it a great time. Yeah. To be alive, to do something, to create something, to make things better. 

 

Richard Graber

Right. And we have in this country, we have I mean, you and I have opportunities that our parents and grandparents didn’t have. And I hope the same is true. And I believe the same will be true for our kids and grandkids.

 

00:30:53:04 – 00:31:24:22

Richard Graber

They’ll have even more opportunity if we allow it. If this growth of centralization, as we’ve talked about, continues, if we can’t slow that down, well, then there’s reasons for concern.

 

Emmett McGroarty

Can you imagine the world without the United States? 

 

Richard Graber

No, no. But, I really can’t. And again, I go back to my experiences living in other places.

 

00:31:25:00 – 00:32:04:12

Richard Graber

People look to the United States, particularly in a country like the Czech Republic with 10 million people, or all those former Soviet bloc countries, they know as much about what’s going on in this country as many of our fellow citizens. They follow politics, US as a leader. Sure. There’s grousing and complaining about what the US does, but the US leads and if the US seeks to withdraw in some ways and become more insular, I don’t agree with that.

 

00:32:04:12 – 00:32:43:08

Richard Graber

And there are many in my party and I’m a Republican that would do that. And I think it’s a mistake. I think we have a role in this world. We are role models in this world. And with that comes some responsibility.

 

Emmett McGroarty

Are national project, I would say is freedom. And that is, most in the most practical sense, it means taking care of the Constitution and the constitutional practice

 

Richard Graber

Even if it’s a little messy sometimes.

 

00:32:43:08 – 00:33:10:09

Richard Graber

And that’s okay. 

Emmett McGroarty

Maybe some who don’t understand the United States would say we’re arrogant. But if you look at that project, the projects, it’s a project of freedom and you look at the Constitution, it’s really a great document in humility. I mean, there’s humility.

 

Richard Graber

Yes. I mean, the genius of that document is incredible.

 

00:33:10:11 – 00:33:32:22

Richard Graber

It has worked. It has withstood time. You know, I think there’s some tension right now. I don’t think the legislature, the Congress, is fulfilling all of the duties that the founders envisioned. And I think that has created some of the tensions we see today. There’s been an abdication, I think, by and by the legislature at large.

 

Emmett McGroarty

Progressism.

 

00:33:33:03 – 00:33:59:13

Richard Graber

Yes. In favor of the executive branch, which isn’t a good thing. I think there are members of Congress that get that. The question is: Will they do anything about it?

 

Emmett McGroarty

We’ll see, we’ll see. But it’s the great American experiment, and it’s the best hope I’ll still take. Ambassador, thank you very much.

 

00:33:59:13 – 00:34:29:13

Emmett McGroarty

It’s been a pleasure. 

 

Richard Graber

Thanks so much. Great conversation. I enjoyed it.

 

Emmett McGroarty

As we conclude, thank you to our audience for joining us. Thank you for joining us and for this wonderful conversation. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and tell your friends that conversation is available on Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts. Until next time, God bless you.

• The Bradley Foundation