The many tributes pouring in honoring Ed Feulner—founder, trustee, and longest-serving president of the Heritage Foundation—are both fitting and deeply meaningful to those of us who wake up every day honored to advance the Heritage mission.

As Heritage Board Chairman Barb Gaby and President Kevin Roberts wrote in their note to staff, alumni, and the many friends gained over the past 52 years:

Ed believed in addition, not subtraction. Unity, not uniformity. One of his favorite mantras was “You win through multiplication and addition, not through division and subtraction.” His legacy is not just the institution he built, but the movement he helped grow—a movement rooted in faith, family, freedom, and the Founding.

Feulner’s words contain practical wisdom. In this era of political polarization and cultural fragmentation, they continue to serve us as a powerful tactical roadmap. In the spirit of self-governance, they call for a movement that grows by building coalitions, not by purging dissent; that persuades rather than polarizes; and that unites Americans around shared values rather than dividing them by ideology.

America is still at a crossroads. Our institutions have lost the public’s trust. Our culture has veered into absurdity. Our national debt has ballooned while our global standing has slipped. Into this chaos stepped Donald Trump and JD Vance—not to manage the decline, but to disrupt it. A grassroots revolt was brewing against a ruling class that had lost its grip on reality. These two channeled it. Their rise is not merely political. It is a seismic shift, a demand to heal long-festering wounds, restore common sense, and put America first.

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This populist awakening is not a departure from conservatism. It is conservatism’s renewal. It will define the conservative movement for the next 50 years. And it is precisely what animates our work at Heritage. If the conservative movement is serious about restoring self-government, now is the time for a new fusionism—one rooted in principle, driven by voters, and unapologetically American.

The potential is greater now than ever before. The conservative movement now has a chance to grow, to lead, and to help those great Americans for whom we labor. Consider parents. Their children are under attack at every turn. They want to trust society and institutions, and they demand that their primacy be not only respected but made ascendant. Consider the captains of our capital markets: Exhausted by ESG mandates, DEI orthodoxy, and force-fed wokeness, they yearn for freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and a restoration of merit. Consider our MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) friends: Tired of being lied to, they seek truth in nature, especially as it relates to bodily health.

Those animated by natural law, free markets, freedom of speech, and parents’ inherent rights make for a formidable coalition. They are the fuel for a movement that is at its best when it’s adding and multiplying. This is the path forward. And it is entirely compatible with the modern conservative movement. It’s not enough just to talk about self-governance. We have to do the hard and messy work of fostering it. We know we can—and we are. The hard work of selling self-governance requires getting out of Washington, D.C., to encourage such virtue where it is already evident and to support it where it needs to be rekindled.

Human nature does not change, and neither do principles. But how they are realized must adapt to changing circumstances.

Heritage has long understood that there are few permanent victories in politics (another Feulnerism!). That’s why we focus on fundamental policies: taxes, energy, election integrity, national security, and family first, to name a few. These priorities shaped the old fusionism that defined the conservative policy landscape for decades. Now, it’s time for a new fusionism—one that reflects the populist energy of our time and the enduring truths of our tradition. It’s a fusion of people united not just by a common enemy but by a rediscovery of fundamental truths.

As Kevin Roberts recently told The Hill, “the fusion of populism and conservatism we’re seeing here in the United States is happening in almost every other country.” Truth can be denied for only so long before natural law rears its head. This is not just theory—it’s practice. Our job is to manifest the fundamental, self-evident truths underpinning this populist wave. The right’s reinvigorated movement means the left will be under constant duress. The pain, for them, will be real. Because We the People are on offense—for America.

That offense is not being coordinated from D.C. conference rooms or cable news greenrooms. It’s being led by the American people. By families engaging neighbors on their front porches and cul-de-sacs. By moms and dads running for school board and serving on city councils. By citizens reclaiming their rights and putting both state and federal governments back in their constitutional boxes—and shrinking them at the same time. This is self-governance restored.

It is our conservative moment. A durable movement doesn’t just react. It shapes.

In honor of Feulner’s vision and Roberts’s charge, Heritage has, in just the past 19 months, hosted, sponsored, or attended 242 events in 30 states across America and six countries around the globe. Our talented teammates are deployed to talk policy, politics, legislation — but also to hear directly from the American people and build relationships. The Heritage Foundation is a friend to every American. That posture, in part, explains why our number of supporters continues to grow.

Over the past few years, this expansive outreach and membership growth has been a highlight of our board meetings. At our most recent meeting, Ed smiled. He pursed his lips, leaned back in his chair, then sat bolt-upright and asked us to share more of the playbook. So, we did. He was delighted that Heritage was at NatCon, SoCon, and FreedomFest. He loved that we were at SPN, ADF, Moms for Liberty, Turning Point, the Iowa State Fair, and NASCAR races in Richmond. He embraced our presence at the RNC Convention, and he loved our attempts, though unsuccessful, to get invited to the DNC. His belly laugh was loud and, as always, his eyes twinkled. His Heritage was, as always, on offense for the American people.

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It’s what Ed wanted. As others have written, in touching memory, Ed saw the status quo of the 1970s and broke it by building and presiding over the think tank that shapes public policy more than any other. Ed saw the swamp had turned into a hot tub in the early 2000s and thus launched Heritage Action to hold public officials accountable and get good policy over the finish line. As he handed the baton to Kevin Roberts, he relished the conversation about spinning the Daily Signal and Oversight Project off. Both of them, in their respective ways, would elevate accountability to a whole new level.

Always an innovator. Always a builder. Always for the American people.

Listening to Ed Feulner the political scientist and Kevin Roberts the American historian was like being front row in a master class. This moment of revival is deeply aligned with Abraham Lincoln’s timeless insight: “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.” Lincoln understood that the soul of a republic lies not in its statutes but in its people. Whoever molds public sentiment, he said, “goes deeper than he who enacts statutes.” Today’s conservative-populist fusion is doing just that: shaping sentiment, restoring trust, engaging Americans who are waking up, and renewing the American spirit.

At its best, the conservative movement is not rigid but deliberative. It believes in limited government, not because it distrusts authority, but ultimately because it trusts the people. It believes that truth emerges through dialogue, not dogma. And it believes that freedom is not granted by the state but secured by the people.

Through multiplication and addition, conservatism will triumph—not by excluding, but by expanding; not by dividing, but by uniting. This is how we secure a future where the American spirit and the American nation reign supreme. This is our path onward, and how we revitalize our republic.