In your editorial “The Heritage Foundation Blows Up” (Dec. 23), you suggest that we’ve abandoned our conservative roots to play the “game of populist politics.” Nonsense. That mistakes a change in tactics for a change in principles.

Reagan-era conservatism defeated an evil empire, whipped stagflation and challenged a lawless judiciary. Heritage provided key intellectual support at every step. Today, we must preserve our communities and borders, confront a belligerent China and reverse our collapsing marriage and birthrates. Heritage is, again, playing a pivotal role in the debate.

The abundance of Heritage-endorsed state, federal and international policy victories in recent years speaks to our success and helps explain the attention we get from the media. The battle for the future of conservatism is raging, and we’re exactly where we want to be: in the middle of the fight.

You write that “a think tank is fundamentally a collection of people and donors who believe in certain ideas and principles.” True enough. Our role as a conservative public-policy organization requires stating our conservative ideals. But equally important is converting them into enduring policy wins. We’ve chosen to be in the arena with and for the American people.

So, consistent with our founding charter, I’ll reaffirm what we’re all about: We love free markets, free trade, technology and international allies. But we’ll pursue those goods without sacrificing our love of faith and family, our national security, the innocence of our children or loyalty to the U.S. In short, we cherish our past successes while prioritizing reliance on God, the centrality of the family and defense of country to meet modern challenges.

Some have good-faith disagreements with this vision and framing of conservatism, and we welcome working with them wherever we can. Others object based on rank opportunism and iconoclasm, and for those types, we dust off our feet and carry onward.