Kevin Roberts

And so what do we do?

We start having public debates, conversations on our stage at Heritage.

introducing, including for our own colleagues, that maybe we were wrong, well-intentioned.

And then we published this big paper in 2023.

And everything for us starts with the research in order for us to talk about it, right?

A new Cold War with China in 2023.

The Washington establishment went nuts.

Why?

Because that's not the prevailing Republican establishment thought.

We're going to turn China into the United States.

This story leads to one of my favorite stories in my tenure at Heritage.

our aforementioned longtime president, Ed Fuller, calls me and he says, Kevin, we were wrong on China and I want to come to an all-staff meeting and I want to explain why.

I said, Ed, you don't have to do that.

You know, there's risk to you.

People will think that, you know, it's your fault.

I said, you've got nothing to be blamed on.

I had the same idea.

He came to a staff meeting and he said, I want to tell all of you that the policy we're now embarking on, which is a hawkish position on China, where now the conservative movement is, certainly the Trump administration is,

And he said, if we're going to have the humility to persuade people that we were wrong and now we're right, it starts with conversations internally.

It starts with conversations on the stage.