At least conservatives HAVE think tanks. And Heritage uses damn good researchers, economists, and historians with impressive credentials. I have challenged my liberal friends many times to show HOW the Heritage Foundation got something wrong. So far crickets.
I won't lie about the excellent sources I use to support my opinions whether they be conservative (Heritage Foundation), libertarian (CATO), or liberal (Brookings Institute) and et al. In order to pass my test as a credible source, the information provided has to hold up under scrutiny and has to be untainted by partisanship.
I do avoid using sources that exist for the purpose of exposing or challenging the opposing ideology whether those be left or right leaning. The Heritage Foundation is not in that business.
Both Heritage and CATO are as equally tough on bad Republican initiatives as they are bad Democratic initiatives, and flawed concepts promoted as 'conservative' as they are on failed liberal initiatives. And both are brutally honest in their conclusions. I use Brookings (and other sources) for the credfible liberal argument because Brookings and some others (Raspbery, Camille Paglia, Michael Kinsley, et al) have stood up under scrutiny as being among the most objective and honest left leaning groups or commentators out there.
I won't apologize for being a modern American conservative (aka classical liberal) with a point of view that I can defend or for using good sources only because they share my point of view. I think it foolish to dismiss an honest source because of the label somebody puts on it.
And again my opinion has been that liberals cannot and will not defend their point of view but rather their entire argument most often is pointing fingers at others that they declare to be evil, greedy, selfish, wrong, bad, worse, partisan (meaning not liberal), or they did it too, yadda yadda. And by dismissing any evidence to the contrary, they never have to challenge their own point of view.
It is one of the primary reasons that liberalism is in such disfavor among a plurality if not a majority of Americans.
From a 2009 Gallup poll--I'll watch for something more current:
"Conservatives" Are Single-Largest Ideological Group