The Conservative Heart

Published October 28, 2015

by Matt Caulder, Capitol Connection, October 27, 2015.

In his book The Conservative Heart, Arthur Brooks writes that for too long conservatives have argued moral issues in monetary terms.

In their quest to preserve the American dream of the possibility of success for every one, Brooks claims, they have become lost in debates over Gross Domestic Product and Welfare overruns, speaking from the head instead of from their hearts.

And he makes a good point. When Progressives are screaming from the rooftops that people need help, and that people are being held down by big corporations getting fat off of their work, and meanwhile conservatives whisper about free enterprise’s effect of the GDP and the overall wealth of the nation, then conservatives lose … because they seem not to care about PEOPLE.

Brooks, who has served as president of the American Enterprise Institute since 2009, said that conservatives have not communicated that the principles of free enterprise that they stand behind are built on the foundation of improving the lives of all Americans, just as they have across the world in developing nations.

Brooks says that conservatives wrap moral arguments in material language while progressives wrap material arguments in moral coverings. He means that conservatives have argued material policies to improve society without expressing why the argument is grounded in the moral belief that opportunity belongs to everyone willing to fight for it.

This observation would seem to communicate that conservatives need to learn how to tell the public that they care about the well-being of people just as much as the Progressives, and that they know how to fix things so that people are not stuck in poverty, resting on the safety net for their entire lives.

Brooks will speak about his New York Times-bestseller and what conservatives have to do to change the narrative that they only care about money and not people in Charlotte Wednesday.

I look forward to studying Brooks’ book and making a full review of the text, and hearing in Charlotte, but as time is short I will have to return to the topic soon. I will leave you, reader, with this … spoiler alert: In his book Brooks shares “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Conservatives” in which he instructs conservatives to…