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Credit Jean-Philippe Delhomme
In The New York Times Book Review, N. Gregory Mankiw reviews Arthur C. Brooks’s “The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America.” Mr. Mankiw writes:
The image problem is that conservatives too often resemble Ebenezer Scrooge. By opposing increases in the minimum wage, advocating cuts in corporate taxes, railing against excessive regulation of business and worrying about the cost of entitlement programs, they appear to care only about the rich and well connected. They seem indifferent to the needs of those whom Hillary Clinton likes to call “everyday Americans.”
The solution, according to Brooks, is to speak less from the head and more from the heart. Instead of emphasizing specific policy proposals, stress broader goals and aspirations. Explain that you aim to help the underdogs. Identify with the Bob Cratchits of the world.
Those on the left may be tempted to see this strategy as a cynical attempt to hide the true motives of the right. But Brooks argues that conservatives are, by nature, as generous and caring about their fellow man as liberals, if not more so.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Brooks discusses “The Conservative Heart”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Susan Southard talks about “Nagasaki”; readers offer changes to the literary canon; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.