Arthur Brooks The Conservative Heart

The Conservative Heart Book Critique
In the novel, The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and more Prosperous America, written by a New York Times bestselling Arthur, Arthur Brooks, he expresses how conservatives have been a movement of the head instead of the heart. Arthur Brooks is the 11thpresident of the American Enterprise Institute which is a nonpartisan public policy research institute and became president when Barack Obama was elected president (Brooks 1). In the American Enterprise Institute, Brooks works with scholars, policymakers, and elected officials to ensure free enterprise to all American’s (Brooks 2). At the age of nineteen, Brooks left college to travel the world and play French horn; he finally ended up

in the City Orchestra of Barcelona and met his wife Ester (Brooks 3-5). Brooks eventually decided that although it was fun, he couldn’t live off a musician’s salary for the rest of his life so he moved back to the United States to finish his bachelor’s degree (Brooks 4). He then earned a Ph.D. in public policy and spent ten years as a professor (Brooks 4). Brooks currently lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids (Brooks 5).
In the beginning of Brooks’ novel, he explains America’s happiness or rather the pursuit of happiness within America. He states that it’s statically proven that conservatives are happier than liberals. To be more precise, he writes that about forty percent conservative women say they are very happy, which makes them a little happier than conservative men and a lot happier than liberal women (“The Conservative Heart” p. 27). He then explains sources of happiness, one being our genes, he writes that forty eight percent of our general happiness comes from our genetic makeup, as Brooks says, “when you blame unhappiness on your parents, you’re actually half right” (“The Conservative Heart” p. 28). Another source of happiness explained by Brooks is the events that inflect our lives, studies suggest that about forty percent do control our happiness. Brooks may mention this because in my opinion many of American’s happiness reflects off of who is in office, which common sense of course, a conservative won’t like a liberal in office and a liberal won’t like a conservative in office. He continues the beginning of the book with what he calls the “happiness portfolio” which are; faith, family, community, and meaningful work and to stay happy we should focus on these things.
After starting the book with happiness he proceeds with a more controversial topic, poverty and welfare. Personally agreeing with his statement, “our government seems content with making poverty a little less insufferable, yet another White House is promising different results using the same old policy tools, and the poor are falling further behind” (“The Conservative Heart” p. 78). America is constantly urging to do something about the poverty level, but no one has actually taken the initiative to do something about it. In Brooks’ words, “It’s not as though voters are crazy, rather it’s everyone knows we must do something to help struggling people, and the old ideas appear to be the only ones to offer” (“The Conservative Heart” p. 78). He also says, “It’s hard to convince people to give you the reins of power when more than half think you don’t care about them and more specifically, it’s impossible to convince them you can revamp the welfare state when only fewer than one in ten think you will put poor people’s interests first” (“The Conservative Heart” p. 79). It is the typical reaction to think that conservatives don’t want to help poverty because of their stand point on money and welfare and that’s what Brooks is trying to express here, that they do care; it’s just hard to convince the ones who are actually in poverty. Brooks tells a story about a homeless man who lived in terminals and one night a man walked up to him, this man goes around New York and hands out sandwiches and does other small gestures for the homeless. He and his wife started a homeless and job training organization for men called the “Doe Fund” (“The Conservative Heart” p.83). Brooks says, “the formula for the conservative heart, right from the Doe Fund’s living laboratory, all we have to do is remember four principles; people are assets, not liabilities, work is a blessing, not a punishment, values matter most in lifting people up, and help is important, but hope is essential” (“The Conservative Heart” p.105). He suggests that we need to get out and start putting these principles into action to actually see a change, such as the man and his wife did to build the “Doe Fund.” Could he be right? Could we actually try and change America from the mess that it’s is now? I believe the only way we could find out is if we went out and tried to make a difference like Brooks says. Brooks mentions a man by the name of, Richard Norat in his book and how he has learned and believes in the “American Dream” he has learned at the Doe Fund, “My American Dream is to be a part of the society, be a part of the community, to be able to live comfortably and not be afraid of someone taking it from me, knowing that I can wake up in the morning and I have a place to go to make my money, to have a job” (“The Conservative Heart” p.105). I think we can all learn from this, in the aspect of getting out into the community and get involved. If you look at the statistics, you will see that a lot of Americans don’t actually vote. The number of Americans that are eligible to vote is 218,959,000; the numbered registered to vote is 146,311,000; and the number of Americans who voted in the 2012 election is 126,144,000 which is 57.5% of Americans (“Voting Statistics” par. 1). Voting is a right but also a privilege, it gives us Americans a voice in who we want to run our community and our country, that’s a pretty big deal and almost half of the people eligible to vote, don’t get out and vote.
Brooks’ whole point is the lessons of the conservative heart and how we have the right, duty, and privileged to help those below us, and how we must remind them of the “dignity of work and the importance of progress” (“The Conservative Heart p.130).

Brooks goes on by mentioning an “agenda” and to accomplished what we just mentioned involves; faith, family, community, and work or better yet, social justice. If we go on this agenda it will take us from fighting for things to fighting for people, which may get us further. He then finishes his book by explaining how to talk so the American people will listen. First is be a moralist, he says that it’s not that conservatives are too moralistic, it’s that they’re not moralistic enough, and I would have to agree because conservatives do have very strong viewpoints on things just like liberals have strong views on the same or other things, and it seems like conservatives aren’t expressing their beliefs as much as they can or should (“The Conservative Heart” p.184). Second, is like I already mentioned, fight for people, not against things. Third is to get happy, fourth is to steal all of the best arguments, fifth is to go where you’re not welcome, six is to say it in thirty seconds; which is logically because that’s when you have the most attention, and seven is to break your bad habits (“The Conservative Heart” p.212). Brooks’ reasoning for all of the principles is to show us that we must share what is written on the conservative

heart.
I personally really enjoyed this book and agreed with about everything that Arthur Brooks had to say. On the other hand, a liberal might not enjoy this book too much because it’s highly conservative, hints the title “The Conservative Heart.” Even though, they may be able to learn from it because Arthur Brooks use to actually be a liberal. By reading this book, it made me realize different perspectives on things. I now want to get out and share the conservative heart with everyone because it’s more of a movement rather than just a name. I have already recommended this book to many people I know and will continue to do so, Arthur Brooks showed the kind of writer he is which is, excellent.

Works Cited
Brooks, Arthur. “Arthur C. Brooks.” Arthur C. Brooks. Arthur C. Brooks, 2015. Web. 20 October 2015. .
Brooks, Arthur C. The Conservative Heart: How to Build aFairer, Happier, and more Prosperous America. United States: HaperCollins, 2015. Print.
“Voting Statistics”.Statistic Brain Research Institute. Statistic Brain Research Institute 2015.Web. 22 October 2015. < http://www.statisticbrain.com/voting-statistics/>.