Arthur C. Brooks, who heads the influential conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, is consumed by the fact that conservatives appear to have lost touch with ordinary working people, lecturing them about fiscal responsibility and hard work while failing to acknowledge the poverty and lack of opportunity that afflict many. As a solution, he provides a blueprint for the Right to adopt the rhetoric of compassion while changing nothing about its policies, many of which disadvantage the working poor he hopes to win over.

The Conservative Heart is consequently a study in cognitive dissonance. Brooks acknowledges that “most people who are falling behind are not doing so on purpose,” yet spends much of the book endorsing work requirements for welfare and arguing government assistance goes out to people who aren’t “really” poor. He spends a whole chapter extolling the uplifting nature of work, while also deriding the Obama stimulus package. He complains conservatives criticize the welfare state without providing an alternative, yet believes social justice can be reached through promoting the right “values.” Still, there is much to be gleaned here about the rhetorical shifts the Right hopes to make in a more populist era.

History has seen a number of instances of speech repression coming from the liberal-left — from the “Brown Scare” of the late 1930s to today’s student activists keeping their campuses free of right-wing speakers. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel chooses to focus on none of those, reserving her ire for financial disclosure and transparency laws that have helped expose the corporate and big money donors behind political groups of all stripes.