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A review by amlecher
The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America by Arthur C. Brooks
3.0
I am fairly progressive - growing up I was fairly conservative, but in my 20s I started identifying more as a progressive due to social issues and the Iraq war. (In terms of changing views, the author and I are opposites). I enjoyed this book and think that it is something that most people who care about politics could get something out of it. This book has some really interesting ideas and there were many places where I nodded along and highlighted things I agreed with - even some of the times when he was criticizing progressive policy ideas.
On the other hand, there were so many times when I became frustrated with the author and the words that he put into the mouths of progressives – I felt like that was inaccurate a lot of the time. I know that President Obama was not perfect and I know the impacts of the Great Recession are still causing hardships, but I felt the author was unfair to him and came off as whiny. He discusses a couple times that Obama was unkind to conservatives, but fails to mention the multitude of times that conservatives were much worse to him.
He and I also have very different views of the Tea Party and why they formed and what their core believes are. He ignores how much they have tried to obstruct the government and accomplished very little, and he doesn't seem bothered by the fact that they have brought almost nothing feasible to the table in terms of creating jobs - I really wonder what could have happened if Republicans had brought some of the ideas in this book into legislation under Obama and tried to work to a compromise. I hope that it would have worked, but I don't know.
This book is almost solely about economic issues, it does not address important things like climate change or racial issues in the United States - and so there's a part of me that agrees with him on some of his economic views, but I could never see myself voting Republican because of their treatment of many other issues.
On the other hand, there were so many times when I became frustrated with the author and the words that he put into the mouths of progressives – I felt like that was inaccurate a lot of the time. I know that President Obama was not perfect and I know the impacts of the Great Recession are still causing hardships, but I felt the author was unfair to him and came off as whiny. He discusses a couple times that Obama was unkind to conservatives, but fails to mention the multitude of times that conservatives were much worse to him.
He and I also have very different views of the Tea Party and why they formed and what their core believes are. He ignores how much they have tried to obstruct the government and accomplished very little, and he doesn't seem bothered by the fact that they have brought almost nothing feasible to the table in terms of creating jobs - I really wonder what could have happened if Republicans had brought some of the ideas in this book into legislation under Obama and tried to work to a compromise. I hope that it would have worked, but I don't know.
This book is almost solely about economic issues, it does not address important things like climate change or racial issues in the United States - and so there's a part of me that agrees with him on some of his economic views, but I could never see myself voting Republican because of their treatment of many other issues.