The think tank chief concludes his book with “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Conservatives,” a 38-page self-help manifesto for how lawmakers should talk so that real people will listen. Here is a summary of his key points—
- Be a moralist. “Instead of championing low-wage Americans, conservatives sound like tax accountants to billionaires,” Brooks writes. “When we cheerlead entrepreneurship, for example, we usually heap praise on rags-to-riches outliers who are now multinational executives.” In explaining their opposition to a higher minimum wage, he urges conservatives to “stop laboring to explain inflation cycles, consumption patterns, and the laws of supply and demand.” Instead, he says, “lead with your heart and offer a statement of principle.”
- Fight for people, not against things. Using a word cloud from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 RNC convention speech in Detroit, Brooks points out that “people” appeared more than anything else. He argues that the Great Communicator never got bogged down in wonky specifics. Brooks writes. “Economics runs quietly in the background, like your computer’s operating system … Republicans today have become like a bunch of computer geeks talking about ‘bits,’ ‘algorithms,’ and ‘binary values.’ Most people don’t understand that stuff or much care about it.”
- Get happy. “How often did you see Ronald Reagan truly angry? … His jokes were more devastating than any fire-and-brimstone words could have been,” Brooks recalls. “Thin skin and a hair trigger make us look like an angry political minority.”
- Steal all the best arguments. “Make the arguments for empathy and compassion,” he writes. “Trait-trespassing is the right thing to do and it’s the only way to win nationwide.”
- Say it in 30 seconds. “Each of us has ancient regions in our brain that make us decide if that politician on TV is a friend or foe,” writes Brooks. “If our brain says he or she’s a friend, we’re going to keep listening.”