President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., February 6, 2020. Arthur C. Brooks is behind Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence. (Joyce N. Boghosian / White House)

Arthur C. Brooks was the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. He gave a talk entitled “Love Your Enemies,” which is also the title of his latest book. Brooks was followed at the rostrum by President Trump — who issued a kind of rebuttal. “Arthur, I don’t know if I agree with you,” Trump began. Anyway, it was a very interesting, very unusual prayer breakfast, making headlines coast to coast.


Brooks is the guest on my latest Q&A podcast, here. We begin by talking about the breakfast — on which he is very amusing (and serious, too). Arthur Brooks, just to remind you, is the conservative scholar and writer who for ten years was the president of the American Enterprise Institute. Today, he is at Harvard: a professor at the Kennedy School of Government, and a faculty fellow at the Business School.

After we talk about the headline-making prayer breakfast, we talk about “free-market fundamentalism.” That’s what the likes of him and me have been accused of. America, we are told, has been in the grip of such fundamentalism for decades, and must be set free of it.

Really?


In my observation, free-marketeers are defensive, back on their heels, reluctant to take a real fight to their opponents. This is mystifying to me. Free-marketeers have a lot to boast about — like the uplifting of millions or billions from dire poverty. I’ll put up our record against the central planners’ any day.


We are further told that capitalism is “atomizing,” anti-social, etc. In truth, is there anything more cooperative than capitalism? More collaborative than capitalism? Not much.

At any rate, Arthur Brooks is a master explainer of a free economy — especially its moral dimension — in the tradition of Milton Friedman, Michael Novak, and other gents we have known.

Further in our podcast, Brooks and I talk about populism, on left and right. Will the 2020 election come down to dueling populisms? Last week, another Brooks, David, had a column on just this subject. (Speaking of Brookses, Arthur Brooks once met Albert Brooks, the actor and comedian. Their exchange was pretty funny, as Arthur relates.)

We also talk about conservatism: What is it? Who’s a conservative? American conservatives were always distinct from the European Right. What about now? Then we talk some Harvard. Years ago — in the late ’70s — there was a hot book on the right: Harvard Hates America. How about it? What does Professor Brooks have to say to that?



Winding up, we talk about Biden vs. Sanders; the question of character in politics; and, finally, Beethoven. Not long ago, Brooks wrote a column on what we can learn from this extraordinary man, Ludwig van Beethoven. At Arthur’s suggestion, our podcast goes out with a portion of the Missa solemnis.

Arthur C. Brooks is a man with the courage of his convictions, and excellent convictions they are. He’s also terrific company. Again, to listen to him, go here.