| | | | |  | | By POLITICO MAGAZINE | |  | | 
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Arthur Brooks poses for a portrait after the Leadership and Happiness Symposium on June 20, 2023, in Cambridge, Mass. | Kayana Szymczak for POLITICO | | For years, Arthur Brooks was conservative Washington’s favorite policy wonk. As president of the American Enterprise Institute, the prominent conservative think tank and bastion of free-market orthodoxy, he influenced key Republican politicians, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post once called him “arguably the most important conservative voice of his time.” Then came Donald Trump, and with him a vision of “American Carnage” that quickly remade the GOP and eclipsed the cheery Reaganism that had propelled Brooks’ career in Washington. It was time for a new chapter. And why not write it with the likes of Oprah Winfrey? Brooks has rebranded as an expert on happiness. He teaches an in-demand class on the “science of happiness” at Harvard, doles out self-help in a hugely popular Atlantic column and, yes, he’s co-authoring a book with Winfrey: Build the Life You Want. He says that, despite his own personal conservative politics, he’s no longer a part of the movement. These days, he’s all about spreading joy. “Brooks’ transformation from conservative think tank president to happiness guru is a testament to his own unusually strong powers of self-invention,” writes Ian Ward in this week’s Friday Read, “but it’s also a measure of the dramatic changes that have swept over the conservative movement in the past decade.” Read the story.
| | | |  | “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J.D. Vance.” Can you guess who said this about the Republican senator for Ohio? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
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POLITICO illustration/Photos by Getty Images, iStock | Trumpical Correctness … Over the summer, dueling conservative manifestos — one populist, Trumpian; the other a defense of the traditional, free-market approach — traded salvos in the conservative movement’s civil war over economics. Now, thanks to the conservative Heritage Foundation, they’re making noise again. Two Heritage scholars signed onto the “Freedom Conservatism” manifesto — the one all about free-market Reaganism, which seemed to perfectly align with Heritage’s mission. Until the Foundation forced them to withdraw their signatures. Why? They’re not saying — but it might have something to do with anxiety over alienating any faction of the movement, no matter how Trumpy it gets. Michael Schaffer looks into the intra-party brouhaha in this week’s Capital City column.
| | | |  | Sen. Mitt Romney’s decision to retire from the Senate after one term signals the exit from the political stage of one of the biggest GOP figures in 21st-century politics. Here’s how to sound smart when your friends are processing it this weekend (from POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna): - Point out that it’s harder and harder to be a dealmaker. Romney’s exit removes one of the more visible contributors to major bipartisan dealmaking of the last several years. - Romney cited fears of his ability to deliver legislatively during a second term in his announcement. Wonder why? Look no further than the struggles of the House this week to advance what is usually their easiest government spending bill (on defense), as Congress stumbles toward a shutdown. - What a ride it’s been: It was just seemingly an eternal seven years ago when Romney was dining with Donald Trump in hopes of being secretary of state. He’ll now exit the national stage as one of his most outspoken GOP critics of the former president. - What comes next? Keeping Utah’s Senate seat in GOP hands won’t be a problem, but will voters opt for a rigid conservative like Sen. Mike Lee or someone from the more collaborative and pragmatic mold of Gov. Spencer Cox?
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Alicia Roth Weigel is seen in the Texas Capitol in Austin. | Courtesy of Alicia Roth Weigel | The Story of an Inverse Cowgirl … Alicia Roth Weigel grew up with a secret. But when Texas considered an anti-trans bathroom law, she made a decision to share it — and her life as an activist would never be the same. In this excerpt from her unabashedly political new memoir, Inverse Cowgirl, she tells the story of how she decided to come out as an intersex woman — not just to friends, family or even the public, but in front of the staunchly conservative Texas legislature.
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A tour group walks through the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 30, 2012. | Elise Amendola/AP Photo |
How to Really Diversify Campus … How should elite universities respond to the Supreme Court’s overturning of race-based affirmative action in admissions? If they follow Harvard’s lead, they’ll look for workarounds, like allowing applicants to write about race in application essays. But there’s an equitable and legal way schools could diversify campus, without searching for loopholes: Boost low-income students. So why aren’t they? Because it could reduce “their precious, complex and labor-intensive ‘holistic’ admissions process to a simple bunch of pluses and minuses. And they won’t have that,” writes Marc Novicoff.
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ebay, bangzoom4 | Mitt Romney’s announcement that he will retire from the Senate weakens the centrist wing of the Republican party, already on life support, and will make it harder for bipartisan legislation to get through Congress. It also marks the end of a proud political dynasty, which only contained two family members — a father and a son — but nevertheless made impressive achievements, and maintained dignity in angry political times. It began with Mitt Romney's father, George, a self-made man who came within striking distance of the Republican nomination in 1968, and served as governor of Michigan from 1963-1969 (and later as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Richard Nixon). He had risen to become the head of the American Motor Company, then made the leap from business to politics when he became the governor of Michigan. To many, he seemed like presidential timber, especially as Lyndon Johnson lost his way in Vietnam. But Vietnam was hard for everyone, and Romney, too, found that topic a political minefield. After he misspoke a few times, then corrected himself, a fellow governor, Jim Rhodes of Ohio, said, “watching George Romney run for the presidency was like watching a duck try to make love to a football.” A George Romney button from 1968 flickers from one image to another, reminding us how brief a moment in the spotlight can be. It’s available on eBay for $4.25. (From historian Ted Widmer.)
| | | **Who Dissed answer: That would be Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who announced this week that he will be retiring after one term. He shared the complaint about Vance with the Atlantic’s McKay Coppins for his anticipated biography, Romney: A Reckoning. The former GOP presidential nominee lamented Vance’s MAGA transformation: “I do wonder, how do you make that decision?” he told Coppins. “How can you go over a line so stark as that — and for what?” Vance later shot back at Romney: “If he has a problem with me, I kind of wish he just acted like a man and spoke to me directly.” politicoweekend@email.politico.com | | | | Follow us | | | | |
