This Bradley Lecture is based on Brooks’s new book, “The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise” (Basic Books, May 2012).

The following is excerpted and adapted from Mr. Brooks' upcoming book "The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise," to be released on May, 8 2012.Liberals often accuse conservatives of being obsessed by morality. But the truth is, many conservatives are reluctant to talk...

Arthur C. Brooks was a Seattle-born liberal, but today he is president of the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right economic think tank in Washington, D.C.Brooks sees two competing visions for America’s future. To him, our excessive government spending and regulations have pushed us near a tipping point,...

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) president Arthur C. Brooks has announced that AEI scholar Leon R. Kass, M.D., is the recipient of AEI’s 2012 Irving Kristol Award. Dr. Kass will receive the award and deliver the Irving Kristol Lecture at AEI’s annual dinner on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

In recent months, electoral skirmishes and policy debates have hinged on the meaning of fairness. Defenders of free enterprise have often shied away from moral language, preferring to rely on facts, figures, or constitutional arguments to make their case. AEI president Arthur Brooks highlights free enterprise leaders who are changing, now making the moral case.

For some months now, President Obama has increasingly been couching his rhetoric in the language of fairness. But in recent weeks, a growing number of conservative elected officials have begun contesting Obama’s claim to be the arbiter of what constitutes fairness and taking the issue of fairness head on in public policy.

One constant factor in the 14 contests with exit polls is that Mitt Romney has tended to run best among high-income and high-education voters. His leading opponents -- Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and Georgia, Ron Paul in Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, and Rick Santorum everywhere else -- have run best among low-income and low-education voters.

A candidate's strengths can also be his weaknesses. Take the case of Rick Santorum.