Pluralism and Prosperity
Pluralism means more than the peaceful coexistence of different groups. It is a cornerstone of a healthy, happy, prosperous society.
FREOPP will host our marquee event of the year, the “Freedom & Progress” Conference, this coming Friday, November 21, in Washington, DC. View the agenda and register to join us here. Last month, I wrote here about what I hope will make the event a unique experience and unique benefit to our movement.
FREOPP also recently welcomed our new Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Alyssa Brodksy, to the team. You can read more about her background and the value she will create for our efforts here.
As readers of this Substack know well, FREOPP’s mission is to expand economic opportunity to those who least have it using the tools of individual liberty, free enterprise, technological innovation, and pluralism. Of those four tools, it is the last one - pluralism - that sometimes raises questions about its relevance to economic growth and upward mobility.
But make no mistake: pluralism is included in FREOPP’s mission statement because it is a central feature of the happy, healthy, and prosperous society that struggling Americans need to thrive.
Earlier this month, I was invited to speak at the Symposium on Young American Men in Washington, DC, discussing solutions to the many problems that currently plague young males in the United States. These problems range from drug addiction and loneliness that lead to deaths of despair, to simply feeling excluded from mainstream institutions like college campuses and spending too much time on Youtube.
There is no singular policy solution to any of these problems, though policy can make a difference. (For example, as FREOPP Senior Fellow Michael Tanner wrote this summer, certain policy reforms could increase marriage rates. Tanner also has a forthcoming paper diving into the issue of social isolation, and how government has worsened the problem by crowding out civil society).
That is the challenge of pluralism. Government cannot mandate pluralism; to do so would quite obviously undermine Americans’ First Amendment rights. Still, pluralism is important not only because tolerance and peaceful coexistence are themselves worthy ends.
Pluralism is particularly important for struggling Americans because it limits concentrated power, facilitates competitive markets with diversified choices, and undergirds the wide array of civil society institutions that bring connection and meaning to people’s lives. Put simply, pluralism helps foster and strengthen everything that makes a society, and the individuals and families that make it up, happy, healthy, and prosperous.
Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve seen two extremes ascendant:
The first, one that attempts to force not just acceptance, but outright embrace and support for certain lifestyles, behavior choices, or beliefs, and attempts to ‘cancel’ anyone who objects. Needless to say, forced embrace under the threat of losing your job is not pluralism.
The second, one that openly rejects pluralism entirely with an insistence that America would be better off as a more homogenous society with less diversity, particularly diversity of ethnicity or religious belief.
This latter extreme is not new, but seems to have worsened in response to the first - in particular, within the broad coalition of the American center-right.
There is nothing conservative about rejecting pluralism in favor of homogeneity. The kind of homogeneity these extremists seek is a blatant rejection of our founding principles and would grind our country to a halt economically, socially, and culturally, making all of us worse off. That is why I was so disappointed to see Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, an esteemed conservative think-tank, defend Tucker Carlson for conducting a playful conversation with an avowed racist and antisemite.
The only plausible explanation for Roberts’ decision was that he felt it necessary to do so because Carlson and his guest appeal to a segment of the American public - in particular, disaffected young men - that Roberts views as important to the conservative coalition.
This could not be further from the truth. Accepting these noxious ideas not only undercuts the cornerstones of wellbeing and prosperity, it is an unquestionable political loser because it (rightfully) turns off many times more people than it gains.
We must reaffirm our commitment to pluralism, and to advancing both policy change and cultural change that ensure it remains part of the American fabric. We simply will not live up to the Founders’ vision nor uplift struggling Americans without it.
FREOPP will continue to stand firmly in support of pluralism because we understand how important it is to a thriving country. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you next week at Freedom & Progress 2025.
In freedom,
Akash Chougule, President