David Frum

Does it work in a year like 26 when the country is so in an uproar about what the president has done nationally and when now there may be a war on, or there is a war on, maybe a big war, maybe still on in November?

Or is that always the right formula for breaking out in unlikely places like a Democrat in red Texas?

Let me end by asking you to lift your eyes a little bit out the time horizon.

There's going to be a census in 2030.

Texas is a growth powerhouse, both for wealth and population, increasingly dominant state in the country.

What does American politics anchored in Texas look like in the years after 2030?

Peter O'Rourke, thank you for joining me today on The David Frum Show.

Thank you, David.

So as mentioned at the top of the show, we're doing something a little different in the book segment this week.

2026 is the 250th anniversary of a lot of events in English literature and English political theory.

Not just the Declaration of Independence, of course, in 1776, but as we discussed earlier, February of 1776 saw the publication of the first volume of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

And March of 1776 saw the publication of The Wealth of Nations.

Rather than just talk about the wealth of nations myself, I thought I would take advantage of the fact that one of my oldest friends in the world is one of the world's leading experts on the philosophy of Adam Smith.

Sam Fleischacker, as I mentioned above, teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and he's the author of a 2004 study of Adam Smith's philosophy.

And I'm going to ask him to back me up on my limited knowledge of things Smithian today.

Sam, thank you for making time.

All right, so let's start with, I'm hoping we can get to two questions, but here's the one that is most important.

I think a lot of people have a mental model of Adam Smith as a kind of early libertarian, someone who thought it's all about the individual, engaged in business and transactions and laissez-faire, nothing to do with society.

Is this an accurate reading of Smith?

Let me pause you there.