Manhattan Institute senior fellow Avik Roy devotes a Forbes column (based in part on this article) to the notion that conservatives ought to craft an agenda focusing on economic mobility.

Free-market capitalism has been the single greatest cure for human poverty that the world has ever seen. So why is it that it’s the left, not the right, that gets credit for its efforts on behalf of the poor?

The reason isn’t that progressive policies are better for the poor. It’s that 80% of life is showing up — and when it comes to the topic of how to address poverty, it’s the left, not the right, that shows up with a concrete policy agenda. …

… Conservatives, of course, have long held a sheaf of policy ideas to address the real problems that low-income Americans face. Far too often, though, the conservative approach to poverty and social mobility is left to collect dust in think tanks, while Republican politicians focus on cultivating the people who already vote for them.

Roy urges conservatives to refocus attention on “those at the bottom looking up.”