Compassionate conservatism is dead

www.hotchicken.com ^ | feb 28 2005 | www.hotchicken.com

[thebiggestdog]

As I was freezing my butt off in the frigid midwest, I was thinking about Ronald Reagan and his famous 'tear down this wall' speech. That, my friends was compassionate conservatism. Unfortunately, we may not see another conservative like RR for a long time. The ideals that Reagan had were simple-the individual can do a better job of managing his or her own life than the government can. Ronnie saw government as being too intrusive on peoples lives, and that if you give something away for free that could be earned, you are doing that person no favor.

I was talking with a woman who lives in San Francisco last night over a few cocktails, and she is no longer happy in the city by the bay. San Fran has become the Ritz Carlton for 'homeless' people, and the last survey done estimates there are about 10,000 in the city. The county of San Francisco, in an attempt to be compassionate to these people, pays them around $400 dollars a month. Where does that money go? Not for food, shelter and basic necessities, but for alcohol, drugs or simply down the drain. The folks who run SF and certainly not conservatives, but many conservatives are moving towards liberalville.

[thebiggestdog]

Bush's recent budget cuts have done nothing to stop the steady flow of pork-laden bills to his desk. Can W. change his course and steer the ship in a course like the one taken by Ronnie?

[Aetius]

The whole "compassionate conservative" slogan was an insulting one all along, as it played into and gave credence to the lies told about conservatives by the Left.

I can understand the rationale behind it from a political perspective, but the way Bush said it always sounded to me like he was implicitly saying that conservatives who preceded him were not compassionate.

[ventana]

ditto. v's wife.

[econ_grad]

I remember Bush saying that politicians who are opposed to illegal immigrants somehow want to keep Mexicans poor. I am in favor of migrant workers, but I don't think people who are opposed to my viewpoint somehow are prejudiced against Mexicans.

[Aetius]

I wish President Bush held a similar open-minded approach to dissent on this issue as you do. His rhetoric on immigration is practically indistinguishable from that of the Left and ethnic interest groups.

[smonk]

---The whole "compassionate conservative" slogan was an insulting one all along, as it played into and gave credence to the lies told about conservatives by the Left.---

it was intended to, and was successful in, blunting the bigoted and confused democratic attacks on the GOP as being willing to starve children, fire everyone that made under $200K per year, and toss your granny out on the street in winter.

as a campaign tactic in 2000, it worked wonderfully. he won, right?

[econ_grad]

And the compassionate conservative message gave credence to such view of the right. The point was Bush isn't that kind of a conservative, he is compassionate. BTW, I could care less about the Republican label. I am more concerned about the conservative label.

[Kano Ako]

Bush said it always sounded to me like he was implicitly saying that conservatives who preceded him were not compassionate. There are two takes on private charity. The left wants less of it in lieu of governmental programs, the right wants more of it. The left is better at the game because they work to making the government more into a nanny for all. However, it is my opinion many conservatives talk about private charity and then often times say they are too busy to help. Leaving an opeining for the left. Now in the last election it was quite obvious who was the more charitable of the candidates (President Bush). However, the left makes a better a show of it. We as conservatives have to start making time for charitable work and as the President has started to do, work to remove the governmental obstacles the left puts in the way of people wanting to do private charity. I have commented on Compassionate Conservatism quite a bit over at: http://bloggerbeer.blogspot.com/

[k2blader]

If "compassionate conservatism" aka taxpayer-funded-welfare-is-the-Christian-thing-to-do ideology is dead, GREAT!!

Unfortunately, I doubt it's true.