Compassionate Conservatism

According to the White House web site, since President George W. Bush "called on Americans to become citizens, not spectators" in his January 20, 2001, Inaugural Address, he "has used compassionate conservatism as his governing philosophy." [1]

Bush has described Marvin Olasky as "Compassionate Conservatism's Leading Thinker."

In an April 30, 2000, speech given at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith [and Bush's chief domestic policy advisor] described 'compassionate conservatism' as "a coherent, principled philosophy that organizes and explains a superior approach to domestic policy. As a political philosophy, compassionate conservatism serves as a true bridge from the era of big government as a way to solve social problems to a new era in which we will have a full and healthy trust in the people of this nation to govern themselves."[2]

"Fundamentally," he says, "compassionate conservatism is a form of political conservatism. In other words, compassionate conservatives believe that government should have a limited role in people's lives and that competition in the marketplace is the most effective means of producing social and economic progress. Consequently, compassionate conservatives believe in low taxes, limited government regulation, and the vast power of the free enterprise system. [3]

"Like traditional conservatism, compassionate conservatism assumes that the marketplace is the best way to deliver value. But compassionate conservatives also recognize that the prosperity created by the marketplace has left many Americans behind and that government has a responsibility to reach out to those who are at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. According to the principles of compassionate conservatism, government has a responsibility, not to redistribute the wealth of citizens but to provide the underprivileged with skills and opportunities to create their own wealth." [4]

In a phrase, Goldsmith says that compassionate conservatism is "empowerment, not entitlement." [5]

Tim Montgomerie, the National Director of Renewing One Nation, identifies six points to illustrate policy choices "that one nation -- or compassionate -- conservatism involves:"

• Investing in Families:"... compassionate conservatives will build tax and benefit structures that promote and sustain married families and will invest in services that support parents and their relationships. Given how empirical evidence shows that the traditional family keeps children out of crime and gives them a good education - policies that strengthen marriage, fatherhood and the extended family are the bestsocial investment that a country can make";
• Devolving Funding Decisions; : "In giving a greater role to the voluntary sector ... compassionate conservatives will introduce vouchers or tax credits so that users and individuals within local communities determine where money flows. The left's language of partnership is not matched by the way it jealously controls and regulates even short-term funding decisions."
• Focusing on Results: "Compassionate conservatives will incentivise diversity in poverty-fighting approaches. Funding will follow results and control of process will end."
• Trusting Faith-based Projects: "In affirming the role of faith groups ... a compassionate conservative will find ways of empowering faith groups to undertake their own self-chosen work."
• Helping Young People Make Sustainable Choices: "In fighting drugs or teenage pregnancy ... the compassionate conservative will model innovative ways in which schools and youth services might help young people avoid making wrong choices in the first place."
• Building Character: "In preparing people for society ... Compassionate conservatives ... will favour volunteering, mentoring, saving." [6]

SourceWatch Resources

• Robert L. Woodson, Sr.
• National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
• Bush administration
• Bush lies and deceptions
• Bush/Republican Initiatives
• charitable choice
• communitarianism
• Compassiongate
• Faith-based and Community Initiatives
• George W. Bush: Compassionate Conservative
• Georgeland
• John Ashcroft
• Third Way
• war on poverty
• war on drugs

External links

• Conservative Christian Fellowship web site: "We believe in One Nation ... Too many social problems persist despite unparalleled levels of prosperity and the best efforts of the state. One Nation Conservatism aims to renew civil society; delivering care and a new start for hard pressed families and communities."[7]
• Mitchel Gerber, The Ideological Implications of Bush's Compassionate Conservatism.
• GOP's Future: 'Compassionate Conservatism'?, Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1998.
• Michael J. Gerson, A Righteous Indignation. James Dobson--psychologist, radio host, family-values crusader -- is set to topple the political establishment," U.S. News, May 4, 1998.
• 'Compassionate Conservatism', Christian Science Monitor, January 29, 1999.
• Myron Magnet, What is Compassionate Conservatism?, Wall Street Journal, February 5, 1999.
• Giles Marshall, What Can George W. Bush teach the Conservatives?, Reformer Magazine, Autumn 1999. Also see Compassionate Conservatism: Myth or Mirage? by Nick Kent and Andrew Marshall: "The success of George W. Bush in being re-elected as the Governor of Texas last November under the slogan, 'Compassionate Conservatism', has given new hope to Conservatives this side of the Atlantic."
• Transcript: "What Is Compassionate Conservatism?" with Gov. George W. Bush, CNN July 31, 2000.
• Mike Tapper, Defining compassionate conservatism, Salon, August 3, 2000: Interview with Stephen Goldsmith, chief domestic policy advisor for Bush: "Compassionate conservatism says that there's a role for the government, there's a role to provide the resources. There's a role to provide the resources for prescription drugs for low-income seniors; there's a role to provide resources for healthcare for the uninsured; there's a role to help people buy their own homes. There's a role for the government in terms of letting people own part of their Social Security and put it into individual retirement accounts. But it is a role that respects the marketplace and local organizations. It's compassionate in the way it doesn't leave people behind, and it's conservative in the way it does that."
• Marvin Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, "VERITAS" (Quarterly Journal of Public Policy in Texas), Fall 2000.
• Lynn Woolley, "What is compassionate conservatism", BeLogical.com, September 9, 2000.
• Richard Williamson, Bush Puts Focus on Nonprofits, The NonProfit Times, January 15, 2001: "America's Promise is not losing a general but is gaining a secretary of state with founder Colin L. Powell's nomination to the cabinet of President-elect George W. Bush. And, nonprofits may gain a seat at the table, as in a cabinet-level position, in the new administration."
• Compassionate Conservatism, The Connection, February 5, 2001: "Compassionate Conservatism has gone from campaign slogan to operative idea in George W. Bush's Washington. A kind of new-and-improved Thousand Points of Light, it means, for centrist Republicans, small government with a big heart."
• James Ridgeway, Ministering to the Poor. Church and State Together Again, Dollars and Sense Magazine, March/April 2001.
• Walter Block, Compassionate Conservatism, lewrockwell.com, September 4, 2001.
• Ira Chernus, 'Compassionate Conservatism' Goes to War, Converge (NZ), November 10, 2001.
• Fact Sheet: Compassionate Conservatism, White House, April 30, 2002.
• Alexander Phillips, Compassionate Conservative?, The Young Democrats at University of California at Irvine, January 2003.
• David Boaz, Bush's Third Way Betrays True Conservatism, Cato Institute, January 31, 2003: In his State of the Union 2003, "Bush did manage to recommend that the federal government spend taxpayers' money on such Clintonesque programs as a new hydrogen-powered automobile, drug treatment, mentors for disadvantaged children, AIDS treatment in Africa and a massive new prescription drug entitlement for the elderly."
• Jim A. Kuypers, Megan Hitchner, James Irwin, and Alexander Wilson, Compassionate Conservatism: The Rhetorical Reconstruction of Conservative Rhetoric, American Communication Journal, Summer 2003.
• Michael Kinsley, The State of Compassion. After four years of "compassionate conservatism"--what is it?, Slate, January 22, 2004.
• David Brooks, "Too Quiet on the Home Front," New York Times, March 20, 2004.