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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2009
Compassionate conservatism was declared to be the governing philosophy of George W. Bush's administration. Yet among commentators it has rarely been taken seriously in its own terms as a theory. What this article aims at showing is that compassionate conservatism is not merely an empty political slogan; instead, when the nature of conservatives' compassion is properly understood, it can be seen to be a concept of great significance to conservatism. Conservatives use an understanding of compassion as a “tough-minded,” rather than a “soft-hearted,” moral virtue to challenge the fundamental precepts of competing social philosophies. In doing so, they construct a paternalistic and inegalitarian doctrine that justifies the authority of the “compassionate” regulating the lives of those who are the subjects of their compassion.
1 Frank Rich, “Message: I Care about the Black Folks,” New York Times, 18 Sept. 2005, Section 4, 12.
2 Myron Magnet, “What Is Compassionate Conservatism?”, Wall Street Journal, 5 Feb. 1999.
3 Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1992).
4 David Grann, “Where W. Got Compassion,” New York Times, 12 Sept. 1999, Section 6, 62–65.
5 For example, George W. Bush, “The Duty of Hope,” speech delivered in Indianapolis, 22 July 1999, in Marvin Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism (New York: Free Press, 2000), 215–26.
6 New York Times, 23 July 1981, A17.
7 See George H. Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, 2nd edn. (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996).
8 Newt Gingrich, To Renew America (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 74–75.
9 White House, “Fact Sheet: Compassionate Conservatism,” 30 April 2002, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020430.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
10 David Brooks, “Too Quiet on the Home Front,” New York Times, 20 March 2004, A13; Ramesh Ponnuru, “No More Mr. Nice Guy: The Death of George W. Bush's ‘Compassionate Conservatism’,” National Review, 5 April 2004, 30–34.
11 George W. Bush, “President Discusses Compassionate Conservative Agenda in Dallas: Remarks by the President to the 122nd Knights of Columbus Convention,” 3 Aug. 2004, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040803-11.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
12 Joe Conason, “‘Compassionate Conservatism,’ R.I.P,” 11 Feb. 2005, http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2005/02/11/conservatism/index.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
13 Marvin Olasky, “Compassionate Conservatism: Still Kicking,” 14 Sept. 2006, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MarvinOlasky/2006/09/14/compassionate_conservatism_still_kicking; accessed 21 July 2008.
14 New York Times, 2 July 2008, A1.
15 Michael J. Gerson, Heroic Conservatism (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).
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17 Ibid., 273.
18 David Boaz, “Bush's Third Way Betrays True Conservatism,” http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2978, originally published in Australian, 31 Jan. 2003; accessed 21 July 2008.
19 Crane, Edward H., “The Dangers of Compassionate Conservatism,” Cato Policy Report, 23, 3 (2001), 2Google Scholar.
20 Joe Conason, Big Lies (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2003), 178.
21 John O'Sullivan, “Compassion Play,” National Review, 22 Feb. 1999, 23.
22 Alice Wang, “Bridging the Gap,” Washington Quarterly, 22, 2 (1999), 215.
23 Conason, Big Lies, 177.
24 United States Department of Health and Human Services, “What Is Charitable Choice?”, http://www.hhs.gov/fbci/choice.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
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27 White House, “Partnering with the Federal Government: Some Do's and Don'ts for Faith-Based Organizations,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/guidance/partnering.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
28 George W. Bush, “Governor George W. Bush Exploratory Committee Announcement,” 7 March 1999, http://www.4president.org/speeches/georgewbush2000announce.htm; accessed 21 July 2008.
29 White House, “President Signs Medicare Legislation,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031208-2.html, 8 Dec. 2003; accessed 21 July 2008.
30 George W. Bush, “President Asks American Children to Help Afghan Children,” 12 Oct. 2001, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011012-4.html; accessed 21 July 2008.
31 Gerson, Heroic Conservatism, 1–7.
32 New York Times, 1 Sept. 2004, A1–P3.
33 Michael D. Tanner, Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution (Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2007), 1–7.
34 E. J. Dionne, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 99; Conason, Big Lies, 184–89.
35 Giroux, Henry A., “Beyond Belief: Religious Fundamentalism and Cultural Politics in the Age of George W. Bush,” Critical Methodologies, 4, 4 (2004), 415–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 New York Times, 3 March 2001, A1.
37 John Dilulio, “John Dilulio's Letter,” 24 Oct. 2002, http://www.esquire.com/features/dilulio; accessed 21 July 2008.
38 David Kuo, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (New York: Free Press, 2006), 211.
39 Charles Murray, Losing Ground (New York: Basic Books, 1984).
40 Ibid., 204.
41 Matthew Scully, “Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism – for Animals,” American Conservative, 23 May 2005, 7–14.
42 Gerson, Heroic Conservatism, 9.
43 Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion, 197.
44 Ibid., 197.
45 Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, 18.
46 Olasky, “Compassionate Conservatism: Still Kicking”; idem, Renewing American Compassion (New York: Free Press, 1996), 182–86.
47 Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, 185.
48 Ibid., 194.
49 Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, “An interview with Marvin Olasky,” 20 Dec. 2004, http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/interviews/interview.cfm?id=77; accessed 21 July 2008.
50 White House, “Fact Sheet.”
51 Olasky, Renewing American Compassion, 155–60.
52 Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, 18.
53 Ibid., 7; White House, “Fact Sheet.”
54 Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Roads to Modernity (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 234.
55 Gertrude Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (New York: Knopf, 1991), 6.
56 Bush, “The Duty of Hope,” 219.
57 Himmelfarb, The Roads to Modernity.
58 Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, 151.
59 Olasky, Renewing American Compassion, 24.
60 Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion, 7.
61 Olasky, Renewing American Compassion, 17–33.
62 Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion, 3–18; Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion, 104–7.
63 Olasky, Renewing American Compassion, 158.
64 Olasky, Compassionate Conservatism, 19–20.
65 Ibid., 183–84.
66 Ibid., 182.
67 Ibid., 200–1.
68 Apostolidis, Paul, “Homosexuality and ‘Compassionate’ Conservatism in the Discourse of the Post-Reaganite Right,” Constellations, 8, 1 (2001), 78–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
