Compassionate Conservatism

In the February issues of Christian Century there was an article, “Is ‘compassionate conservatism obsolete?” That caught my eye. They talk about with all the name calling Republican contenders for the presidency are using on each other the “worst smear” is to call him a “compassionate conservative.” What a thought.

During the debates these candidates have had audiences cheering the death penalty and booing the golden rule. They harangue the government programs to help the poor such as when Newt Gingrich called President Obama the “food stamp president,” as though that program was a bad thing.

If you remember G.W. Bush called for compassionate conservatism, and candidates want to distance themselves from him. The Tea Party and congress seems to want nothing to do with positive statement. The last Republican candidate to use the words was Mike Huckabee in 2008 who expressed compassion, defending his states tuition breaks for illegal immigrant children “You don’t punish the child because a parent committed a crime.” He also said, that he was a conservative, just not angry about it.

After the Iowa caucuses the NY Times talked about Rick Santorum as the second coming of compassionate conservatism, but there is little evidence of that now as he cheered harsh cuts in hunger and housing programs, even going against the teaching of his Roman Catholic church teachings on preferential options for the poor. Gingrich is particularly vicious in his language; elsewhere in the magazine the quote him saying, “Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear cut idea about American enemies. Kill them.”

The problem they seem to express in that compassion is expensive. Housing and food assistance costs money as does training folk to find jobs. And of course there is Medicare.

The article talks about “the Tea Party moved has embraced what political writer Jill Lawrence calls ‘Darwinian conservatism.’ You can also call it ‘Ayn Rand conservatism…”

It seems to play well to the audiences of the debates that cheer harsh words for the have nots and boo any moderate positions. The article tells that before the South Carolina primary a progressive Christian group released an animated video, Tea Party Jesus to show the conflict between popular conserve rhetoric and the Gospel. “In a ‘Sermon on the Mall,’ a cartoon Jesus stands flanked by GOP politician and pundits as he declares, ‘Blessed are the mean in spirit…blessed are the pure in ideology.’” The Tea Party did not take offense of the parody but embraced it and promoted it as well.

In my opinion the Democrats have not stepped up to the plate to counter such attitudes and too often do not confront them and even join in their mentality.

If you are among the many Americans lying in the ditch by the side of the road robbed by the rich and a government that supports them at the expense of others, it is hard to find a Good Samaritan.