Compassionate conservatism is an American political philosophy that stresses using conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society. The philosophy supports the implementation of policies designed to help the disadvantaged and alleviate poverty through the free market, envisaging a triangular relationship between government, charities and faith-based organizations. The term entered mainstream parlance between 2001 and 2009, during the administration of US President George W. Bush. He used the term often to describe his personal views and embody some parts of his administration's agenda and policy approach.
The term itself is often credited to the American historian and politician Doug Wead, who used it as the title of a speech in 1979. Although its origins lie mostly in accepted economic principles, some applications of it have been criticized as paternalism. The term has been used in the United Kingdom by former Prime Minister David Cameron, in New Zealand by former Prime Minister John Key, and in Lithuania by President Gitanas Nausėda.
The term "compassionate conservatism" has also been applied to Christian democratic political parties. However, Christian democrats are far more supportive of government interventionism in the economy. Later Compassionate conservatism was seen as Third Way ideology and was compared to Clintonism.
Origins of the term Historian and presidential advisor Doug Wead may have been the first person to use the phrase compassionate conservative. In 1977, Wead wrote a book about Kolkata, India, entitled The Compassionate Touch.The Compassionate Touch, Doug Wead, Bethany House, 1977. In 1979, he gave a popular speech entitled "The Compassionate Conservative" at the annual Washington Charity Dinner. Tapes of the speech were sold across the country at corporate seminars.Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, Random House, 2008. p. 93
Wead contended that the policies of Republican conservatives should be motivated by compassion, not protecting the status quo. He declared himself to be "a bleeding heart conservative," meaning that he cared for people and sincerely believed that a free marketplace was better for the poor.
In 1981, in a perhaps-unrelated usage, Vernon Jordan of the National Urban League said of the Reagan administration,The New York Times, July 23, 1981, p. 17.
In 1982, Wead co-authored with Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James G. Watt, the book The Courage of a Conservative and developed his ideas further in chapter five of the book, which was entitled "The Compassionate Conservative."The Courage of a Conservative, Simon & Schuster, 1985. Russell Kirk saw Reagan as a compassionate conservative, while the Cato Institute sees Reaganism as something different from compassionate conservatism, but already year's before, the compassionate conservative Vernon Jordan didn't saw Reagan as one which Bruce Pilbeam supoorted. The Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute on the other side argued that Reagan supported something similar to compassionate conservatism. Reagan aligned himself with Fusionism and fusionists tend to see the unpopularity of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism," such as his entitlement prescription drug program, and his party's following defeat by President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, as reasons requiring a fusionist renewal if conservatism was ever to regain the presidency.Donald J. Devine, America's Way Back: Reconciling Freedom, Tradition and Constitution (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2013); Brandon James Smith, "Time for a Return to Fusionism," Public Discourse, February 19, 2014, The Cato Institute argued that Bush tried to copy Reagan and his fusionism with compassionate conservatism. The Harvard Political Review wrote following on Bush's compassionate conservatism and Reagan political ideas "However, the degree to which Reagan’s rhetoric and actions correlate on these three points varies, as does the degree to which President Bush has stood by Reagan’s policies. In most instances, Bush’s breaks with Reagan on a variety of issues from tax policy to the use of military force can be attributed to a different agenda rather than an inability to imitate Reagan. While only history can write the definitive comparison, Bush’s overall philosophy and its emphasis on an active use of the government and its resources, known as “compassionate conservatism,” has been the main source of his departure from the Reagan ideals."
In 1984, U.S. Representative James R. Jones (D-OK) told The New York Times:The New York Times, November 8, 1984.
Earlier the same year Republican Ray Shamie proclaimed that "I believe in a visionary and compassionate conservatism"The Christian Science Monitor, September 20, 1984, p. 19.
In June 1986, Wead wrote an article for the Christian Herald, describing then-vice-president George H. W. Bush, to whom he served as an aide, as a "compassionate conservative.""George Bush: Where Does He Stand?", Doug Wead, Christian Herald, June 1986.
According to journalist Jacob Weisberg, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush's son, first picked up the term "compassionate conservative" from Wead, in 1987.Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, Random House, 2008. Page 92.
In 1992, when Doug Wead ran for U.S. Representative from Arizona, he wrote a campaign book entitled Time for a Change. The first chapter was called "The Compassionate Conservative" and outlined Wead's philosophy that the masses did not care if Republican policies worked if the attitude and purpose behind the policies were uncaring.Doug Wead, Time for a Change, 1992.
Some insist the doctrine was invented by Marvin Olasky, who went on to memorialize it in his books Renewing American Compassion (1996) and Compassionate Conservatism: What it is, What it Does, and How it Can Transform America (2000), and Myron Magnet of the Manhattan Institute. Olasky has been called the "godfather of compassionate conservatism".Olasky, Martin, Renewing American Compassion, "God promises blessings for obedience, but never an all-expense paid vacation. Adam's work was not endlessly frustrating... That all changed with man's independent and rebellious grasping for the knowledge of good and evil. Man must now do tiring work to live." p. 169; "Lazy hands make a man poor." (quoting Proverbs); "If a man does not work, he shall not eat." (quoting Paul, Second Thessalonians).
The phrase was popularized when George W. Bush adopted it as one of his key slogans during his 2000 presidential campaign against Al Gore. Bush also wrote the foreword to Olasky's Compassionate Conservatism. Olasky said others had come up with the term first.
As a political descriptor
Use in the 1990s Compassionate conservatism has been defined as the belief that conservatism and compassion complement each other. A compassionate conservative might see the social problems of the United States, such as health care or immigration, as issues that are better solved through cooperation with private companies, charities, and religious institutions rather than directly through government departments. As former Bush chief speechwriter Michael Gerson put it, "Compassionate conservatism is the theory that the government should encourage the effective provision of social services without providing the service itself."
Magnet and Olasky said 19th century compassionate conservatism was based in part on the Christian doctrine of original sin, which held that "Man is sinful and likely to want something for nothing. … Man's sinful nature leads to indolence."Olasky, Renewing American Compassion, 64, 41
In the words of Magnet,
Compassionate conservative philosophy argues for policies in support of traditional families, welfare reform to promote individual responsibility (cf. workfare), active policing, standards-based schools (cf. No Child Left Behind Act), and assistance (economic or otherwise) to poor countries around the world.
U.S. president George W. Bush said:
Bush began his presidency hoping to make compassionate conservatism his centerpiece. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, he focused less on this theme, but, according to professor and author Ira Chernus, its fundamental ideas became central in his rhetoric about the war on terrorism.
Reception and criticism Nicholas Lemann, writing in New Yorker magazine in 2015, wrote that George W. Bush's "description of himself, in the 2000 campaign, as a 'compassionate conservative' was brilliantly vague—liberals heard it as 'I'm not all that conservative,' and conservatives heard it as 'I'm deeply religious.' It was about him as a person, not a program."Nicholas Lemann, The Real Value of Jeb's "Unfortunate Comments", New Yorker (October 7, 2015).
In a July 1999 speech to the Democratic Leadership Council, then-President Bill Clinton criticized Bush's "compassionate conservative" self-description, saying: "This 'compassionate conservatism' has a great ring to it, you know? It sounds so good. And I've really worked hard to try to figure out what it means... I made an honest effort, and near as I can tell, here's what it means: It means, 'I like you. I do. And I would like to be for the patients' bill of rights and I'd like to be for closing the gun show loophole, and I'd like not to squander the surplus and, you know, save Social Security and Medicare for the next generation. I'd like to raise the minimum wage. I'd like to do these things. But I just can't, and I feel terrible about it.Edwin Chen, Clinton Picks at Bush's 'Compassionate' Label, Los Angeles times (July 15, 1999). Similarly, in December 2005, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in the House of Commons, said: "the only difference between compassionate conservatism and conservatism is that under compassionate conservatism they tell you they're not going to help you but they're really sorry about it."
Some critics of George W. Bush criticized the phrase "compassionate conservatism" as simply sugarcoating, an empty phrase to make traditional conservatism sound more appealing to moderate voters. Liberal commentator Joe Conason, noting Bush's policy of tax cuts, wrote in 2003 that "so far, being a 'compassionate conservative' appears to mean nothing very different from being a hardhearted, stingy, old-fashioned conservative."
Others on the left have viewed it as an effort to remove America's social safety net out of the hands of the government and give it to Christian churches. "Liberals make a big mistake if they dismiss 'compassionate conservatism' as just a hypocritical catch phrase", wrote University of Colorado religion professor Ira Chernus. "For the right, it is a serious scheme to give tax dollars to churches through so-called 'faith-based initiatives. Nobel Prize–winning Keynesian economist and columnist Paul Krugman has called it a "dog whistle" to the religious right, referencing Marvin Olasky's The Tragedy of American Compassion, who believed the poor must help themselves and that poverty was the fault not of society but of the poor and of social workers. Krugman endorses Digby's analysis that right-wing compassionate 'charity' assumes that the giver has the right to investigate and dictate the life of the receiver, even for the smallest charity.