One sentence synopsis: In order to win elections, conservatives must become liberals.
I think you can be a compassionate conservative without the hokum of calling yourself one, and without massive deficit spending and more entitlement giveaways. A true compassionate conservative would have reined in the housing bubble and cheap money. Reagan was the compassionate conservative. Just like being a parent, punishing your kid because they’re doing something that will cause them harm is compassion.
Zackly.
What was so damned "compassionate" about turning over the education of our children to Ted Kennedy?
Those chickens will be coming home to roost (and thereby answering Jeremiah Wright's prayer for America) for years, decades, to come.
Thanks, George.
Of course he was a better President than Obama.
My toilet bowl would make a better President than Obama. At least it does the job it was created to do.
Here’s a thought: how about leading with one’s ideas, and attempt to win over hearts & minds (or just minds), rather than following?
Rush said it best. Conservative-ism is already compassionate.
I disagree.. G.W. Bush owes conservatives an apology for paving the way to totalitarianism...
I agree we owe Bush credit for winning two terms and creating a message that got the votes needed.
We also need to recognize that true Reaganesque ideas can be successful electorally and can be inclusive so moderates and independents can feel like they will benefit from the policies...and the same with Hispanic voters, women, etc. Bush had a populist tone and understanding language that did win Hispanic support. I saw it in a big way here in Florida in 2004. There some of the strongest support in the days ahead of that campaign came from Latinos. We don’t need to change policies but we have to battle the left’s constant focus on driving a wedge between Republicans and different groups. Bush did a great job of that. Although I didn’t see it during the campaign, Romney and the RNC did not.
It’s save-yourself time.
What is “compassionate” about holding a gun to my head to extract tax dollars, to be given to others unwilling to earn their own way, to support behavior of which I disapprove?
What is “compassionate” about forcibly supporting immorality, destroying the family, undermining the work ethic, and denying the fundamental right of private property?
What is “compassionate” about the willful destruction of any semblance of education, to replace it with indoctrination into the preferred belief system of a self-appointed elite class?
What is “compassionate” about believing that much of the population is incapable of existing without coddling worthy of infants?
Sorry, not buying it.
Truth will eventually win, it will just take the right person to point out the lie that is liberalism.
Liberalism has always failed and will always fail. That’s just a fact.
This FACT needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
We need to start with FDR and rewrite the history books to show what an utter failure liberalism has ALWAYS been.
“compassionate conservatism”
Yeah, like conservatism is evil and cruel.
Reminds me of how the word gay was stolen and now means homosexual trumps happy.
If Bush represents conservatism and he is what they should aspire to be like—count me out. I’ll find a new word.
Ya know....screw this! There isn’t a republican party. The republicans are democrats and the democrats are progressive communists.
The Democrat Party and the Progressive party. That is what we have now.
The notion that he was above "all that" is bunk, our system of election is an adversarial one where you fight with words & ideas. He never stood up & defended conservatism and explained the evils of liberalism.
The only thing he did that a Demonrat wouldn't have done is cut taxes and even then he didn't make them permanent even when Republicans controlled all 3 branches.
compassionate conservatism - Someone who believes in charity, but chooses to whom and how much of their own personal wealth they choose to give and is content without talking about it and telling everyone how much they give to charity.
Someone who believes in God, traditional American family, family values, strong military, stronger foreign policy, and robust economy.
Ignoring the fact that a lot of misery is the direct result of government *taking action*.
Compassionate conservatism is just another name for mixed economy, political eclecticism, and pragmatism. It has no ideology, is pluralistic, and it has philosophical shortcomings and inconsistencies because it is a mixture of conservatism and statism.
Bull poop.
All the reasons he hated bush’s estrogenic “compassionate conservatism” were correct. The fact that idiots answering a forced poll question about who cares about “little people like me” chose Obama over Romney, whom they were told is rich and indifferent, has nothing to bear on George Bush’s liberal mush.
Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” cost us dearly, fiscally and politically.
GWB Rove and Co. are the reason we are in the mess we are now electorally.