Conservative Compassion Vs. Liberal Pity

City Journal ^ | Summer 2003 | Michael Knox Beran

[Hobsonphile]

Compassionate conservatism works because it addresses people as individuals rather than as faceless units in a throng.

Conservative Compassion Vs. Liberal Pity

A remarkable feature of President Bush's pronouncements is his unashamed use of the "L" word. Mr. Bush calls his political philosophy "compassionate conservatism," but he is not afraid to say the older, stronger word that gives that philosophy its meaning. The word is love.

Mr. Bush used the word when, during the presidential campaign, he was confronted by a man who spoke loosely and negligently of illegitimate children and the welfare system. When the man uttered the word "bastards," Mr. Bush became angry. "First of all, sir," he said, "we must remember that it is our duty to love all the children." The president was similarly unflinching in his inaugural address, in which he spoke of "failures of love." In that address Mr. Bush spoke, too, of "uncounted, unhonored acts of decency," an allusion to Wordsworth's lines describing

that best portion of a good man's life;
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.

[Hobsonphile]

This article resonates with my religious background quite strongly. It also hits on a way we can change how the public debate over social programs is framed. Read it.

[Hobsonphile]

I believe the article argues precisely what you have stated in your reply. Read it again, in full.

[Hobsonphile]

"No insignificant person was ever born." What a deeply admirable Christian sentiment. I am in full agreement.