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Compassionate conservatism is a political ideology and phrase that was invented by radio talk show host Michael Savage in 1994 and Marvin Olasky, whose book Compassionate Conservatism: What it is, What it Does, and How it Can Transform America was published in 2000. Olasky has been called the "godfather of compassionate conservatism". The phrase was made very popular when George W. Bush adopted it as one of his key slogans during the 2000 presidential campaign against Al Gore. A compassionate conservative is someone who believes that conservatism and compassion go together and complement each other. This is opposed to the traditional criticism that conservatives tend to be more cold-hearted and calculating. A compassionate conservative sees the social problems of the United States, such as healthcare, immigration, the environment, etc., as being issues that conservatives can handle just as well if not better than liberals. Part of compassionate conservatism involves Faith Based Initiatives , the idea that religious organizations can do social work better than the government with government funds.Conservatives argue that compassion has always been in their vocabulary. They say that the principles of conservatism lead to a more prosperous and stable societyA society is a group of people that form a semi-closed (or semi-open) system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is a network of relationships between entities. A society is an interdep that is inherently compassionate towards others, in which local communities help their own in a neighborly fashion, rather than depend on national efforts with less on-the-spot understanding of issues. They aim for a society that helps others to help themselves, thereby avoiding reliance on the governmentA government is an organization that has the power to make and enforce laws for a certain territory. There are several definitions on what exactly constitutes a government. The government has been defined as the dominant decision-making arm (the policy el for their needs. Also, some people, especially more fundamentalist conservatives, see compassionate conservatism as just another word for a moderate, regardless of whether they are a Democratlogo depicts a stylized donkey in red, white, and blue. The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. The Party is currently the minority in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, as w, Republican or a member of a third partyIn the context of the United States' political system, a third party is any political party organized in at least some states, other than the two current leading parties, which since the time of the American Civil War have always been the Democratic and t.
Opponents argue that compassionate conservativism is a meaningless phrase. Some say that it just a mask for neofeudalismNeofeudalism is a pejorative term used by some critics to describe the policies of various right-wing politicians, particularly those in the American Republican Party. The justification is that government policies are allegedly instituted with the specifi. They would argue that conservatives are not compassionate towards the poorPoverty describes a wide range of circumstances associated with need, hardship and lack of resources, as well as the decision by some—e. ascetics, monks, and nuns—to live simply. For some, poverty is a subjective and comparative term; for others, it is mo, minorities, the unemployed, etc. Critics charge that conservatives have historically been indifferent to the concerns of those not in the mainstream culture (see AIDS, mental illness, same-sex marriage) and that the exploitation of evangelicalism by compassionate conservatives is disrespectful to other religious groups (see separation of Church and State). Many point out that locally-driven "compassion" creates a potential for unequal treatment of similar problems and for local biases to take precedence over general standards.
