The Empty Promise of "Compassionate Conservatism"

Throughout the fall campaign, the Bush administration has been stymied and forced to respond to the �Book of the Week� from the National Intelligence estimate�s findings that the �Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse� to Bob Woodward�s �State of Denial� exposing the administration�s arrogance, mendacity and incompetence in Iraq. Last week was no different, as the release of David Kuo�s �Tempting Faith� revealed that compassionate conservatism is nothing more than a hollow facade for a domestic policy solely focused on maintaining power.

As a candidate, George W. Bush articulated his view that compassionate conservatism required more than simply praising compassionate efforts or calling for volunteerism since �without more support and resources, both private and public, we are asking them to make bricks without straw.� Bush promised more than $8 billion to help social service organizations serve �the least, the last and the lost,� including more than $6 billion for tax incentives to increase private charitable giving and a $200 million annual �Compassion Capital Fund.�

Kuo helped launch the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives; but by 2005, Kuo declared that �these promises remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact.� The White House political staff had little interest in the program to begin with and quickly discovered that the faith-based initiative �powerfully appealed to both conservative Christians and urban faith leaders � regardless of how much money was being appropriated.� As a result, tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped from the 2001 tax bill in favor of the estate repeal (aka �Paris Hilton tax cut�) even though this will cost charities at least $10 billion annually in lost contributions. Bush also failed to allocate a single penny to the Compassion Capital Fund in his initial budget and by the end of his first term it had received only one-eighth of what had been promised.

Republican Congressman Mark Souder has conceded that the Republicans had no interest in the faith-based initiative beyond using it as a political tool since there is no political advantage to helping the poor �because it�s not our base.� Souder and Kuo demonstrate that compassionate conservatism is not about serving �the least, the last and the lost,� but instead is about serving the interests of the Republican Party by pandering to and placating its evangelical base. The faith-based program is merely a mask that the administration wears to give the appearance of having a domestic policy or even compassion.

This confirms what John DiIulio, the first Director of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, revealed in 2002 when he stated that �there is no precedent in any White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of policy apparatus. What you�ve got is everything � and I mean everything � being run by the political arm. It�s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavelli's.�

As one Republican senator privately admitted to President Clinton, �Republicans don�t believe in government very much, but we love power.� This is the fundamental contradiction of Republican governance. As Professor Alan Wolfe writes �Unable to shrink government, but unwilling to improve it, conservatives attempt to split the difference, expanding government for political gain, but always in ways that validate their disregard for the very thing they are expanding. The end result is not just bigger government, but more incompetent government.�

Nothing illustrates all of these points more than the administration�s inept response to Hurricane Katrina. With New Orleans devastated by both Katrina�s force and FEMA�s impotence, the Machiavelli�s focused on the political damage and quickly staged the President�s photo op speech in Jackson Square where he promised to confront the region�s �persistent poverty� with �bold action.� President Bush has said little about domestic poverty since then and did not even address the issue in his State of the Union Address. When his 2007 budget proposal forced him to choose between his promise of �bold action� and serving his base by making his tax cuts permanent, Bush chose the latter. As a result, the 2007 budget not only includes no new poverty initiatives but dramatically cuts spending on antipoverty programs.

The Katrina betrayal is nothing new as time and time again this administration has placed the interest of a few over the needs of the nation. This is the inevitable result of a governing philosophy dictated by Mayberry Machiavelli's that is devoid of any fundamental principles other than preserving the Republican oligarchy.

In 1999, President Clinton characterized compassionate conservatism as essentially meaning ��I like you, I do ... And I�d like to help. But I just can�t and I feel terrible about it.�� Kuo�s book suggests that Clinton was right, except that there is no evidence that this cynical White House is even capable of remorse. That may change in November.

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As a post script, I must address Kuo's suggestion that Christians take a two-year break from politics and instead focus on "the things God has commanded us to do � pray, learn, listen to him, and serve a hurting world." Kuo's suggestion is well taken but with poverty rising steadily, the number of Americans without health insurance at record levels and the increasing possibility that a Democratic Congress will battle with President Bush to address these issues -- this definitely is not the time to silence earnest voices such as Kuo's. Instead, it is time that Christians invoked Christianity as a means to advance compassion instead of conservatism, tolerance instead of torture and peace instead of power.

Bennet Kelley is the former national co-chair of the Democratic National Committee�s young professional arm, publisher of BushLies.net and a columnist with the Santa Monica Daily Press. His prior works include "President Bush: The False Prophet of the Christian Right," in Big Bush Lies (RiverWood Books 2004) and Faith-Based D�j� vu, Democratic Underground (March 29, 2005).