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Jewish World Review /Feb. 11, 1999 / 25 Shevat, 5759
Tony Snow
What exactly does
(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) AN INTERESTING SKIRMISH HAS ERUPTED in Republican ranks over
the question: Should the GOP champion "compassion"?
Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner in early betting on
presidential nominees, set the stage for the showdown two years ago by
talking about reforming welfare "in a compassionate way." That thought in
time inspired the phrase, "compassionate conservative," that has become
Bush's governing creed.
On election night last year, he crowed, "(A) leader who is compassionate
and conservative can erase the gender gap, open the doors of the Republican
Party to new faces and voices, and win without sacrificing our principles."
In honor of Bush's success, Lamar Alexander blasted the conjunction of
"compassionate" and "conservative" in a recent Wall Street Journal column.
Dan Quayle and Steve Forbes also have taken pokes at the governor.
This seems to confirm Bush's observation that he inherited half of his
father's friends and all of the enemies. The perceived sins of Bush pere are being visited on Bush fils,
with the imputation that Bush the Younger is a willing doormat for
Democrats.
One bone of contention is Bush's account of a visit last year to a juvenile
jail in Marlin, Texas. As he was preparing to leave the place, which imposes
tough punishment on young miscreants, he asked if there were any more
questions. A 15-year-old piped up: "Yeah. What do you think of me?"
Bush recounted the episode last month in his inaugural address. "His
question reveals something crucial to the future of Texas as well as this
country. Because his question sprang from the deep doubt of someone who
wondered whether there was any hope for him -- any room for him -- in
society. He was basically asking, 'Am I worth anything?'"
George Will says the anecdote proves Bush believes government ought to give
everyone the warm fuzzies. But witnesses say the governor behaved more like
Dr. Laura than Leo Buscaglia. He told the kid he could become something if
he took responsibility for his actions, learned the difference between right
and wrong, studied, and figured out the importance of hard work.
Bush's budgets also offer insight into the meaning of "compassionate
conservative." Texas ranks 49th out of 50 states in per capita government
spending; per person spending has fallen since Bush took office in 1995. He
proposes a 9-percent budget hike over the next two years, along with a $2.7
billion tax cut, the largest in Texas history. Two years from now, if all
goes according to plan, the state will employ 140 fewer people than today --
and the welfare rolls will carry 750,000 fewer names than in 1995.
Bush aides say he has tried to recast the compassion argument in terms of
results rather than expenditures. Is a government compassionate when it
promises a lot and delivers little, or when it promises to take care of the
basics and then gets the hell out of the way?
This sort of formula offers the only hope of uniting fractious Republican
constituencies, while appealing to the 40 percent of the electorate that no
longer has any partisan loyalty. By the time Bill Clinton strides out of the
picture, we'll all be ready for a president we can trust without a
chaperone -- but who, like Clinton, knows how to govern when people worry
less about money than respect. Voters, just like the kid in the Texas jail,
don't think Washington cares about them. (How else do you explain the
election of Jesse the Cerebrum?)
Republicans have acute problems with this kind of challenge. They haven't
denied persistent Democratic claims that they're a bunch of arrogant,
hardhearted neo-Nazis -- so people think they are. Worse, they have spent
the last three decades throwing away the black vote, the Hispanic vote, the
women's vote and, increasingly, the suburban white vote.
Bush's rhetorical campaign aims to persuade working folks that the Party of
Lincoln hasn't become the Party of Mengele.
Given the Republicans' present straits, the grousing about "compassion"
seems idiotic. The congressional party has been decimated by its own
indecisiveness. Capitol Hill conservatives can't even figure out the
difference between right and wrong without commissioning a poll. And many of
them don't understand that voters despise dreary talk of process. They want
politicians to talk about real problems and real lives.
This leads us to the appropriate question for Republicans. Which is better:
a compassionate conservative or a shell-shocked
George W. stand for?
The numbers back him. He hauled in more than 68 percent of the vote in that
election, including 50 percent of Hispanics 27 percent of blacks and 65
percent of women. He became the first person ever elected to consecutive
terms as governor of Texas. In recent polls, he smashes everybody in
contention, including Al Gore.
Bush and wife
02/08/99: Run, GOPers, run?
02/04/99: The languid sigh of waves lapping ashore
02/01/99: Verbal vortex
01/28/99: To be a ‘sell-out’ or an unelectable pol --- that is the question
01/25/99: The apogee of a trend
01/21/99:What my 3-year-old taught me
01/17/99:Don't be fooled, folks
01/14/99: Must a pol be ‘baaaad’ in order to get elected?
01/12/99: Jumpin’ Jack (Kemp)
01/08/99 : Hot air in the Windy City