Volume 47, Number 17 · November 2, 2000
God's Country
By Joan Didion
The words 'compassionate conservatism' sound like and have often been dismissed as political rhetoric, a construction without intrinsic meaning, the Bush campaign's adroit way of pitching the center, allowing middle-class voters to feel good about themselves while voting their interests. Former Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee called them 'weasel words.' Joe Andrews, the national chairman of the DNC, called them 'a contrived copout.' 'You can't have these massive tax cuts and at the same time…be a compassionate conservative,' Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota told The New York Times. To the extent that the words were construed to mean anything at all, then, they were misunderstood to suggest a warmer, more generous, more ameliorative kind of conservative. 'I'm a conservative, and proud of it, but I'm a compassionate conservative,' Senator Orrin Hatch told Judith Miller of The New York Times in March of 1981. 'I'm not some kind of ultra-right-wing maniac, despite some portrayals in the press.' Former Governor Pete Wilson of California offered a still more centrist reading: compassionate conservatism, he was quoted as saying by The Washington Post, is 'old-fashioned budget-balancing with spending for preventive health measures and protection of the environment, and a strong pro-choice position on abortion.'
Feature, 11914 words
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