COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM
JR., JOHN J. DIIULIO
THE POLITICAL THEORY OF COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM by John J. Dilulio Jr. MANY LIBERALS, LIBERTARIANS, and Democratic party operatives agree on one thing: George W. Bush's "compassionate...
...It began not in 1994 with Republicans, but in 1966 with Democrats...
...Although the word "subsidiarity" never passed Bush's lips, his "Duty of Hope" speech reads like a blueprint for applied subsidiarity...
...Respect for the "common good" requires that each of us be concerned about the "social well-being" of others and strive to "make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health . . . and so on...
...Most voters want Washington to pump hard (but not slam) the brakes on government...
...When a local call reaches a non-working number, we are morally required, as it were, to call long distance...
...Devolution via block grant is just one species of government by proxy...
...With few exceptions (federal prison wardens come to mind), federal civil servants don't actually perform the services that the programs they administer provide...
...What is wrong with that...
...Bush flatly rejected the "destructive" view "that if government would only get out of our way, all our problems would be solved," a public philosophy with "no higher goal, no nobler purpose, than 'Leave us alone.'" There are, he insisted, "some things the government should be doing—like Medicaid for poor children...
...is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute...
...Likewise, he would block-grant funds for pilot maternity homes to states that made the money available "either as certificates to individuals, or as competitive grants to providers, who could use the funds to purchase or operate a facility...
...Most of what Washington now does in domestic policy it does "by proxy...
...Let me briefly say why...
...Look first to them, but not last or only to them, for sometimes "the armies of compassion are outnumbered and outflanked and outgunned...
...Without more support and resources—public and private—we are asking them to make bricks without straw...
...Morally, compassionate conservatism is "subsidiarity conservatism," derived from a Judeo-Christian religious doctrine about how government should relate to the family and civil society...
...Always, we must "take care not to usurp the family's prerogatives or interfere in its life...
...The principle of subsidiarity," the church's catechism explains, "sets limits for state intervention...
...Morally, "they should not be punished for the sins of their fathers...
...The crux of compassionate conservatism is the COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM HAS THE MAKINGS OF A COHERENT PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY, ONE THAT IS ENTIRELY CONSONANT WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS' UNDERSTANDING OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT...
...These are the people who can provide help that is (in Marvin Olasky's phrase) "personal, spiritual, and challenging...
...In many urban neighborhoods today, children grow up "at risk" of poverty, ill health, illiteracy, violence, teen pregnancy, and premature death, with few, if any, responsible adults to love, guide, and protect them...
...If combined with intelligent, rigorous implementation, it could turn out to be a public philosophy of substance for a new American century...
...Larger communities," the catechism continues, also have "the duty of helping" needy children and families...
...He would allot federal funds and administer programs not only through existing government-by-proxy networks, but also directly through competing community organizations...
...The family is the "original cell of social life," the "community in which" naturally selfish and self-seeking individuals first "learn to care for and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor...
...Politically, government can help by administering "grants to ministries and mentoring programs targeting these children and their families...
...Bush would open "the entire" program to competitive bidding, so that local charities and other community and faith-based organizations could compete to administer it...
...Let's begin by examining the moral foundations of compassionate conservatism...
...As a staunch pro-lifer, I differ with Bush on abortion, and I may differ with him on other issues, too...
...Government cannot be replaced by chari-ties—but it can welcome them as partners, not resent them as rivals...
...These are forgotten children," he said, "almost six times more likely to go to prison themselves...
...scores of federal social welfare programs could be cured or killed, improved or immobilized, refunded or forgotten...
...they even thought they could gain from a government shutdown...
...Bush's "Duty of Hope" speech, delivered July 22 in indianapolis (and which i had a small hand in drafting), satisfied none of compassionate conservatism's critics...
...But how can compassionate conservatives foster such partnerships from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...
...Those words could prove to be the most significant reformulation of what government should do and how it should do it by any leading candidate for president since Woodrow Wilson...
...So far, though, none of Bush's critics has persuaded me that compassionate conservatism is anything other than morally compelling and politically sound...
...MANY LIBERALS, LIBERTARIANS, and Democratic party operatives agree on one thing: George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is either a cheap campaign tactic (assuming he doesn't really believe in it) or a flawed public philosophy (assuming he does...
...will to promote active benevolence in all sectors of civil society and to institute results-driven competition within social-welfare bureaucracies, federal, state, and local...
...Edward Crane, president of the libertarian Cato Institute, for instance, opined that the speech epitomized "Bill Clinton's impact on the American polity" and sounded like it was written by someone "moonlighting for Hillary Rodham Clinton...
...Subsidiarity teaches that charity begins at home...
...But neither is Bush aiming too low—witness his plea to help "an estimated 1.3 million children" who have one or both parents in prison or jail...
...Resources," Bush declared, "should be devolved, not just to states, but to charities and neighborhood healers...
...Mario Cuomo, the liberal former governor of New York, lectured that "conservatism" is inherently at odds with "compassion...
...But whether Bush becomes president or disappears from the scene, it is time to cut through the fog of ideological and partisan criticism of compassionate conservatism and debate the merits of the underlying moral and political theories, which make this approach to social policy worth taking seriously...
...Block grants never either restrained federal social spending or improved its results...
...In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to help people," he promised, "we will look first to faith-based organizations, charities and community groups...
...When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, they thought they had a mandate to trim Medicaid and other popular federal programs...
...Bush's moral case for both ministry and Medic-aid will resonate, I suspect, with most Americans...
...For example, the 21st Century Program, which provides federal funding for after-school activities, can currently be administered only by public schools...
...Most citizens favor cost-effective public/private partnerships to help those whom the Bible calls "the least of these...
...Thus, it "is not enough to call for volun-teerism...
...If Bush wins the nomination and the election, his commitment and the merit of his views will be put to the test...
...Public servants at all levels of government could be rewarded according to whether they and their proxies actually achieved positive results (safer, healthier, better-housed kids, clean and sober former addicts, ex-welfare moms with steady jobs), not whether they pushed relevant papers, obeyed perverse regulations, or supervised bigger staffs...
...These range from national secular mentoring programs (like Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America) to national religious outreach programs (such as Prison Fellowship Ministries) to federal and state anti-poverty and social welfare programs (like Social Security in the '30s, Medicare in the '60s, and beefed-up Medicaid in the '90s...
...But apart from its great success in pouring federal welfare cash assistance into a new block grant program (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the Republicans' federalism agenda achieved next to nothing...
...In talking points released to the press along with his speech, he added that "resources should be made available through contracts, certificates or grants on a competitive basis to all organizations—including religious ones...
...Some Democratic operatives claimed Bush was only parroting Gore's proposals on faith-based organizations, while others depicted Bush as a far-right Republican in compassionate drag...
...All calls for assistance, then, must begin as local calls, to be answered where possible by relatives, friends, neighbors, and community-serving ministers...
...Between 1989 and 1994, 6 federal agencies oversaw 15 block grants, while responsibility for nearly 600 federal categorical grant programs resided in over 20 federal agencies...
...Bush's reform agenda, however, might accomplish devolution with a difference...
...Opening competition for federal funds to all, including tiny local faith-based organizations, could usher in a new era of results-driven public administration...
...Sometimes, families and local institutions fail or fall short in the aid they can offer, as happened on a massive scale during the Great Depression...
...Gore campaign chairman Tony Coelho tried to change the subject, attacking the speech for its lack of details on social security...
...The formulation of subsidiarity that I know best is that of the Roman Catholic Church...
...Lesser liberal lights scoffed in unison at Bush's belief in charitable good works...
...Despite the pressures of a political campaign, Bush is not overselling his compassionate conservatism...
...But the demands of subsidiarity go further...
...If implemented faithfully, the policies and programs that flow from compassionate conservatism might bring lasting progress against our worst social ills—notably, enormous improvements in how government helps poor children and dysfunctional families...
...This is evident, for example, in his admission that faith-based programs, though enormously promising, cannot succeed unaided and still need to be studied closely...
...At least as articulated in Bush's speech, compassionate conservatism has the makings of a coherent public philosophy, one that is entirely consonant with the Founding Fathers' understanding of civil society and government, and with most contemporary Americans' understanding as well...
...In such cases, subsidiarity rallies larger communities...
...Since 1945, virtually all major domestic initiatives— Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, you name it—have been administered through networks of state and local governments and nonprofit organizations...
Vol. 4 • August 1999 • No. 46
