#compassionate conservatism

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

April 26, 2022

Ms Renaud: In 2020, I believe it was, the Treasury Board and Finance – well, Community and Social Services; I blame them squarely, but both ministries, let’s say – decided that they were going to change payment dates for people that receive income support and AISH. Traditionally people receive these payments a few days ahead of the first of the month. Now, it’s a little bit chaotic and sometimes a little bit tough to tell when that would be because it was always really different. I’ll admit that it wasn’t a uniform date. It was always a little bit different, particularly in December. It was quite a bit before Christmas, so that would leave a longer period of time into January before people got their payment. Without very much notice at all – I don’t think it could’ve been more than maybe a month and a half at the time; actually, people found out on social media – they were told that their payment dates were going to change. “It’s for your own good,” says the government. “It’s for your own good. We’re doing this because we care about you.”

Mr. Jeremy Nixon: Hear, hear.

Ms Renaud: That’s not true. That is incorrect. The Member for Calgary-Klein thinks it’s a good idea that they changed the payment dates and actually believes, according to his heckle, that they did change the payment dates to help Albertans, when we know it is not true.

[redrikki]

Jedi and Compassionate Conservatism

I’ve been thinking a lot about the scene where Anakin describes compassion as being an essential part of being a Jedi. He defines it as unconditional love for all beings, which is fine and all, but it’s also wrong. Merriam-Webster defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it,” while the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “a strong feeling of sympathy and sadness for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them.” Compassion, as defined by Anakin, and presumably the Jedi from whom he learned it, is missing one key component: action. Jedi compassion is entirely internal and, unlike dictionary compassion, does not require any steps be taken in order to alleviate the suffering of those loved so unconditionally.

The term “compassionate conservatism” was first coined in 1979, but didn’t become part of the mainstream until 1999 when then presidential candidate George W. Bush used it to describe his own personal politics. Bush argued that "It is compassionate to actively help our citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on accountability and results." He pushed through welfare reforms designed to ‘promote individual responsibility’ by setting time limits and requiring recipients to look for work; school reforms like No Child Left Behind which set minimum testing standards for all schools and lead to the closing or corporate take-over of schools which failed to meet those standards; and made it easier for faith-based organizations to receive federal aid with minimal reporting of results.

Critics of ‘compassionate conservatism’ argued that it was a nice way to claim to care about the poor without actually helping them. George Lucas was not a fan of Bush or his politics. He once famously compared Bush and his vice president Chaney to Vader and Palpatine respectively. It is interesting then, that he chose to both use the word compassion and to define it without action as a central component when describing the central tenant of Jedi philosophy. After all, the PT-era Jedi rarely help anyone unless it is in their interest to do so. Qui-Gon wasn’t there to free slaves, except the valuable one he wanted for himself. He and Obi-Wan didn’t return to Naboo with Padme to help free her planet, but to draw out the Sith. The PT-era Jedi’s role is a fundamentally conservative one, maintaining the status quo. Compassionate conservatism.

[bobonbooks]

Review: Pivot Points

Pivot Points, Marvin Olasky. P & R Publishing (ISBN: 9781629959535), 2024. Summary: Pivot points of a compassionate conservative, a memoir tracing the journalistic and writing career of Marvin Olasky, former editor in chief of World magazine. Encountering Olasky My only other encounter with Marvin Olasky was reading his book Abortion Rites (review here). I was stunned to find this pro-life…

Review: Pivot Points

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

May 4, 2022

Mr. Schmidt: Let me also say that having lived through the hottest summer on record and then one of the longest cold snaps on record, just in the last eight, 10 months here in Alberta, I am thankful that we had the capacity in the electricity sector to generate and transmit that much power. If we hadn’t, there would’ve been people freezing to death in their homes this winter, and there would’ve people who suffered, who died from the heat because they didn’t have access to air conditioning. We know that people did die from heat. Hundreds of people in Calgary died from heat exposure because they didn’t have access to appropriate air conditioning.

Mr. Schow: Are we going to buy them air conditioners like we’re going to buy them roofs?

Mr. Schmidt: The Member for Cardston-Siksika asked me if I think the government should buy people air conditioning. I certainly do, at least in long-term care facilities. There are hundreds of people in long-term care facilities who had to withstand . . . [interjections]

[occupythebronx]

Austin opens first homeless community

Austin opens first homeless community

A community development built just for Austin’s homeless community opened on Saturday. The Community First Village is located in East Austin, near Decker Lane off Hog Eye Road and has 140 micro homes. Each home has a unique design with its own porch and is 180 square feet. The rest of the homes in the community are RVs and canvas covered. Rent ranges from $225-360. “It’s an RV park on steroids,”…

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[salon]

Sorry, David Brooks: In all his sadism, Ted Cruz is the true face of the Christian right

Sometimes David Brooks writes something so completely out of touch with reality that the reader’s heart breaks at the pathos of it all, like you’re watching a baby duck with a broken wing trying to fly. Then you remember that he’s paid handsomely by The New York Times and given one of the largest platforms in the country to spout of his ill-informed opinions, and it’s right back to be angry again.

So it is with Brooks’ latest column, titled “The Brutalism of Ted Cruz,” a piece that so hilariously misunderstands the motives of Christian conservatives that it leads one to wonder if Brooks has ever, in all his travels, met a single member of this tribe that his beloved Republican Party relies on for votes.

"Compassionate conservatism" wasn't real, but a costume the Christian right wore to fool people like David Brooks

[patrickat]

Arguments against a minimum wage that’s a living wage be like... “So explain to me why fast food and retail workers deserve to eat and sleep in a bed under a roof because I don’t believe you and that will destroy capitalism.”