Talk:Compassionate conservatism

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I combined Compassionate Conservative and Compassionate Conservatism pages.

Contents 1 Oxymoron more than just a description of the president? 2 Could use more specifics 3 NPOV 4 Why does this entry exist?

[edit] Oxymoron more than just a description of the president?

-chit chat

"Compassionate conservatism" is oxymoronic, and "compassionate liberalism" is redundant. Too Old 23:29, 9 December 2005 18:15, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Could use more specifics

I added some specific arguments for and against compassionate conservatism, but I think there's a lot more to say on both sides. -- Jeff Q 06:15, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This needs sources. No "others say" blah - we need to know who says what. Secretlondon 16:43, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

"as the white house says"<--- the whitehouse is a building and says nothing. WHO at the whitehouse said that? If it was anonymous, where did the quote appear? EDIT: found it, sourced it.TastemyHouse 20:42, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Slightly USA-Centric article Compassionate conservatism has been coined and used in the UK for the last 25 years

[edit] NPOV

This article to me clearly appears to be biased in favor of compassionate conservativism, especially this part:

Critics further charge that conservatives have historically been indifferent to the concerns of those not in the mainstream culture (see AIDS, mental illness, same-sex marriage); this criticism appears to ignore the fact that compassionate conservative philosophy supports immigrants and immigration. Many argue that locally-driven "compassion" creates a potential for unequal treatment of similar problems and for local biases to take precedence over general standards. Some complain that the use of charitable religious groups administering social programs violates the principle of separation of church and state; courts, however, generally recognize that the First Amendment permits religious organizations to be neutral beneficiaries of government programs.

"Seems to ignore **the fact**" (Implying that conservatives are in fact, compassionate towards immigrants, whereas there is tons of literature indicate the opposite) Overall these are 1 sentence straw man arguments against this highly controversial term. I will mark POV unless anyone objects. Cameron 03:48, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

This has to be a hoax.

[edit] Why does this entry exist?

It's being presented as a political philosophy when it's just a campaign slogan. It deserves a couple of sentences at most.

True. I do however find it rather appropriate that the article has an "avoid weasel words" tag, given that "compassionate conservatism" is itself an example of weasel words, as Lamar Alexander rightly pointed out when Bush first started using the term. (He also referred to the phrase as "empty shells ... cleverly and deliberately put together to confuse people by meaning nothing".)

As for the fact that it's just a campaign slogan, that's borne out by the fact that the term pretty much only gets trotted out during election years. Redxiv 03:53, 20 January 2007 (UTC)