The Thrill and Chill of Compassionate Conservatism

For this special “poverty” issue of Religion & Liberty, I was asked to revisit two of my books, The Tragedy of American Compassion (written in 1990) and Compassionate Conservatism (1999). My brief was to (1) address what I had originally hoped to accomplish with those works; (2) discuss whether a “compassionate conservatism” ever resonated with the American public; (3) summarize what has transpired in terms of poverty intervention and amelioration on the federal, state, and local levels; (4) show where we are now; (5) answer the question, “Is the road ahead now different in some ways from what you outlined in your two books?” Read Full Article »