The Compassion Card

Of all the political tricks the Democrats play, the compassion card has got to be one of the worst to defeat.

It’s use isn’t very hard to comprehend.  When trying to sell a program they know is going to be a costly disaster in all ways except as their next power grab, the left resorts to things like “We’re doing it for the children“.  When Republicans tried to stop it for reasons like “Well, it won’t work” or “It costs too much and it won’t work” (when they were still anything other than the Other Democrats), they looked like jerks.

It’s been this way for years.

Conservatives now have the same problem, because the Republicans aren’t putting up much of a fight here lately.  It’s so much easier to make a sound bite out of “let’s do it for the children” than to explain to a lot of people with short attention spans why doing that something is a really bad idea.  We can have

• all the history,
• examples in other countries,
• number crunching,
• and even alternative suggestions we want

…but it takes time and explanation to use them the left doesn’t need when they’re invoking “the children”.

Michelle Malkin has two reports about the compassion card’s use to promote Disastercare here and here.  Never mind that what Obama is proposing is more expensive, lower quality care that’s less available.  Never mind that we have countries that have tried it before as proof of this.  Never mind that the liberals have no track record of success in solving problems.  They’re doing it for the children, after all.

Let’s look at the intentions instead?  Fine.  While some of the liberal rank-and-file actually intend compassion, which I will admit, their leaders do not.  Their interest is that your dependency is their uninterrupted power, and to hell with the damage they cause in the process of gaining it.  For them, compassion is the rhetorical means, and not the actual end.

This power lust is also why the left is vicious to conservatives, and why they whip their base into such frenzies over us.  They’re not angry because we’re obstructing their “compassion”.  They’re angry that we’re obstructing their hunt for power, and they’re soulless enough to demagogue in order to remove us as an impediment.

It’s not real.  The compassion card is a weapon in the Democrat’s political arsenal.  Look at their past “accomplishments” and see for yourself.

Filed under: Maverick Commentary on October 26th, 2009