In a recent New York Times article, author Charles Blow calls out conservatives and President Donald Trump, saying compassionate conservatives are extinct. He believes Trump and his “backward-thinking devotees killed it.” Blow not only attacks our sitting president, but he also attacks his voters.
Something killed compassionate conservatism. One could make the argument that no one person defines a political party. Nov. 8, 2016 proved that Democrats across America believed Hillary Clinton was not the face of their political party, so why must Trump be ours?
How can Trump be to blame for the racial divide, the hatred and countless other problems in America when the man has only been in office for 27 days?
If Blow wants to blame someone for killing compassionate conservatism, maybe he should take a look at the man who spent the last eight years in office. Blow’s “strong and stable” Barack Obama administration left his inner cities to die, left the Constitution behind and made decisions that put Americans in the position of choosing a wealthy businessman or a murderer to replace him.
Trump is nearly a repercussion of what Blow’s strong and stable Obama Administration left in its wake. Under eight years of Obama, Republicans gained control of the Senate and House of Representatives, just the first sign of things to come. The American people were speaking with each election, they were telling the government they disagree with Obama’s ideals and actions. When people insult and anger Republican voters, they do not terrorize cities, they do not burn buildings and become violent protestors. They take themselves to the ballot box each November and vote for change.
Obama left office knowing the problems that plagued his administration were now Trump’s problem, such as the sky rocketing illegal immigration rates and the terror threats Obama, his former secretary of state and the rest of his party failed to identify. He left Trump the mess of Obamacare, the failed health insurance plan that taxed businesses and the American people for not following. Democrats so upset about the election results scrambled for someone to blame and even if Trump was not their president, Obama’s predecessor would still be to blame. Alike to how liberals still blame George W. Bush for many of Bill Clinton’s mistakes.
Blow is nothing but an opinionated journalist whose only job is to keep riots and protestors fueled with hate, while saying that resistance against the president is the only way to get compassion back. It is people like Blow who killed compassionate conservatism, because it’s people like him who call out for violence, hate and separation, which makes conservative politicians step in and be the bad parent.
Before readers begin to wonder why conservatives have no compassion and are mean, cruel humans with a dark view of the world, think of their rational differently. If that does not help, then take solace in this: There are plenty of ways compassionate conservatism is still alive within the Republican party. There are plenty of Republican congressmen and women fighting against President Trump’s mass deportations and other extreme ideals.
There are plenty of Americans who voted for Trump who did not agree with all of what he said during his campaign and yes, there are plenty of Republicans that did not want Trump to become our president. However, this is what happens when a weak Democratic leader takes the country and weakens it: an extreme Republican comes to office.
This is merely history repeating itself. Looking back to Carter and Reagan, Nixon after Johnson or Eisenhower after Truman and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
If compassionate conservatism is dead, it is because the Democratic Party killed it a long time ago.
