The fundamental failing of conservatism is the lack of ability to be compassionate...

[Locut0s]

I'm saying something astoundingly obvious for most here I know. But it's important to keep this is focus because I think we lose sight of what the root problem is. We find ourselves consistently distracted by the shiny baubles of whatever the current scandal is. The "shocking details" of Trump's latest tweet. But of course we can only be shocked and distracted if we have lost focus of the core issue. We somehow seem incapable of coming to terms with the fact that these are people who are fundamentally incapable or unwilling to place themselves in the shoes of others. To think compassionately. I'm atheist but Christianity ironically provides the perfect lesson these people are unable to learn "there but for the grace of God go I".

[Initech]

1. I finally figured out what a compassionate conservative is.

A regular conservative will screw you behind your back. A compassionate conservative will not only screw you right to your face, he'll do it with a big shit-eating grin on his face! Case in point:

[Thomas Hurt]

2. at the heart of American conservatism is the impulse of the user, the bully, the exploiter,

the criminal, the despot, and the con artist. Selfishness and entitlement.

The conservative doesn't favor smaller gov't because it makes all people more free. Conservatives favor smaller government because it gives cover to that selfishness and entitlement.

[cyclonefence]

3. I have long felt exactly the same way about conservatives

only I describe it as a failure of imagination. They not only cannot imagine themselves walking in another's shoes; they can't imagine that anyone demonstrating compassion is not a holier-than-thou phony. They can only impute their own selfish motives to the actions of others--and a lot of this shows up in the way Trump projects his own failings onto his opponents: "crooked"---who's more crooked than Trump? "losers"--the worst thing he can think of to call terrorists is what he most fears about himself. He cannot imagine that anyone behaving in a selfless, ethical way isn't pretending, just as he does, and is *really* acting for his own benefit.

They kind of don't believe in goodness.

[lastlib]

4. I would respectfully disagree....

the fundamental failing of conservatism is that it seeks only to conserve wealth for the wealthy, power for the powerful, poverty for the poor, weakness for the weak. "I got mine, screw you if you want yours."

[Atticus]

5. As John Kenneth Galbraith said:

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

[lindysalsagal]

6. Wrong. The fundamental premise of the gop is lack of compassion: That's where they go to not give a

rip about anyone. Otherwise, they have no reason to exist.