# Is Michael Gerson Right About Republicans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 24, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665 "2012-09-24T09:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/1 "2012-09-24T09:42:32Z")
[Michael Gerson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gerson) (President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group) has some harsh language for modern Republicans, mainly to the theme of “Stop sidling up to the libertarians and grow some compassion for the less fortunate.” [His Op-Ed in the _Washington Post_ isn’t quite that to the point, but it comes close](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-a-republican-mind-set-without-promise/2012/09/20/798901f8-0344-11e2-91e7-2962c74e7738_story.html): > [@](#): > > Yet a Republican ideology pitting the “makers” against the “takers” offers nothing. No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change. This approach involves a relentless reductionism. Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class. > > A few libertarians have wanted this fight ever since they read “Atlas Shrugged” as pimply adolescents. Given Romney’s background, record and faith, I don’t believe that he holds this view. I do believe that Republicans often parrot it, because they lack familiarity with other forms of conservatism that include a conception of the common good. > > But there really is no excuse. Republican politicians could turn to Burkean conservatism, with its emphasis on the “little platoons” of civil society. They could reflect on the Catholic tradition of subsidiarity, and solidarity with the poor. They could draw inspiration from Tory evangelical social reformers such as William Wilberforce or Lord Shaftesbury. Or they could just read Abraham Lincoln, who stood for “an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.” > > Instead they mouth libertarian nonsense, unable to even describe some of the largest challenges of our time. OK, the last sentence is pretty much as tart as my summary of him was. So, the debate: Is this Gerson fellow on to something or merely on something? Personally, I agree with him on this issue, and think libertarian philosophy is largely idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/2 "2012-09-24T10:09:48Z")
Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/3 "2012-09-24T12:12:26Z")
It’s in-line with my impression of Republicans. They care about money and the bottom line, but don’t care about people and their problems. They claim to support rugged individualism without recognizing that we are social animals that need each other. They claim to support freedom at all costs, then enact intrusive, freedom-limiting laws. They hate education, the poor, even things as simple as healthy diet recommendations if it comes from the dreaded government. Heck, they hate the government. They wave the Constitution around, but don’t seem to have actually read it. All of this totally surprises me since they wave the Bible around so much, too. Perhaps they should read it sometime. In short, hypocrites on all levels. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/4 "2012-09-24T12:50:58Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. Compassionate conservatism helped him win the election to begin with. If the GOP officially drops the compassionate conservative part of their party they are in danger of losing their Christian base. How would they win elections without it? By all means I agree with you, I’m tired of Republicans winning elections anyway. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/5 "2012-09-24T13:00:56Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. Could you ask for better proof that Gerson is right? ---
**Author:** ![al27052](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/6 "2012-09-24T14:01:18Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > They hate education, the poor, even things as simple as healthy diet recommendations if it comes from the dreaded government. > > Heck, they hate the government. They wave the Constitution around, but don’t seem to have actually read it. > > All of this totally surprises me since they wave the Bible around so much, too. Perhaps they should read it sometime. > > In short, hypocrites on all levels. I don’t think the rank-and-file believers are hypocrites, or at least not intentionally hypocritical. Many Republican politicians are about as real as Naugahyde, though. Politicians are, quite often, simply scum. That’s just as true for the family-values-preaching ones as for any other type. However, the hatred of the poor/underprivileged has gotten bad in the last few years, and it is starting to worry me for our future. Do we really want a society where everyone with money lives behind high walls in gated communities, and has armed guards protecting them every second of the day? Because that’s where we’ll end up, if we keep on that course. In that case, the only middle-class people left would be the guards. That’s not a happy world. Why? Because people will still reproduce, whether or not they’re poor. They’ll farm, they’ll hunt, they’ll survive. They will survive…unless the upper class has the political will to exterminate the poor violently. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/7 "2012-09-24T14:07:30Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. Apparently so. Too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/8 "2012-09-24T14:20:34Z")
They’d be better off if they shored up their alliance with the libertarian faction on social issues and threw the Talibornagains under the bus. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/9 "2012-09-24T14:22:14Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > Compassionate conservatism helped him win the election to begin with. If the GOP officially drops the compassionate conservative part of their party they are in danger of losing their Christian base. How would they win elections without it? > > By all means I agree with you, I’m tired of Republicans winning elections anyway. The compassionate conservative agenda driven by the social conservative evangelicals such as Huckabee is what destroyed the GOP in the 2000s. It is what led to No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, runaway spending, amnesty for illegal aliens and TARP. It resulted GOP defeats of 2006 and 2008. And why why does one have to add the adjective “compassinate” to conservatism? Limited government is compassionate. Any state that has a huge amount of control over its people’s incomes and which doles out spending on social programs to take care of people ends up being a tyranny. There is no statist government in history that was ever compassionate. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/10 "2012-09-24T14:30:21Z")
Yes, as evidenced by the reign of tyranny that encompasses every nation with universal health care. Those poor, oppressed, beaten-down, healthy people. ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/11 "2012-09-24T14:40:30Z")
Can we clarify though? I feel that liberal (true) libertarians shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentance as Randians who claim libertarianism just so they can have a more conservative ruling on social issues and keep more tax dollars to themselves. Any honest libertarian would recognize that there is a certain value in human capital and not having poor people waste away on the streets. Even listening to objectivist, absolutely laissez-faire crap sets us back further and further. When did being a talibornagain become the norm? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/12 "2012-09-24T14:50:33Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. Are you ever going to support one your assertions, or is sloganeering all we should ever expect from you? ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/13 "2012-09-24T15:36:12Z")
The makers/takers thing is very popular with the base (they all think they’re makers, even the ones on SS and Medicare). The unexamined assumption is that income = productivity. You don’t actually have to spend a lot of time examining the world to see there’s little connection between the two. But they actually seem to believe that wealth is an objective measure of someone’s value. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/14 "2012-09-24T15:47:20Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. I agree completely. And the sooner the better. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/15 "2012-09-24T15:47:20Z")
Did “talibornagain” ever make it onto that list of “terms that if you use in serious debate means you lose” thread? I think **moonshot’s** posts amply speak for themselves, but the retorts seems equally vapid when peppered with the 0bama equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/16 "2012-09-24T16:12:18Z")
The reality is it feels good to ascribe all your success to your own levels of talent, work ethic and ambition. Paul Ryan was born into a well off family, got SS support when his dad died, and got into politics because of family connections with a lot of help from family money. By choosing to ignore all that and assume he is where he is because of how smart, talented and morally advanced he is, that feels good. At the same time assuming people who have it worse have it worse because they are lazy or bring it on themselves mean you don’t need to feel compassion, and you sure as hell don’t need to open your wallet. It is all bullshit, but it is bullshit that makes people feel good about themselves. And asking a party that believes the things the GOP believes to stop believing bullshit because they like they way it sounds is not going to happen. A big part of their modern ideology is based on believing lies because they like the lies better than the truth. You might as well rail against the sky being blue if you are going to ask a party as openly and consistently divorced from reality as the contemporary GOP to be more realistic in its assessment of self and others. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/17 "2012-09-24T16:17:53Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > The compassionate conservative agenda driven by the social conservative evangelicals such as Huckabee is what destroyed the GOP in the 2000s. > > It is what led to No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, runaway spending, amnesty for illegal aliens and TARP. > > It resulted GOP defeats of 2006 and 2008. > > And why why does one have to add the adjective “compassinate” to conservatism? Limited government is compassionate. Any state that has a huge amount of control over its people’s incomes and which doles out spending on social programs to take care of people ends up being a tyranny. There is no statist government in history that was ever compassionate. The GOP was destroyed because they tricked the nation into an unnecessary war which seemed to drag on forever, and because they bungled domestic affairs so badly the economy collapsed (which to be fair was also Clinton’s fault with the deregulation laws of 98). The collapse of 2008 was the end result of years of deregulation and supply side economics. The concept that the GOP lost in 2006 and 2008 because they were too compassionate is not something I see evidence for. They lost because they weren’t seen as trustworthy and because they bungled domestic and foreign policy. The GOP is trying to blame TARP on Obama nowadays. Scandinavian governments are statist and very compassionate. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/18 "2012-09-24T16:28:41Z")
> [@](#): > > A few libertarians have wanted this fight ever since they read “Atlas Shrugged” as pimply adolescents. My guess is that for every person who has actually read Ayn Rand, there are about three that swear allegiance to her philosophy and drop her name just to appear intellectual. The Republican philosophy can be summed up in five words: “I got mine, fuck you!” Wealth and power will flow naturally to those that deserve it, those left behind in the rat race somehow deserve their own fate. The sweet rewards of life are reserved for the deserving, and the “others”, be they blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, etc., are to be fought down at every opportunity lest they get what’s rightfully “ours”. It’s a reprehensible philosophy advanced by despicable people. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/19 "2012-09-24T16:40:31Z")
The libertarian wing may be a faction in the Republican party but I don’t think it’s ever going to take over. A bunch of people who are promoting a philosophy of individual self-interest are never going to be able to successfully band together. They can’t compete against the other conservative factions that favor more collective philosophies: the big business faction, the family values faction, or the national security faction - these factions hold together. The libertarian faction may attract a crowd. But every member of that crowd is thinking about what the movement can do for them rather than what they can do for the movement. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665/20 "2012-09-24T16:49:50Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Gerson is a RINO. Big on “compassionate conservatism”. He’s one of the guys that helped make Bush unpopular with his own base. > > Anyway, I think he is wrong, the party needs to be more libertarian, not less. Could we please get this philosophy written in large, unfriendly letters into the Republican platform and on every Republican email, TV ad and billboard? Much as you people regret it, rich people still have only one vote, the same as welfare mooches like Mitt’s dad. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-michael-gerson-right-about-republicans/635665.md?page=2)