WHAT ROLE DOES “COMPASSION” PLAY IN GOVERNMENT?
by Daniel Bongino, ©2013, Candidate for Congress
(Nov. 17, 2013) — Last night, at about 4AM, I walked downstairs to grab Tylenol for my daughter, who was up and not feeling well. As I passed my front window I noticed a man, across the street, trying to get into my neighbor’s car. I opened the front door and when he noticed me there he quickly ran away.
After dealing with the police, I couldn’t fall back asleep and was thinking about my time in law enforcement dealing with left-leaning groups. They always appeared to default to compassion for the criminal, and the life circumstances that drove him to that point, with little consideration for the actual victim.
This speaks to a larger ideological problem with modern liberalism and its sense of “compassion”. Compassion without consideration of consequences is not compassion at all, it is cruel indifference. Think about it in terms of today’s debate over healthcare. #Obamacare was sold to us on “compassionate” terms. It was supposed to provide healthcare insurance to millions in need yet, when it was implemented, it caused the exact opposite effect, as millions lost their healthcare insurance.
Although these stories may seem unrelated, they are not. In both cases, a misplaced sense of “compassion” created incentives for both the indifferent and the cruel among us to take advantage of everyday Americans who just wish to be left alone. As the real-world consequences of misplaced liberal “compassion” pile up, I wonder what the breaking point is for the moderates among us? When will they realize that real compassion is governing based on positive results, not positive intentions?