Compassionate Conservatism Rules!

Thank You For Your Charitable Donation!

I know that there are many people who are not comfortable with political labels.  They are not Democrats or Republicans; they are independents.  They are neither liberal nor conservative; they are 'moderates'.  They want as many people as possible to know that they are neither left nor right, but 'centrist' or just merely leaning toward one direction or another and will invoke their fear of commitment at every opportunity. 

Some people seem uncomfortable with the idea of being identified.  And more power to them.  There's room for all kinds among political stripes.  But conservatives have another reason to feel better about being labeled a conservative:  they are, by their choices, more compassionate toward our society than liberals. 

A revealing book by Syracuse University Professor Arthur C. Brooks, Who Really Cares?, displays some rather extensive cross-sectioning of American culture and politics.  In almost all comparisons, conservatives come out ahead of liberals in charitable donations, whether it be time, money or personal services.  The only category I could determine where liberals gave more than conservatives is when religious liberals are placed against secular Republicans.  Which leads to the other seemingly obvious conclusion: religious people give more than non-religious people, almost by double.  Rreeaallly...

But what I think is a major theme between people and how much they give, and one that I'm sure will get underplayed in discussions about the conclusions of this book, is that the real result seems to be exposing the difference between people who believe in Big Government and people who don't.  The Left has been rather successful at painting the Right as cold and greedy and out for themselves.  Conservatives don't oppose helping people; they oppose using government to fund everything that someone else has deemed important.

Championing government to fund causes is not charity.  There is nothing charitable about it.  There is nothing charitable about directing income of one person to go to the benefit of another and Brooks himself stated in an interview that higher taxes leads to less charitable participation.  I certainly don't feel charitable when I consider that I spend almost one full day a week working for the government, contributing to bureaucracies that I may not support, because, as Kelly Boggs, of the Baptist Press points out in a review of Who Really Cares?, "when it comes to government-run programs...there seems to be a tremendous amount of waste. Not only that, but there is virtually no accountability. At best, most government programs are only placing a Band-Aid on the problem and, at worst, are only perpetuating the plight of the poor."

So if liberals are truly the champions of the poor and the downtrodden, rather than just cheerleaders for nanny-state, Big Government, then what is the real explanation for the discrepancy between Left and Right donations?

It's not income related.  Brooks states that there are as many under-$50 donations as there are over-$5000.  In fact, as a percentage of income, the poor give the most in money and donating time.  The contradiction to this rule of course, is when welfare dollars are entered.  Not only are the people whose earnings are being redistributed unable to then donate that money to a cause of their choice, the recipient is almost 60% more likely to not make any charitable donations themselves, even though the working poor represents the most generous cross-section in America.  The wealthy come in second and the middle class, the group that actually acquires things and has to work to pay for them, give the least.

Big, idealistic government, as always, is counterproductive.

Brooks explains that conservatives give on average about 30% more than liberals even though their average incomes were 6% less, which leads me to what I think is one of the most interesting conclusions that Brooks has reached, and takes us back to my first paragraphs:  "people who give money charitably are 43 percent more likely to say they are "very happy" than nongivers..."

Which seems to suggest something that I have long believed, which is that conservatives tend to be happier than liberals.  So for all of you conservatives in everything but name, don't be so shy.  Feel happy and proud to consider yourself a conservative!  Freewill charitable donations may not be as rewarding as championing a government program to force working Jane's and Joe's to fund a homeless hotel, but...oh wait, apparently it is more so.

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