Faustian Bargain Part 3: Beyond the Bargain to a Sustainable Compassionate Conservatism

This is a three-part series on developing the concept of compassionate conservativism to develop effective policies and solutions that address the problems of poverty and its threat to sustainable liberty and prosperity. Both the left and the right entered Faustian bargains that use the poor as a means to further their own ends. This keeps the poor at least perceptually poor and easy to manipulate.

So how do we unwind the Faustian Bargain and create solutions that work and are sustainable? Perhaps we go back to agape and philia and Kant. As George Thorogood sang, “Who do you love?”

Jacob Marley told Scrooge, “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Perhaps most people are not ready for an altruistic approach to life. For most of us, the question may also be “What do you love?”

Marley tells us business is a means to an end. So, what then is that end? At least in the US Constitutional Republic, the Preamble to the Constitution specifies that end:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This end is sustainable Liberty and Prosperity. We love Liberty and Prosperity. Now I can hear most of the conservatives and Republicans saying that is in alignment with our economic, social, a defense policy. But is it really? Can we have sustainable liberty and prosperity amid instability? And what about “all men are created equal”? How does that modify the equation?

And that is where the US is right now. How do we work through instability and enact meaningful policies?

The first step is to recall Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The current social policies of the Great Society and the Social Justice Warriors do not work. In fact, they are destructive and hurt the very people they claim to help. Recall the plight of single female-headed families shown in Part 2. The policies of the Great Society re-shaped American families and American culture.

We will never solve the problem of poverty without solving the problem of education. And we will never solve the problem of education until we address culture. Now I am not defending Bill Cosby, but I think it is interesting that his accusers were silent for years… until he addressed what he sees as the problems of Black Culture. Suddenly, there were many women—perhaps rightly so—accusing him of sexual abuse. But why did they wait so long? Was it the celebrity spotlight he shown on the cultural issue?

Culture is at the heart of most problems that create instability. Yet we are afraid to discuss it. It is the third rail of American politics. Unless, of course, the discussion is about Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) and the discussion is about accepting all cultures other than the white previously mainstream culture. This was clear during my doctoral program. We endlessly discussed acceptance of different cultures. But we never discussed the performance of culture. When we looked at inner-city school performance, we never looked at culture. The program always placed the blame on discrimination.

So how do we address this issue? First, we do not attack cultures. Rather, we focus on values rather peripherals. These are the values shown in the opening figure based on our founding documents. Second, we ensure we include justice, life, and happiness in the approach. For most Americans, these are included concepts, but for minorities, they often were not. The US certainly missed opportunities in 1776, 1783, and 1789 to end the slavery that so clearly violated core values.

This does not mean the theater of DIE. Too often, DIE means hiring people for what they are, rather than who they are. While on the surface it may feel right, over time, it erodes confidence, independence, and responsibility. We have tried this approach and, as Einstein tells us, it is insanity to continue because it does not work.

This is critically important for several reasons:

• We do not have the resources to continue to pour time, talent, and treasure into approaches that do not work. We need to develop and nurture excellence and deep diversity, not surface diversity.
• The world is an increasingly complex and dangerous place. We need to develop the talent and capabilities of all of our citizens to thrive in this environment.
• A large population of poor that cannot compete in this complex world is a source of instability. With the tidal wave of illegal aliens flooding the US, most of which have poor education and few 21^st century skills, instability could rise even sharper. Mathematically, if the group of people with higher wealth stays constant and the poor grow dramatically, the so-called wealth gap will continue to grow.

So, what does compassionate conservatism do? Perhaps it is a program like:

• Redesign education to assert excellence and 21^st century skills. Recognize students may learn better in different environments and provide funding for not only public schools, but home schooling and private schools as well. Eliminate the chokehold the teachers’ unions have on education. Send cultural signals that value education.
• Go back to de Tocqueville’s observation. Fix what Bush II screwed up. He had the right idea but restricted it to his base: faith-based programs. Open the initiative to secular programs and faith-based programs. Develop accountability standards that include performance, results, and success. Hold organizations tightly accountable for results. Make them compete for funding based on proven effectiveness. As this initiative develops, divert funding from federal programs into private sector programs with demonstrated effectiveness. Unwind the bloated and ineffective government set of programs that waste money and perpetuate poverty.
• Address and resolve issues in the legal system to ensure there is true justice for all.
• Make Dr. King’s dream of a color-blind society a guiding vision and core plank in the culture. Ensure this concept is integrated into all programs.

We need to break the Faustian bargains for power and replace the people who made them with leaders that love liberty and prosperity and the people of the United States. We need to get government back to doing what it should do—set the conditions for success—and allow the people to do what they do best—build liberty and prosperity. The people have stumbled along the way—slavery is a terrible stain on our honor and integrity—but have shown they can fix problems. One side of the political divide is clear they want to remain in the Faustian bargain for power and are engaged in a modern version of the bonfire of the vanities. Can the other side rise above and actually govern?