That’s why what reformers are advancing requires the acceptance of the anti-cronyism, anti-corporatist element of the agenda as essential, not just window dressing. In a sense, it’s a demonstration of good faith: that they are willing to take on established interests in a way which could prove painful, just as we’ve seen politicians on the left do in the past. The more one is willing to take sides against such interests, the more you can be trusted as someone who isn’t just trying to rebrand the Bush domestic policies.

But the real problem in even having this debate is that compassionate conservatism is such a nebulous campaign-context term, not a governing philosophy, which is why it can be mashed into whatever politicians like Kasich and Pence want it to be. It’s not a bad thing to be personally compassionate after all, it’s a bad thing to think that compassion requires you to engage in expansions of government and curtailing of liberty. What really should replace compassionate conservatism is a softer argument for federalism as localism – cooperative, communitarian, about neighborhood and home grown policies, not the verbiage of technocratic top-down solutionists. Maybe, as it turns out, liberty is actually a more compassionate solution for more people? We might as well give it a try.