Why was the GOP base ok with “compassionate conservatism” in 1999-2008, but not before or after?

[Agonized-Statism]

War on Terror. National security was the biggest thing on Republicans' minds during the Bush administration. The religious right was at the zenith of its power, true, but domestic issues were ultimately secondary to the project for a new American century in action.

That doesn’t explain 1999-9/10/2001.

For the 2000 election, it was just Bush's brand. He sold himself as the most folksy, Southern, God-fearing, yee-hawin' man in the room.

Nicholas Lemann wrote in New Yorker magazine in 2015 that Bush's "description of himself, in the 2000 campaign, as a 'compassionate conservative' was brilliantly vague- liberals heard it as 'I'm not all that conservative,' and conservatives heard it as 'I'm deeply religious'. It was about him as a person, not a program": https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-value-of-jebs-unfortunate-comments

That's how it got accepted in 1999, and the War on Terror is why no Republican challenged him on it afterward.

[darklordoftech]

Nicholas Lemann wrote in New Yorker magazine in 2015 that Bush's "description of himself, in the 2000 campaign, as a 'compassionate conservative' was brilliantly vague- liberals heard it as 'I'm not all that conservative,' and conservatives heard it as 'I'm deeply religious'. It was about him as a person, not a program": https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-value-of-jebs-unfortunate-comments

Seems similar to Biden in that regard. Liberals think Biden is the most progressive politician in the history of Earth and conservatives seem to think he’s not all that liberal.

[Ancestral Republican]

Nicholas Lemann wrote in New Yorker magazine in 2015 that Bush's "description of himself, in the 2000 campaign, as a 'compassionate conservative' was brilliantly vague- liberals heard it as 'I'm not all that conservative,' and conservatives heard it as 'I'm deeply religious'. It was about him as a person, not a program": https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-value-of-jebs-unfortunate-comments

Seems similar to Biden in that regard. Liberals think Biden is the most progressive politician in the history of Earth and conservatives seem to think he’s not all that liberal.

And progressives remember Biden going hard in the paint for the credit card companies and predatory lenders, but have decided he's the best tasting sh**t sandwich.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Sigh, sigh, sigh, Lincoln, Grant and Teddy Roosevelt during the time of the Dixiecrat used the term Red Tories which means the same as compassionate Conservative. BEN FRANKLIM, true patriot, Chris Shay's R, not Jefferson, Jeffersonian Dixiecrats cut off slaves feet if they were caught when they were betrayed by Quakers who were actually disguessed by Dixiecrats during Underground Railroad

Red Tories were referred by colonial Patriot Rs due to fact they were loyal to Queen Victoria not George who made taxes without representation

When Wilson changed Dems as the Secular party during Marxism era and the income tax, Lincoln was the first to use tax in Civil War.

But FDR fully transformed the D's into secular party, his advisor was Joseph Kennedy. Whom Russia was mad at when after WWII US dropped atomic bomb on Japan and secularized Japan

Consequence Iran, China, Cambodian pennisula was made Communist and Marxist rebels from Cuba and Palestine killed his two sons

Russia was an adversary to US before 911 when Yeltsin Democratized it, we had nuke weapon drills in elementary schools

[Gustaf]

The Republican leadership didn't understand how depraved and lunatic their base was until Trump came along. And to some extent, before Fox and the rest of the alt-right media the GOP base was probably more normal. People who lack critical thinking and intellectual independence are very easy to manipulate into new beliefs, as we've seen over the last few years.

[RINO Tom]

Because a black man became President.

Right, we weren’t racists before that!  Except for before when we were, after when we weren’t, which was after we were.

[Blair]

I mean sorry if it's already been posted but a major part of Bush's late term was how talk radio hosts & assorted right wingers killed his attempts to do immigration reform & in the process radicalised the entire 2008 & 2012 GOP field against the concept of immigration reform.

It's the biggest thing forgotten about DUBYAs coalition is that he killed it with Hispanic voters especially in the western states.

It was pretty clear what was being set in motion before 2008.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Lots of discussion of the why compassionate conservatism ended when it did, but as far as why it started around ~1999: worth noting that compassionate conservatism (family values, faith, etc.) was a cudgel used to impeach and try to remove Bill Clinton. After the Contract with America-style libertarianism failed to unseat Clinton in 1996, the conservative movement tried to mobilize their voters on the starkest opposition to the sitting President as possible.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

The GOP abandoned "compassionate conservatism" on 9/11/2001 and embraced neocon warhawkism.  Dubya essentially became a puppet.