Compassion...Empowered?

Today I heard about the new Justice Party that Rocky Anderson formed with plans to run in the 2012 election.  I really like the idea of new parties forming in response to the failure of current politicians, even though I'm generally cynical about politics and doubt that a third party will ever have success in my lifetime.

There doesn't seem to be a Justice Party website up and running yet, but Rocky Anderson is Executive Director of High Road for Human Rights, so I went to that website.  I'll be honest, I haven't yet read beyond the headline because I'm so struck by the tagline "compassion empowered."  What the hell does that mean?  I suppose it is meant to talk about empowering people to translate their compassion into action against social ills.  However, I think compassion is the absolute wrong word for this, and I'm so sick of it being used in politics. 

To see new parties popping up using the same old propaganda of other parties is really frustrating.  I thought that one of the big lessons from fascism was one about language and the effects of language as an instrument of power.  George Orwell says that the English language "becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."  What foolish thoughts in American culture have made compassion a political term that supposedly marks the higher moral ground of a political candidate or party?  

A lot of people are studying this question in a very interesting, theoretical way, which is very important.  Kathleen Woodward has an EXCELLENT article on this topic called "Calculating Compassion."  But I'm really also interested in the basic sense of compassion and what we can do in an everyday sort of way against politicians hijacking personal emotions and co-opting them so that every feeling translates into a political statement.  

Trust in ourselves and in others is what Kathleen Woodward suggests is powerful enough to redirect these influences.  I guess I've got to figure out who and what I actually trust.