As you can see, in this critique, the liberals are to blame for everything. Nothing we try to do is successful, and most of it is counterproductive. But underneath it all is the unstated premise that the poor can be better served by religious groups. These groups can run soup kitchens in lieu of the government providing food stamps. They can educate kids better than the state-run federally-subsidized schools. They can provide health care in their private hospitals, or through small clinics.

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For conservative Christian groups that work with the poor, federal anti-poverty efforts are seen as a way of secularizing the poor, just as federal education standards are seen as taking God out of education. This battle has been at the heart of the conservative movement since it started to take shape in the 1950's. It's why you see such a growth in home-schoolers today. And it's part of why secular anti-poverty groups like ACORN come under such withering attack.

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The GOP is an uneasy alliance between people who are tax-averse because of their high incomes and people who are government-averse because of the competition government provides to their faith-traditions. But the result of this alliance is that poor people overwhelmingly support the Democrats. And that makes Republicans care even less about using the government to help the poor than would otherwise be the case. They don't want to do it anyway, but they won't get any credit for it even if they do.

So, the idea becomes to disavow government efforts to help the poor, even to the point of denying people the unemployment insurance they paid for. All government assistance is suspect and likely counterproductive. And Mitt Romney stepped all over that by suggesting that the country's social welfare programs are just fine the way they are. He missed the point. It's okay to not want to offer any government assistance to the poor, but it's not okay to say that you don't give a shit about the poor because they're doing just fine. It's okay to say that you want to focus on the middle class, but not okay to say that federal welfare programs are working great.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/2/2/105012/8652