What a deliberate lie this statement is. Conservatives care about their communities and give to charities in larger numbers and larger amounts than Liberals. We just don’t believe that government belongs in the charity business and is not good at the redistribution distribution of wealth.
Money is poured into inner-city schools, after all, and still kids don't graduate. Many health problems of the poor (alcohol, drug abuse) are self-inflicted, so why should we pick up the tab? After 30 years of trying, the government has not won Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty and ignorance, so why continue the project? Better to rely on the personal salvation and private charity our pastors and radio commentators emphasize. Those are the arguments I hear.
Johnson’s war on poverty is a complete failure. The poverty rate is higher now than before the war. If dollar spent per pupil was any measure of success for schools Washington DC schools should graduate 90% plus and send them on to Ivy League colleges. Instead they have 90% drop out rates.
Churches, community leadership and personal effort is the only hope of the poor to better themselves. It has always been so.
Second, we're less catholic than born-again in our outlook; that is, we tend to see the world not corporately over a long span of generations, but individually though our own economic and social decisions. We've convinced ourselves that we've "made it" by our own merit, not by what others have done, and we think everyone should simply do likewise. "Meritocratic elites find it difficult to imagine a community that reaches into both the past and the future and is constituted by an awareness of intergenerational obligation," Lasch wrote. Instead, we are "transients," he said, possessing a "radical ingratitude" common to meritocracy.
The only truth here (if any) is that Catholics tend to be more Liberal leaning than Protestants. The rest is unadulterated hogwash. Liberals always think that the successful are simply lucky or knew someone to get where they are. The rich either cheated someone or kissed a lot of butt to get to the top. “That guy didn’t work for his success.” Yes we believe we worked for our success and that others should as well. It’s called equality of opportunity, not equality of out comes that the left so desires.
I believe if these Liberal Elites were truly honest and looked into the habits of the “transient Meritocratic Elites” they would find that ate majority truly care about their adopted home towns and were active in the community where ever they go. This has been my experience.