It has long been a thorn in Democratic strategists’ sides that many Republican voters, especially those in rural areas, allegedly “vote against their own interests” in many elections.
That is, these voters favor GOP candidates whose policies work against them financially — politicians whose tax cuts for the rich and belief in trickle-down economics are presumed to hurt the middle-to-lower income strata more than Democratic Party policies do.
The GOP makes its case to these voters with a number of arguments, but the element that underscores the Party’s main appeal is a promise to pare back an “intrusive” federal government which it portrays as stripping individuals of autonomy and independence, and redistributing wealth from “hard-working” Americans to those on the dole — i.e., users of government-provided services and aid.
A new study from the Economic Innovation Group (“a bipartisan public policy organization dedicated to forging a more dynamic and inclusive American economy”) reveals how increasingly — and exactly where — “American communities became reliant on aid from the government.”
That sentence — “Americans reliant on government” — encapsulates the chief complaint the GOP has used to win votes. It appears, on the surface, to support the unrelenting Republican charge of a surreptitious “socialism” undergirding the American capitalist system. And the charge of income redistribution is indisputably in evidence in the study– mostly in the form of the largely popular programs like Social Security, SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid.
But the thorn hurts Democrats because of a widespread misinterpretation about how that redistribution is working. Blue states and blue counties — those which tend to vote Democratic — pay far more into the pot than Republican-voting red states and red counties, which — the study shows — are the most common recipients of the blue counties’ largesse.
[The study explains that Americans derive income from three main sources: “work, investments, and transfers. Transfer income comes from government programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits.”]
Exclusive: Americans are becoming more dependent on federal and state support. Here’s why that matters for the 2024 election. https://t.co/UCv9XV44N0 https://t.co/UCv9XV44N0
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 1, 2024
To the Dems’ consternation, GOP voters voting to strip these programs and get “intrusive” government to stop giving handouts to the “undeserving” are themselves the recipients of the majority of these “handouts.”
[As the Wall Street Journal affirms: “That support is especially critical in economically stressed communities throughout the U.S., many of which lean Republican and are concentrated in swing states crucial in deciding the presidential election.”]
The study shows that residents in more than 50 percent of America’s counties are now being supplied with more than 25 percent of their income from the government. The percentage marks a dramatic increase, with the percentage of counties drawing 25% of their income from government sources being just 10 percent as recently as 2000.