A kinder, gentler nation again?

A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows a surge in support for America's neediest citizens. Also, support for government programs to help the poor has returned to levels not seen since the late '80s and early '90s, before the movement to curb welfare began. But what's most surprising about the surge in support is where a lot of it is coming from: political conservatives, Southern whites and older Americans.

In 1993, just a little more than a quarter of self-described conservatives agreed with the statement "The government should help more needy people even if it means going deeper into debt." According to Pew's research, the number of conservatives who now agree with that statement is 48 percent.

At the same time, the proportion of Americans who sympathize with the plight of the nation's poor also has increased since 1994, rising in virtual lockstep with changing views on the need to expand the social safety net. Whites in particular seem to have had a change of heart -- though that sentiment still fails to extend to a clear majority of whites: Today, 49% of whites say that the poor "have it hard," up from just 35% in 1994. The share of whites who say the poor "have it easy" because of government assistance programs has meanwhile dropped from 56% to 37%.

Taken together, these changes have pushed support for government assistance to the disadvantaged up to where it stood in the late 1980s, well before Republicans won control of Congress in 1994.

The Street Theater Athens blog (written by several residents of Athens, Ga.) also points to the fact that 73 percent of Americans now believe that under the Republican economic plan, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page writes that this shift may be another factor that plays into the hands of the Democrats for the 2008 elections, along with other issues like the Iraq war, fatigue about the war on terror, etc.

But looked at from the other direction, it could also explain why Rudy Giuliani is doing so well in early Republican presidential polls. It would seem that Republicans are more open to a centrist (by GOP standards) candidate who would favor broader support for these kinds of aid programs.

There are still, of course, lots of conservatives who would view expanding aid programs with a real jaundiced-eye, not wanting to return to what they consider the nanny state. Witness today's posting in RedState that lists what it considers the tax-hiking activities of several of the Democratic governors either elected or re-elected in 2006.

11:24 AM ET | 05- 4-2007 | permalink