Once upon a time in the halcyon 1950s and early 1960s, the ascendant Left, with only a still nascent conservative intellectual movement to yell “stop”, decided that for the greater, or common, good the Federal government would declare a “war on poverty” by helping those who were poor or disadvantaged, and by doing so would allow them to rise above their station in life while also making sure that no one would fall into and get trapped in poverty or worse via a robust social safety net. Why, universal healthcare and a universal basic income were discusses with wide acceptance, even amongst Republicans.
The inevitable failure was blamed, not on the welfare state getting more of what is was subsidizing or the distortions in society it created, but on those mean-spirited conservatives! Obviously, the Left stated with certainty, those pesky conservatives just hated the poor! How dare they blame poor people for making the decisions and living the lifestyle that resulted in their own poverty! Why, to them, it was obvious that this was unconstrained free-market Darwinism, with greedy elites not caring about the people or the common good of the country!
It was racist even! How dare those bigots blame Blacks for living in ghettos, joining gangs, having kids out of wedlock, or getting involved with drugs! Why, they even demanded these poor unfortunates word, train, or educate themselves in order to receive assistance!
Back in reality, actual conservatives called these Leftists “Bleeding Heart Liberals” and championed reformers such as Star Parker. They rightly believed that the welfare state, as unreformed as it was back then, was itself the problem and it did not matter what the race of the people involved were.
Today, we have the same thing, but race flipped, complete with what could be termed “Bleeding Heart Postliberals”.
Such “Bleedin Heart Postliberals” showed the same knee jerk defense of poor communities filled with drug abuse, out-of-wedlock births, and crime… as well as love of welfare as a tool to elevate people and make society better. A quick look to the histrionic reaction to Kevin Williamson is proof enough of that. Now, they have found a poster boy to defend welfare: Brad.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders put out a campaign commercial saying that taxpayers shouldn’t cover welfare for people who choose not to work. The welfare-to-work requirements had—or at least had—been one of the many examples of how Leftism was combated and rolled back.
You pay taxes to cover welfare for people who just choose not to work. That’s why I launched a welfare-to-work requirement.
If you’re young, healthy, and get government assistance, you should work, go to school, or volunteer. https://t.co/M83nxNMdry
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) September 28, 2026
Note that the able-bodied young man in the commercial was White and represented the largest group, racially, of people on welfare in Arkansas.
The response was exactly what you’d expect from those “Bleeding Heart Liberals” from the 1970s and 1980s, except in this case it was the “Bleeding Heart Postliberals” complaining about the racial hate against White people.
The objection of many on the Left, back in the day, was based fundamentally on Critical Race Theory. Associated Black people with welfare facilitated a “system of oppression” which kept Black people down and privileged White people, in this view. Therefore, welfare was a tool to smash this “system of oppression”, which would benefit society (and the common good) as a whole. Such is the same fundamental logic of the plethora of people complaining about Sanders’ campaign ad: It was oppressive because it facilitated a “system of oppression” that keeps White people and thus privileges non-Whites.
If the old Progressive Left wanted to convince people that the Right was as systemically racist as the Progressive Left claimed they were, would they have come up with a better response than this political ad got?
The “Bleeding Heart Postliberals” love the welfare state and believe that it can work… just as long as it’s limited to an ethnically homogeneous “Heritage American” population. In other words, in their world view “Every (White) Man a (Welfare) King!”
