South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Mark Thoma thinks about what drives resentment toward supposed beneficiaries of government spending.

The worry, based upon a misunderstanding of who the beneficiaries of government spending actually are, is that Obama supporters will use their voting power to divert their hard-earned taxes to other people — the moochers — denying them of what they deserve. This group won’t find Romney’s remarks frightening at all, at least not until they begin to feel a Romney presidency puts their benefits in danger. It’s the (false) fear of not getting what they deserve that drives this group — they paid their dues and want into the club with the benefits they were promised. Romney’s problem, I think, or one of them anyway, is that many of them thought they were in Romney’s secret club, that Romney would protect them from “the others” no matter what he might actually say on the campaign trail. In doing so — by Romney denying the moochers — they’d be protected. But they are starting to realize that they may not be in the club — the one with $50,000 plates — after all.