Dem
50
GOP
50
Ronald Reagan loved to characterize the Democrats as the party of welfare queens. He said the blue team was the party of unmarried Black women in inner cities with half a dozen children from half a dozen (absent) fathers who lived off the government teat. He was so good at that and it sunk in so well that Bill Clinton ended up abolishing the version of welfare that Reagan was talking about (AFDC).
Boy how things have changed. Residents of 53% of America's counties now get at least 25% of their income from the government. They are dependent on programs from SNAP (food stamps) to Medicaid to Social Security. The vast majority of them are rural counties that vote for Republicans. In essence, they are kept afloat by transfer payments from rich blue counties. If the blue states managed to take control of the government and cut off all the transfer payments, many people in half the counties would starve.
This wasn't always the case. In 1980, only 2% of the counties got at least 25% of their income from government programs. In 2000, it was 10%. That number has grown under both Democratic and Republican administrations for years, as shown in the graph below.
Are the Democrats now screaming about Republican welfare queens? No. They are trying to make inroads into rural areas, and telling the people there that they ought to get off the dole and support themselves probably isn't the best way to do it. The Republicans' emphasis on rugged individualism is nice in theory, but doesn't actually hold up for their own voters. (V)