Those reading Will's column might expect that in the 2000 presidential election, Republicans, the party of low taxes and limited government, would have carried the disgruntled Giver states -- while Democrats, the party of wild spending and bureaucracy run amok, would have appealed to the Taker states. "But it was the reverse," writes Pink. "George W. Bush was the candidate of the Taker states. Al Gore was the candidate of the Giver states."
Of the 33 Taker states, reports Pink, President George W. Bush carried 25. Of the 16 Giver states, Gore carried 12. Pink also notes that seventy-eight percent of Bush' electoral votes came from Taker states and 76 percent of Gore's from Giver states.
"Republicans seem to have become the new welfare party," opines Pink, "their constituents live off tax dollars paid by people who vote Democratic." That's partisan spin, of course -- but the numbers he cites are not.
