++ [ originally posted by Tifoso Lou
] ++
Both, actually.
My grandfather/mother were immigrants and the only (or one of the few) in the neighborhood to vote Republican. They believed (and I believe) that government's role is to
1.Defend it's citizens
2.provide just courts
3.help those who genuinely need help, and can't get it elsewhere. (By this I mean, it should be primarly the responsibility of local institutions-churches, charitable organizations, etc--to provide relief. Only if they fail, should it be government's job to step in. Many respond with "but that's dehumanizing" to which I answer : no more dehumanizing than trapping whole families
for generations on subsistence-level government "aid")
I also vote Republican, because I believe that no amount of government aid is going to help you if you are killed (by abortion, by euthanasia, by the government doing a lousy job at #1 above).