Sad portrait the statists paint of those with genuine generosity

From The Corner:

Big government is attractive not merely to those receiving benefits, but also to idealists on the other end of the economic spectrum. For them, big government represents delegated virtue — it’s a way to take care of the poor, the elderly, the disabled without, you know, actually doing anything yourself. During my total-immersion days in the heart of the liberal establishment (Ivy League law schools, Manhattan law firm, Center City Philadelphia non-profit), I encountered hundreds of liberal idealists with a bulletproof sense of moral superiority even as they did nothing of consequence to actually serve their fellow man. For them, “advocacy” was service, higher tax rates were charity, and the actual poor and sick were rarely in their proximity.
For some time, the Democratic party has been the party of the bookends: with Democratic support strongest amongst the poor and uneducated, generally declining with income and education, but then reemerging at the highest education and income levels. It’s a coalition of economic dependents and their “virtuous” caretakers.  

The uncharitable, self-congratulatory liberal elite has pulled off one of the greatest P.R. con jobs of all time. They’ve successfully sold to millions of Americans the idea that religious conservatives — those most likely to volunteer their time and give their money to help those less fortunate — are uncaring, greedy, haters.

Moral superiority without sacrifice: It’s a seductive lifestyle.

 Dorothy Day would be horrified by this kind of delegated virtue. Charity which is forced is not charity at all.