A couple of points. You can work on alleviating poverty AND make killing your unborn child illegal. They aren’t mutually exclusive. Second, Clinton didn’t do anything to decrease poverty/abortion. It was a robust economy that caused both to decrease. It turns out that robust economy was a bubble waiting to burst. Bush didn’t do anything to cause the burst economy or increase in abortions.
As far as the best way to alleviate poverty, conservatives and liberals (i.e. Republicans and Democrats) just differ on the approach. Looking at the Clinton years, it is obvious that a robust economy will decrease poverty. So, the real question is how do we create a real recovery. Our current President has saddled us with a lot more debt and bureucracy. It’s given us feeble growth and will lead to financial catastrophe down the road…iow, more poverty.
Conservatives place far far less priority on alleviating priority. If you visit the national review, you will see more far articles castigating the poor as morally rephrensible or lauding the benefits of inequality. If you look at how conservatives donate, they disproportionately donate to religious organizations, cultural - i.e. the opera, and health organizations with less going to those organizations specifically intended to help the entrenched poor. If you look at voters, even poor Republicans think that the GOP does not care enough about poverty. And conservatives are socially disconnected from the non white working class poor.
The states with the highest levels of poverty are conservative states. Mississippi is the poorest… followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina. The conservatives’s approach to reducing poverty isn’t working, but it doesn’t bother them as long as the ideology behind it is good enough. The approach wasn’t made to solve problems; it was made so people wouldn’t feel guilty.
The conservative approach to a robust economy is decreasing legislation, legislation that would have prevented the recent recession - as Gingrich admitted. It is confusing why this would create a robust economy as it is the same strategy as many of the poor countries of this world. The approach of some liberals to a robust economy is immigration, free trade (NAFTA), technological development, education, and a much more detailed approach. America has propsered through technology, i.e. Silicon Valley. But conservatives think focusing on education is snobbery and citing scientific research is citing stupid bias preferring to rely on common sense solutions. Thus, only 6% of scientists are conservative. Can a common sense solution take us to Mars?
See Clinton:
An increase in the minimum wage.
The Family and Medical Leave Act.
The child tax credit
An expanded earned income tax credit.
Welfare reform that put Americans to work.
More federal funding for Head Start and child care.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Better nutritional and housing support for low-income families.
Community technology centers.
Expanded educational technology
A stronger Community Reinvestment Act.
New Markets and Empowerment Zones.
Community Development Banks.
Expanded national service.
americanprogress.org/issues/2011/10/clinton_economy.html
To be fair, Bush has some good ideas, but they focused on developing countries not America, i.e. Millenium Challenge Account. No comment on No Child Left Behind. But the cut cut cut strategy only helps society if you are not cutting useful programs.