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This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

Why don't conservatives care about what happens to the poor, weak, discouraged, and outcast?

Conservatives do care about what happens to such people. That's why
they oppose government programs that multiply the poor, weak,
discouraged, and outcast by undermining and disrupting the network of
habits and social relations that enable people to carry on their
lives without depending on government bureaucracy.

Moral community declines when people rely on government to solve
their problems rather than on themselves and those to whom they have
some particular connection. It is the weak who suffer most from the
resulting moral chaos. Those who think that interventionist
liberalism means that the weak face fewer problems should consider
the effects on women, children, and blacks of trends of the past 40
years. That period has featured large increases in social welfare
expenditures, as well as increased crime, reduced educational
achievement, family instability, and slower progress reducing
poverty.