[moorobot]

I suppose the best thing I can say for liberals is this:

Conservatives have a tendency to believe that private charity should do much of the work that liberals believe should be funded via the gov't.

Now, fairness and reciprocity are a big part of the reason why liberals believe the government should pay for this.

Fairness: many reason that it is unfair to an extent for individual wealthy people to provide something to the poor when other, similarly situated wealthy people are not. Hence, it is ethically better for these things to be paid for by the government than for them to be paid for by some individuals.

Reciprocity: Many people think that if they are going to pay for social causes while they are well off, it should be guranteed that should they ever become "down on their luck" that they as well will be helped out by others.