No sooner did Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney revive the Moocher Myth than his critics jumped in with evidence to challenge it.

The Moocher Myth is this: People who vote Republican are successful, responsible strivers who pay taxes and keep the U.S. government afloat, while people who vote for Democrats are irresponsible moochers living off government programs. In Romney’s phrase, they are the 47 percent “who are dependent on government, who believe they are victims.” Reporter Mike Barnicle was criticized for saying something similar after the 2000 presidential election, claiming that the blue states on the map that voted for Al Gore were the “sense of entitlement” states.

But research then and now has pointed out that the states that got the most per capita in federal dollars were more likely to vote for Republicans. What explains this paradox?