Attitudes about poverty most readily distinguish the differences between liberals and conservatives.
The nation's poor can be divided into two basic types: the group of "genuine poor" whose poverty is due to social, educational, or racial factors beyond their control; and the second group, the "counterfeit poor" if you will, whose poverty results solely from their own conscious, deliberate, manipulative actions.
The true, unadulterated liberal, is unable to distinguish the differences between the two. Neither can the true, unadulterated conservative.