Free market warriors? Or armchair conservatives?

Americans love to think of themselves as conservatives, in much the same way that Americans like to think of themselves as devoutly Christian.

It’s a label that fits comfortably, even when our lifestyles don’t fit the label. Nowhere is this disconnect more visible than the debate over healthcare.

Approximately 40% of Americans already receive their health care through taxpayer supported programs.

And that doesn’t include the tens of millions of workers drawing paychecks (and benefits) from government employers.

Many of the protesters pumping their fists in the air at townhall meetings this month are seniors who gladly make use of Medicare.

Check out this exchange, reported by the Washington Post earlier this month.

At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville, a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.”

“I had to politely explain that, ‘Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,’ ” Inglis recalled. “But he wasn’t having any of it.”

My liberal friends often think of this tension as hypocrisy. Conservatives want to have their government-funded cake, while also drinking the small-government Kool-Aid.

I think it’s more complicated than that.

When I researched rural conservative culture for my book, Welcome to the Homeland, a few years ago, I found that many on the right suffer a kind of split-personality on this issue.

I met farmers who receive huge government subsidies every year, who railed against foodstamp programs for poor urban families.

I talked with politicians from districts where government is the number one employer — politicians who grub constantly for more state and Federal spending — convinced that they embody the “small government” ideal.

I met with government workers who have never started a business, who’ve never worked a day in their lives in the private sector, who still believe that they’re part of America’s entrepreneurial culture.

I interviewed teachers who were pushing for higher wages and benefits, while also railing against soaring property taxes.

Part of this disconnect is a reflection of our pandering politics. Our leaders have told too many Americans for too long that they can have their big government programs without big taxes.

President Barack Obama is promising to revolutionize health care for middle class Americans without boosting taxes for middle class voters.

Conservatives are right to suspect that Mr. Obama is at the very least bending the truth.

But their own armchair conservatism is largely to blame.

If Republicans had used the last decade to pioneer a different model, forcing the private sector to improve healthcare without a big government intervention, while creating a smaller, leaner and more efficient Federal bureaucracy, we wouldn’t be in this pickle.

Instead, conservatives perpetuated the myth that you can feed from the government trough and make use of the government safety net, while still claiming to be a free-market warrior.