When a person is told over and over in school and on television  that "the Guverment" will take care of them if they only vote in a particular fashion, and they are totally ignorant as to where the money the government spends comes from, this is the result.

"The state — or, to make the matter more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office." 

"Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."

H. L. Mencken

That was true 70-plus years ago and it is still true today.