Correction: On Medicaid, I tripped up over the “white” versus “non-Hispanic white” distinction. Actually, Medicaid looks a lot like food stamps: 42 percent of recipients are non-Hispanic whites, but in Ohio the number is 61 percent.

A couple of days ago I pointed out that there is a big problem with the notion of “libertarian populism”, which is supposed to rally GOP support among “downscale” whites. Namely, a large part of the GOP agenda these days involves tearing down the social safety net — read the blistering Times editorial on North Carolina — and strange to say, downscale whites actually make use of that net.

I pointed out in the original post that a solid majority of the recipients of unemployment benefits are white. Readers have now directed me to better data on food stamps, from the American Community Survey. These show that in 2011, nationally, 48.7 percent of food stamp recipients were white. In swing states the number was higher: for example, 65 percent in Ohio.

Oh, and what about Medicaid, our other big means-tested program? According to the Census data, in 2011 there were 51 million people on Medicaid; 67 percent of them were white .

The point, again, is that it’s going to be hard to sell a libertarian program as populist when the core of that program is a direct assault on programs that help the very people who will supposedly be rallied by the new slogan.