I'm probably slightly more liberal than you, but I'm no socialist by any stretch. I advocate a lot of liberal agendas and generally can't stand claims like "Obama is trying to start a Islamic Caliphate," but ultimately, I'm fiscally too conservative to vote for Bernie. I'm from Houston but go to school at a very liberal university in the northeast, so my peer group consists of both. I worked some internships earlier in undergrad where I wasn't earning much more than 15/hr (after taxes I suppose), and I can say the expectations of me were higher than those of a fast food employee. That being said, I'd hate to be the dependent of a single parent earning less than 15 dollars an hour. The opposite extreme to Bernie may be the greater of two evils though. The average family is well within the 1% if not .1% in the area I come from in Houston and it will put a lot of things in perspective when you consider some people work full time and can't keep the lights on.
Yeah, I am fairly conservative on quite a few issues, but not everything. Having a kid at 19, working full-time, and going to school (my wife was in school full-time also), I get the issues of people not being able to support a family etc. My solution was to take a semester off and work two jobs while working on finding a job that paid better. I was lucky enough to find one, but it took a lot of work. I was a teller in a credit union from 8am to 1-2pm, then drove a forklift in a warehouse from 4pm to 2am. Luckily I convinced the credit union to bring me on full time in a higher paying role and it worked out really well. It would have been much easier if we had lived with my parents or something, but I was determined to handle it all myself. It would have hurt my pride to move back in lol. My son had a few health issues when born also, so my wife wasn't able to work until he was around a year old.
As long as those who are able are working hard, I am all for helping them out if need be. At least on a temporary basis. But the number of people on food stamps and welfare that are fully capable of taking care of themself blows my mind. At least around here that is.