The idea probably comes from an overgeneralization of something that came up with regard to his wife's alcoholism. 'Tough love' has many meanings. Sometimes it's used just to mean 'discipline'. But in the context of addiction, and apparently as used by this minister, it means more than just discipline or even punishment: it means withdrawal of support in order to avoid 'enabling' a self-destructive behaviour. It is sometimes recommended that people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, or some self-destructive behaviour such as pathological gambling, should be subjected to 'tough love': allowing them to hit rock-bottom in order to force them to see the need to change their ways. This may have some validity with those who are indeed addicted (though it does not always work). But generalizing it to everyone suffering misfortune, stress, real or perceived failures, or mental health problems, is inappropropriate and often cruel. It is overextending a drastic 'kill or cure' treatment for a serious and potentially life-threatening problem to situations where it doesn't apply. It is as though we were to decide that, because some serious health problems require radical surgery, that it is justifiable to stick a knife into everyone who has any sort of health problem.
At the extreme, so-called 'compassionate conservatives' treat almost every social and economic problem as a form of addiction, and equate poverty with 'welfare dependency' which must be treated by cutting benefits. Often they actually use the term 'tough love' for this. This is in my opinion one of the uglier attitudes of the Right.
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