Saving Social Security -- and Democratic Seats

[Faryn Balyncd]

Saving Social Security -- and Democratic seats

In their desire to dismantle Social Security, Republicans have given Democrats an issue that has been politically potent before -- and can be so again.

by Robert Shrum


Democrats are facing a midterm hurricane without the benefit of a crucial bulwark to blunt the storm surge...House Speaker Tip O’Neill laid the foundation in 1981 when he exclaimed of GOP designs to dismantle Social Security: “It’s a rotten thing to do. It’s a despicable thing to do.” . . . . There’s plenty of evidence to justify reprising O’Neill’s tack this fall: The Social Security–privatizing, Medicare–shredding “road map” of GOP Rep. Paul Ryan; the barely disguised complicity of the GOP congressional leadership; and, in a party where extreme has become mainstream, the blatant animus of candidates who see Social Security as “socialism”—and yearn to eviscerate it. . . . . . An Early Bird campaign should put the debate on Social Security's future before the voters. . . . . . . . . So why not campaign all-out, in O’Neill’s plainspoken way, against a GOP that is disloyal to the most successful—and most popular—social program in American history? . . . . Because Democrats have been disarmed by the president’s deficit reduction commission, which plainly intends to propose Social Security cuts.


Rather than allow such cuts to be greased through the lame duck session of a decimated Democratic Congress, or passed under cover of “bipartisanship” in a decidedly more Republican one next year, shouldn’t the case be stated and debated before the election? (Right now, Social Security is treated as the issue that dare not speak its name.) There is also the question of Democratic identity: What does the party stand for if not Social Security? And then there is the question of Democratic stupidity: Qualified and muted comments by Democrats in effect suggesting that Democrats won’t endanger Social Security as much as the other guys will can only further pave the road to defeat.

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Conservative activist Grover Norquist has single-mindedly and brilliantly locked most GOP candidates into a pledge never to raise taxes. . . . . . What is needed—urgently—is a counterforce. If the politicians won’t summon and lead it, the grass roots can and should. There is a coalition, Strengthen Social Security, composed of dozens of organizations from the AFL-CIO to the AARP. But there is no mass movement visible and vocal in congressional districts around the nation—and Norquist shouldn’t be the only one with a pledge. It’s late in the 2010 campaign, but an “Early Bird” movement of seniors, progressives, and working Americans should organize campaign events to demonstrate, demand answers, and hold candidates to account. They could pin Republicans as anti–Social Security. They could make Democrats do what they haven’t yet done for themselves—run as champions of Social Security. . . . . . Democrats are determined to be responsible, but responsibility can’t mean surrendering to tax cuts for the privileged and Social Security cuts for everyone else to make up the difference. . . . . . . Seldom has a political party been offered so clear an opening at such a perilous hour. An Early Bird uprising would be politically smart, allowing Dems to seize the offensive. What’s more, as Tip O’Neill said, rescuing Social Security is not just about politics. It’s about decency.


http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/206740/saving-social-security----and-democratic-seats

Is this the truth, or what?




:kick:

[Donnachaidh]

1. Truth indeed -- k&r

:thumbsup:

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. I'd love to see it

but with the DLCers holding sway in the WH, I'm not holding my breath.

70% of the public wanted to see a public option on HC, too. Fat lot of good it did.

[Raster]

3. No the DLCers will piss this opportunity away also.

DLC = Democrats Love Corporations