'The Next Big Occupation Could be Boomers Taking Over the Capitol Building'

[seafan]

Dave Lindorff writes:


03/03/2011

The dramatic and inspiring occupation of the Wisconsin Statehouse in Madison by angry public workers and their supporters over the past few weeks is an exciting preview of what we can expect to see in the halls of Congress before long, as right-wing forces, funded by corporate lobbies and corporate-funded think-tanks push hard for cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare.

The drive to undermine these two critically important social programs is moving into high gear as the 79-million Baby Boomers this year start to reach eligibility, even as their other assets--their homes and their investment portfolios--are still shriveled by the Wall Street heist known as the “fiscal crisis” and Great Recession.

.....

But a Boomer retiree population will be two times the size of the current retiree population. That means that just in terms of the number of potential voters, it will be two times as powerful. But that’s only part of the story. The new generation of retirees are the people who came of political age in the late 1950s during the Civil Rights movement, and the 1960s and ‘70s during the anti-war movement and the feminist movement. We are veterans of both engaged electoral politics (witness that support our generation gave to the insurgent campaigns of Eugene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy and George McGovern, as well as a host of more successful Congressional campaigns), and of powerful and of successful militant street politics.

.....

My prediction: As the number of Boomers nearing or entering retirement soars, and the number anticipating or signing up for Medicare soars over the next few years, we will see massive national campaigns grow around not just saving these programs but expanding and improving them. With traditional pensions vanishing, and with IRAs and 401(k) plans having been exposed as the shams they are, we are going to see an irresistable demand grow for Social Security benefits to be raised, particularly for poorer retirees, so that all Americans can have a secure old age. And we will see another irresistable political drive to have Medicare not just improved but broadened to cover all Americans, as we Boomers recognize that it makes no sense at all to have a program that only covers the oldest and sickest of Americans, and not the younger and healthier population (our own kids and grandkids!). We will realize that it is in our interest to have all Americans invested fully in supporting a well-funded national Medicare program.

.....

If these greedy politicians lay one claw on Social Security and Medicare, they'll be pulling back a bloody stump.


A massive, ongoing occupation of the Capitol by a tsunami of p!**^@-off Baby Boomers is a mighty fine plan, indeed.


God knows, we are ready.

[somone]

1. Excellent idea

[howmad1]

38. Boomers revolting?

You gotta be kidding. So splain me this. How come in the retirement community in Sun City, Arizona, one of the largest in the country, Sherrif Joe Arpio and all rethuglicans are constantly reelected as if they walk on water? So how come the majority of moronic Tea Baggers are made up boomers who hate big government, but don't anyone touch their medicare and social security? So why is it so easy to forget that we live in the dumbest country on the planet, inhabited by rethuglican loving boomers? Just a few simple questions hurting for answers.

[Lifelong Protester]

2. We are ready to mobilize

[CC]

3. That is why they keep saying they

won't touch those on SS now or going on it soon. So far they say maybe 55 and over. They are hoping that will keep most of them happy. Thing is those between 50 and 55 keep getting screwed over by our politicians. They also feel like they have little to lose after a lifetime of getting screwed.

[pacalo]

4. Damn straight.

[starroute]

5. The private insurance companies cherry-pick the young and healthy

And leave the old, the poor, and the sick for the government to deal with.

We need to hammer in that this is the real reason Medicare is facing shortfalls. It's not that we can't afford Medicare -- but that we can't afford private insurance skimming off all the profits in health care and sticking government with the liabilities.

The arguments for universal Medicare have been pitched in terms of helping younger people. But if we can frame it in terms of saving Medicare itself, that might wake up not only the Boomers but their more selfish older siblings.

[Scuba]

17. Bingo.

[ejpoeta]

19. exactly. this is the point i make when talking about insurance.

you pay into the private system your working life. if you get sick and can't work you lose your insurance and end up on medicaid (if you are lucky). or you work til you are too old and then when you need to use it the most you end up on medicare. If the only people using the system are going to need it, then of course it can't survive!! The system is set up so that people pay into it when they are well and then use it when they are not. they are paying into the for profit system when they are well and then when they need it end up in the public system (if they are lucky). where does all that money go that the insurance companies refused to cover or didn't have to because you lost your private insurance??? they KEEP IT!!

[Octafish]

20. Exactly. Same goes for Charter Schools

They accept the brightest students and turn away those with special needs as there's no profit in them, just cost.

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. And a lot of us have nowhere else we have to be during the work week

Jobs already gone (voluntarily or not), and no kids left at home. We could stay a looooooong while. We could just pitch tents there, and save paying rent.

It wouldn't surprise me if this happens. And yes, I'd be there - DC is local for me.

[roguevalley]

7. I will come if someone can pick me up. I'm the old gal with the

pitch fork standing on the Kenai with her thumb out.

[bertman]

30. great visual image there, roguevalley. Thanks for that.

[eridani]

8. We are the first generation to prepay retirement for ourselves as well as our parents

It's ours!! Keep your bloody fucking Wall Street hands OFF of it!!

[SoCalDem]

10. and our grandparents..

The "fixes" in the 80's scalped us. but it was presented as prepaying for US, & enhancing retirement for our parents AND grandparents, even though THEY were the ones with pensions and the ones who got the grab bag of post WWII goodies that WE never had a chance to get.

[eridani]

12. Well, our own children and grandchildren could be even worse off

--which is exactly why we have to nip this shit in the bud.

[bongbong]

27. Your sig gif/jpg

I like your "Republican Money Management 101" picture, but I'll have to argue with you. You see, with proper money management and playing the right machine (video poker with the best odds), you can actually make money half the time at a casino.

A better picture for "Republican Money Management 101" would be a guy buying a whole roll of lottery tickets. The slot machine picture should be labeled "Republican Money Management Doctoral Dissertation"

[Lugnut]

9. We're ready to go.

DH and I are a little older than the boomers and we're a short 4 hour drive from DC. We're fed up with being gouged everywhere we turn. We have lots of free time and no time clocks to punch. Bring it!

[Cleita]

11. I suggested this years ago when everyone was

grumbling about free speech zones. What was needed was taking over of Congress, having sit ins and forcing them to physically remove you. I thought this should have been done during the health care debate. Unfortunately, not enough dissenters were there to make a difference and the few who did were easily arrested and dismissed. But a mass of angry people protesting peacefully but firmly will get their attention. When they have to step over and elbow their way through protestors and when daily business gets interrupted and there are too many there to make arrests practical, then you get their attention.

[socialist_n_TN]

26. It takes a LARGE number of people who.......

are NOT afraid of getting arrested. When they can't hold all of you, THEN you start making a difference. It's at the point now where if you're not willing to get arrested, you're not committed enough.

Of course, this would exclude people who have health problems or have other people still depending on them (grandchildren, etc). But THOSE folks could also contribute to the cause by providing as much material support as possible to the vanguard that ARE willing to be arrested for this cause. There's a part to play for everybody and it NEEDS to be played.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Hear, hear

/s/
Jack Rabbit, born in 1951

[theophilus]

14. OH MERCY ME YES!! If the Boomers unite and get serious about stopping

this madness, then something will be done. 79 Million! We can pressure both parties to save SS, Medicare, the environment, and many other common sense situations. If the Boomers can focus on the things that nearly all can agree on, as Dems AND Reps, there is hope. Thanks for posting!

[Ohio Joe]

15. K&R - nt

[diane in sf]

16. I hope so!

[Fuddnik]

18. It's long overdue now.

I'm all for it. Let's hit the bricks!

[fasttense]

21. About time we got onto doing this.

I suspect we Boomers need to wait for warmer weather before we can sleep out. But we can start to organize now.

[sarcasmo]

22. Kick.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. Ummm.... problem is

A large number of "greedy politicians" ARE boomers.

These are boomers --> John "Cheeto" Bohener, Eric "I'm an idiot" Cantor
She's a boomer --> Michelle "I'm Batshit Crazy" Bachmann
39/55 are boomers --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Caucus#Members_of_House_Caucus">Tea Party Caucus

I.e., many of the ones who are doing the damage ARE boomers. Unfortunately, boomers are not all of one mindset (thus the election of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and the Bush dynasty).

So IMHO, the thing about boomers supposedly going wild to take back American from the evil politicians (including those such as boomers George W. Bush, Joe Wilson, Roy Blunt, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee), and from the clutches of corporate treachery (including your fellow boomers Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup), and Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase)), and from the toxic atmosphere manufactured by the lunatic fringe radical RW nuttery (these are boomers -> Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, Coulter, Levin. etc.) is going to take more than just fantasizing about what happened in the past and hoping an age group will "rise up" on its own for the cause.

Seems that far too many in that same group, with the help of wealthy elders, got us in this mess in the first place.

The problem is that progressives do not have ownership of the MICROPHONE. Pay radio (satellite), the blogosphere. and other media/discussion formats on the web have kept progressives from completely being crushed. But the message will never get distributed unless you own the free airwaves, get on the social media and grab the attention of your kids to get involved, or go old-school and hand out pamphlets and hope the people you are handing them to can even read.

(and this is posted by someone who is a boomer)

[socialist_n_TN]

24. Agreed. A lot of boomers are greedy, sociopathic fucks............

They always were, even when they were young. We ALL went to high school, after all :). But I honestly don't think that the MAJORITY are psychos. I don't think that the majority of boomers voted for Reagan. We (yes, I is one)have good instincts most of the time. AND a lot of the ones that DON'T have good instincts are the ones who will be won over TO our side by the effect on them PERSONALLY.

I've been politcally active and aware all of my life. That's not going to change. What's more, I'm getting more and more RADICAL in my economic beliefs and more and more willing to stand up for them. I've thought all along that I will get arrested this year over politics. Probably over this very issue (SS). I'm ready and I think a lot of my contempories are ready also.

We WILL be there. Or at least enough will be there to make a BIG difference. I pretty much guarantee it. Solidarity and see you at the barricades.

[spanone]

25. they will try to steal the 'hippies' ss and medicare

i will fight them tooth & nail

[LongTomH]

28. K&R From your keyboard to God's eyes!

:kick:

[sufrommich]

29. Unfortunately, boomers are proving to be a conservative

force in this country. Here's a pretty good breakdown of what we've become:

Most boomers began their political lives as considerably more progressive than their elders, more likely to call themselves "liberals."� Liberals usually vote Democratic, and sure enough: In 1972, George McGovern (D) essentially split 18-24-year-olds with President Richard Nixon (R)”- the only age group that McGovern came close to carrying. Nationally, Nixon buried McGovern, 61 percent to 38 percent. If it had not been for Boomers, President Gerald Ford (R) would have defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976. Voting-age boomers cast about 54 percent of their ballots for Carter and 46 percent for Ford. Overall, Carter eked out a 50-to-48-percent victory. Age and experience began to moderate boomers by 1980. While 18-29-year-olds split their votes evenly between President Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, boomers who had crossed the 30-year-old threshold voted for Reagan by a wide margin. Meanwhile, voters across the country gave Reagan a handsome ten percentage-point triumph. Then suddenly, the political distinctiveness of the boomer generation disappeared. In every presidential election from 1984 to 2004, boomers were within a point or two of reflecting the entire nation's White House choice. Since Republicans won four of these six elections, the Democratic predisposition of boomers clearly all but vanished. In fact, there is tantalizing evidence from 2008 that aging boomers are now more conservative than the American population as a whole. While Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain by 53 to 46 percent countrywide, the boomers favored Obama by the slimmest of margins, 50 to 49 percent. Yes, politically, the boomers have become their parents. -- Sabato

I watched it happen with Reagan, as I'm sure many other democratic boomers did too.

http://www.theboomermagazine.com/features/larry_sabato/oct_09_2.html

[MJJP21]

31. Tell them

We've come for the money? The money they took years ago to spend on who knows what. Tell them it's not there money and we want it back with interest.

[1776Forever]

32. I hope you are right but I have friends and family who just don't get it! They fall for the very

things that don't really affect them. They listen too much to those who are led like sheep and I don't know if anything will wake them up. I get emails from them all the time saying idiotic stuff and I try to tell them it isn't true but they just keep being led around by their noses! I am so sick of it I could scream! I don't even have much to say to my sister and childhood friends any more who grew up like I did in the 60's. They just don't get it! Even when it is against them they vote for Repubs!
:banghead:

[blackrockhippie]

33. boomers

Right on your message is timely but we have to make boomers
understand that first they came for the unions social security
and medicare is next. I do not hear this discussed enough this
message has to get out!!!

[femrap]

34. The Boomers don't like to

put up w/ greedy a**holes. And we like JUSTICE.

[Plucketeer]

35. I am READY TO GO!

:grr:

[swilton]

36. Bring it on!

[Canuckistanian]

37. Fine by me

One way or another, I don't think they can stop us. We are legion.