Digby’s got exactly the right idea here: Social Security is still the third rail of politics, folks. Time to start acting like it — and Harry Reid has been showing some attitude: don’t give an inch to this loony scheme. This should be something that absolutely unites the Democrats, and scares a few Republicans, too. There’s so many opportunities for good politics on behalf of good policy here.
They want to turn Social Security into Social Gambling. Protect Social Security. Done. Be direct, be funny.
And this is just one more step that the Republicans are taking to give our tax dollars to pad corporations’ bottom lines. It’s a fundamental difference: Democrats believe in using government to help people, Republicans use government as an ATM for their corporate donors. We need to start drawing the line between this battle, the corporate accountability scandals in Iraq, and the Medicare prescription drug swindle. If Democrats aren’t able to look the American people in the eye and say, "Every tax dollar you send to the government is a sacred trust", then we don’t deserve to win anyway.
As Josh Marshall has said, principle can be wedded to good politics — especially when you’re comparing yourself to a group of cheesy corporate bagmen like this.
In addition to the sources referenced at Digby, anyone wanting to talk intelligently about Social Security should read the excellent posts at the Daily Howler. They lay out in impressive detail the astounding extent of the “crisis” deception. There’s no crisis, folks. Don’t be afraid to say so.
http://webmarket.orig.com/CGI/wwwboard/messages/2412.html archinghigherlose