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Action Plan: How the Dems Should Talk About Social Security

Today, the estimable Kos reports that Bush does NOT have the majority of the GOP on board with this social security privitization proposal. Kos goes on to quote a republican representative, who says that voting for privitization is “a no-win no-win for people in the House.”

“We risk our political careers. We risk 30-second ads against you saying, `You voted to gut Social Security.’”

Kos writes that “That’s the exact language Democrats should be using,” but he doesn’t make expand on that comment. This is not just the language that the Dems should be using, but the overall strategy, and they need to go with it big time. If the Dems truly want to nail Bush on social security, all they have to do is go on the talk shows and say “Bush is trying to gut social security”–those same, exact words, over and over. Sing it in three-part harmony. Shout it from the rooftops. Let that barbaric yawp ring out over the rooftops of America. Come on, Democrats, I know you’ve got a yawp–let me hear it!

What the talk about “gutting social security” does is put the GOP on the defensive. Instead of talking about their pet privitization theories, they’re forced to clarify how, exactly, Bush’s proposal does NOT gut social security. And once they start trying to explain it, to get into the complicated details of the plan, people will lose focus and stop listening–and all they’ll remember is the “gut social security” comment. And no one wants their financial future to be in the hands of some murky plans that does strange things with their money.

In other words, the Dems have a chance to turn to the tables on the GOP. During the election, everything with Kerry was complicated; everything with Bush was simple. The GOP used that to their advantage by constantly making false claims (about Kerry’s military record, about his health care proposal, etc. etc.) that Kerry had to defend. FINALLY, we have a situation where Bush is proposing something that can’t be explained easily, and the line of attack on it is so clear. Attacking him on this plan won’t just save social security–it will save the Democratic Party, by giving it practice in effective political rhetoric.