Guest Post by Morbo
A few months ago, I wrote about “The Plan,” my scheme to make the Republican Party’s attempt to destroy Social Security the dominant issue of the 2006 campaign.
President George W. Bush is doing his part. He won’t shut up about what he wants to do to Social Security — essentially ruin it. In late April, Bush announced a plan that would cut Social Security benefits for 70 percent of Americans.
How often are you handed a political gift like this? It’s priceless — and yet I worry the Democrats will fail to exploit it to its maximum potential.
How much should the Democrats demagogue on this issue? It’s a fair question, and for me the answer will always be, “No matter how much, it won’t be enough.”
I am convinced that the 70 percent figure is the key. It’s big, it’s jarring, it’s scary. Several newspapers have run charts and graphs showing what happens to most Americans’ benefits under the Bush proposal. They either flat-line or run downhill. Hint to the Democrats: These would look great blown up and displayed on easels on the floors of the House and Senate.
As the Carpetbagger pointed out earlier this week, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has already exploded Bush/GOP assertions that “progressive indexing” will protect the poor. Krugman exposes the con for what it is: Yet another Bush giveaway to the rich and a shafting of everyone else.
On the heels of that great column — and by the way, is Krugman a candidate for sainthood or what? I want to marry the guy, and I’m not even gay — The Times editorial page also weighed in, lucidly explaining: “[T]he Bush plan gives the false impression that the wealthiest beneficiaries would bear the most pain. That’s not the case. The wealthier one is, the lower the percentage of retirement income coming from Social Security, so even a big cut has little impact. By 2075, an average worker’s benefit cut would equal 10 percent of pre-retirement income; a millionaire’s reduction would be only 1 percent.”
Bush is pinning his hopes on a belief that he can create so much hysteria that Americans will become convinced that Social Security is in crisis and embrace privatization. So far, it hasn’t worked.
We have the ammo and the facts on our side. But that’s not enough. Remember, people, facts mean nothing in American politics. If facts mattered, John Kerry would be president right now. A candidate can have a bevy of facts on his side and a mountain of statistics to back them up and still lose to a demagogue with a smooth tongue (or not so smooth in some cases) backed by a well-paid, “win-at-any-cost” political consultant.
Burn this into your brain: The fact that our side is right means nothing. Facts mean nothing. What really matters is how our side is presented to the American public. This is where we absolutely, positively cannot afford to drop the ball.
Which brings me to — television commercials. Yep. We need them now until November of 2006.
The good news is, the commercials practically write themselves. I’m not a soulless, highly paid political consultant, but even I can see them in my head. Try this one: A series of ordinary Americans, men women of all races and ages, turns one by one to face the camera. They say, “I’m one of the 70 percent.” They are average people — teachers, nurses, blue-collar workers, fire fighters, cops and retail clerks. They look like your neighbors. They are your neighbors.
As the faces continue to revolve and their voices get softer, a narrator’s voice becomes dominant. He says, “President Bush and the Republicans in Washington are pushing a reckless Social Security scheme that would cut benefits for 70 percent of all Americans. Chances are you’re one of them. Bush and the Republicans say they want to protect Social Security — but they don’t. They want to destroy it. We Democrats will stop them — but first we need your support. Save Social Security. Vote Democratic.” (Hey, those last two lines would make a great bumper sticker.)
Notice that this ad isn’t tied to any specific candidate. There’s a reason for that: During the 1988 Bush I-Dukakis race, the Republicans ran party ads asserting that a vote for Dukakis would return the country to the “malaise” of the Jimmy Carter years. They could be used in any congressional district, in any state. They were effective. Our side needs to do the same.
Ads like this also remind voters that the assault on Social Security isn’t just a Bush idea. If the scheme is too closely tied to Bush, voters may come to believe the attack will cease once he leaves office in three years and get the idea it’s safe to support down-ballot Republicans. The reckless Bush assault on Social Security must be tied to the entire Republican Party, and by constant repetition, it will be.
That’s why I advocate saying, over and over again, lines like these. Memorize them and use them often:
* “Bush and the Republicans are attacking Social Security.”
* “Under the Social Security plan promoted by Bush and the Republicans, 70 percent of Americans will lose benefits.”
* “I just don’t understand why Bush and the Republicans are so determined to destroy Social Security. Their plan reduces benefits for 70 percent of the American people!”
* “What could Bush and the Republicans be thinking — a Social Security plan that takes benefits away from 70 percent of the people who worked hard to get them? It’s crazy.”
Last week, I asked Carpetbagger readers to name fictional characters who could drop the dime on Tom DeLay for the GOP. The responses proved there is a lot of creativity out there. So let’s hear your ideas for television ads targeting the Bush plan.
Who knows? Maybe we can convince the Carpetbagger, who moonlights as a low-paid political consultant, to slip the best ones to his friends in the Democratic National Committee.