[lbo-talk] Kerry/DLC vs. Social Security (the imperialism of the liberal)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>[lbo-talk] the imperialism of the liberal
>John Lacny jlacny at earthlink.net, Sat Mar 6 10:23:58 PST 2004
>
>Joseph Wanzala writes::
>
>>This business of the 'not a dime's worth of difference crowd not 
>>caring about the working class' is simply untrue and pretends that 
>>a different ideological ethos runs foreign contra domestic policy.
>
>It has little to do with "ethos" and a lot to do with the real-life 
>political forces in the United States, and the differing 
>constituencies that will support a liberal candidate against Bush. 
>The differences are substantial and the evidence is overwhelming, 
>and all of this is obvious to anyone who investigates the issues. 
>It's not unfair to say that people like John Pilger -- let alone the 
>paleo-fascist-symps at "antwar.com" -- don't care about the working 
>class in the US; when was the last time you saw someone like Pilger 
>writing about US domestic political economy in anything but the most 
>general terms? Clearly, he just doesn't care. I don't necessarily 
>blame people from outside the US for feeling this way, but people 
>who want to actually build a movement inside the "belly of the 
>beast" have different responsibilities. Among those on this list and 
>elsewhere who refuse to recognize the importance of defeating Bush, 
>I have not seen a single one produce an argument to counter the 
>(incontrovertible) evidence that replacing Bush would be an 
>improvement worth fighting for.

Democrats are better at big "structural reforms" like the "Welfare 
Reform" than Republicans, since the latter have a much less ability 
to manufacture consent among unions, liberal NGOs, and the like -- 
and the next targets will be Social Security and Medicare:

*****   DLC | Key Document | August 1, 2000
The Hyde Park Declaration: A Statement of Principles and a Policy 
Agenda for the 21st Century . . .

# Make structural reforms in Social Security and Medicare that slow 
their future cost growth, modernize benefits (including a 
prescription drug benefit for Medicare), and give beneficiaries more 
choice and control over their retirement and health security.

# Create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans 
to save for their own retirement. . . .

John F. Kerry, United States Senator, Massachusetts

(<http://www.ndol.org/print.cfm?contentid=1926>)   *****
-- 
Yoshie

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