Michael Pugliese isn't quite right when he says that understanding this requires research; all it really requires is that you pay attention on a regular basis and have some respect for the facts. Months ago on this list I brought up the subject of Clinton having unambiguously entered the fray in defense of Social Security as a way to shore up his base during the impeachment. This observation was greeted with yawns from the Nader's Traitors at the time, though now Cranky Carrol Cox brings it up under the delusion that the whole episode proves his "point." In the real world, it proves precisely the opposite: that it makes a difference whether a Democrat or Republican is president, because they respond to different constituencies. But the facts don't matter to Cranky Carrol; only Thomist "proof" of his pseudo-religious preconceptions is on order. No matter what you think of the ancient Greek sophists and the current debate about them on this list, Carrol is a true master of sophistry in the colloquial sense.
Here are some other facts that matter to everyone but Cranky Carrol and his sophist disciples:
AFDC was a means-tested program, easy to stigmatize. Social Security is universal. It is a broad "middle-class" entitlement, which is what makes it so difficult to attack politically. If Wall Street can pull off this attack, then they can do anything. Clinton connived with Gingrich in the elimination of AFDC because poor people had been stigmatized and isolated, and also because Clinton had campaigned on the promise to "end welfare as we know it." Kerry, by contrast, has explicitly opposed Social Security privatization while Bush has explicitly supported it. In other words, this is a huge difference for anyone who is paying attention and has even minimal respect for the facts.
I will say one other thing: if Kerry wins the presidency, the Congress will likely stay Republican, which means that attempts at partial Social Security privatization are still a danger. Kerry WILL oppose this, but any opposition to such schemes will need to be shored up by mass action. And if and when things come to that pass, it will not be Cranky Carrol and Nader's Traitors who mobilize it, but people who are backing Kerry for all-too-obvious reasons right now.
My suggestion that the cranky ultraleftists should shut the fuck up and get with the program of the progressive movement is still operative. There is still time, so if they act now, they will be forgiven. But not much longer.
- - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!