Democrats Are On a Roll
After the Democrats lost to George Bush in 2004, they were gloomy and depressed. W., however, was on a roll. He was ready to spend his "capital" on his new agenda, on top of which was privatization of Social Security. For months he ran around the country giving speeches to "invited" guests about the urgent need for privatization. His speeches had worked before, why not now? Greatly to his surprise, the more he spoke the less the public liked his ideas. Democrats won big. Saving Social Security was so great a victory that Democrats are now on a roll.
Maybe you think I'm just boasting, a Democrat with a loose screw in the noggin. Well read this from the Nation:
"George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, the centerpiece of his second-term agenda, is dead. Conservative pundit William Kristol argues that this Bush defeat began the unraveling of his presidency: 'The negative effect of the Social Security [campaign] is underestimated,' says Kristol. 'Once you make that kind of mistake, people tend to be less deferential to your decisions.' There was an 'entire Republican agenda, based on the idea that we reform these entitlement programs,' says New York Times columnist David Brooks. 'That's gone now because of the failure of Social Security.' A remarkable progressive mobilization caused Bush's defeat--and progressives can learn much from the anatomy of that victory."
Kristol and Brooks, 2 prominent conservatives, and they agree that Bush lost big. He suffered this tremendous loss because ALL Democrats perceived his actions as bad for the country. They thought that a Bush win would destroy the most effective accomplishment of FDR. They were upset that without Social Security or with a diminished Social Security, millions of elderly would suffer unnecessarily. Democrats of all stripes worked assiduously to counter the administration's misrepresentations and to demonstrate that no good would come of the president's proposals.
Now Democrats see more clearly how to win against Republicans. Before we left too many false and misleading Republican statements and ridiculous Republican charges unanswered. So Republicans won. In the Social Security fight, though, Democrats answered each false statement soon after it was made. They retorted immediately to all charges and smears. Above all, because Democrats realized how important this fight was, we all worked together.
Democratic unity, I believe, was an important reason why AARP, the organization that had previously worked with Republicans to get the Medicare drug bill passed, this time decided to fight Social Security privatization.
Ever since Democrats won to keep the Social Security system alive, we have had the president and the Republicans on the run while the Democrats are on a roll. And we're going to roll right into Congress next year. Democratic morale is up, and after the 2006 Congressional elections the morale of the people will be up as well.
