Why is the Republican Party still trying to pass SS priviatization when public support is down to 35%? Every pollster in America would tell the GOP to take their losses and move on.
Also, if privatization is such a good idea why didn't the GOP campaign hard on it? Bush barely mentioned it - Kerry made it an issue only in the final stretch. Doesn't the GOP (and Dems) conduct focus groups? The GOP had to know they could not sell privatization. Didn't we know it?
I got some answers today on C-SPAN. An economist from University of California testified he believes the purpose of the SS privatization debate is to divert attention from health care and the budget deficit.
Imagine this - the Democratic Party spends the next year defending the status quo on social security and trying to defeat a radical SCOTUS nominee. Come 2006 people still won't know what we stand FOR - only what we are against.
Is that Karl Rove's goal?
The Democratic Party needs to keep opposing any attempt to privatize social security. But we need to move on to other issues, even if the Republicans won't.
We need to move on to issues that will drive a wedge into the Republican base. The Republicans are so good at finding social wedge issues like gay marriage and the ten commandments - we need to use our own economic wedge issues.
The polls show that 67% of Americans believe
the government should guarrantee every American health insurance, even if it means higher tax. We need to make this a big issue - NOW.
The polls show 80% of Americans favor raising the minimuim wage - we need to propose a hefty increase. This is a fairness issue - if you are willing to work for a living you should earn enough to pay rent!
We need to define our stand on taxes or we will continue to allow the Republicans to define our position. We need to propose a tax cut for lower to middle income self employed Americans. They pay the highest effective tax rate of most anyone because they pay both the employer and employee part of social security - they also do not get employer paid health benefits, vacations,
and so on. We can make this part of an overall tax reform package that would close corporate loopholes, and repeal the Bush tax cut for the rich. We can take the tax issue away from the Republicans. It isn't that hard.
The Republicans are divided about enviornmental issues - we need to define the enviornmental debate to talk about how many jobs alternative fuels and new enviornmental technologies will create.
The Republicans gained majority because they were able to redraw the battle line from economic
to cultural. We will not become a majority party again until we make the fault line economic again
It is that simple.
Do you know what really got to me about the last election? Kerry lost the white working class vote by a whopping 23 points!! If you take the white vote alone, someone earning $30,000 a year was not really any more likely to vote Democrat than someone earning $100,000!!
Just my thoughts