"The people who hustled America into a tax cut to eliminate an imaginary budget surplus and a war to eliminate imaginary weapons are now trying another bum's rush."
-Paul Krugman
Chess hasn't been popular in the U.S.A. since an American master played a Russian master during the cold war. During the 1972 match between Bobby Fisher and Boris Spassky, many Americans took up this game. Judging by the current events, it would seem that the Republicans kept playing.
As a life long Democrat, it is truly embarrassing to watch the way the Neo Cons are playing our poor floundering representatives. Like a great chess champion playing a novice, the Republicans are so many moves ahead of the Democrats. These Devils with the patience of Saints can plan a well coordinated assault with absolute precision. As the coming events unfold, Nancy Pelosi and company won't even know what hit them.
This strategy board game in which the player must have the ability to be a few moves ahead of his opponent is great practice for winning what you want in real life. Chess is a highly competitive sport which requires not only meticulous opening preparation, a high state of tactical alertness and perfect technique, but also an immense will to win and the ability to take calculated risk.
Now that the Neo Cons have a degree of political dominance that lets them push social security to the top of the agenda, the long awaited goal of dismantlement has begun. Even though no rational analysis of the actual problems facing the U.S. government would say that social security belongs at the top of the agenda, the Republican right has set their sites on the beginning of the end for social security.
As the Queen grabs news time making jokes about being a "Desperate Housewife," the King is totally protected by his loyal pieces and pawns. Every move in social security game was well planned out far in advance. Because of the extreme organization of a party that has loyally followed the blueprint presented by Lewis Powell for thirty-four years, the well meaning individuals of the Democratic Party will end up in Checkmate.
While Bush was crisscrossing the country, selling to the public that social security must change, Democrats offered no proposals of their own. Instead of unifying and trying to bring the focus back to 2005, the Democrats put great effort into working against something that never had a chance. In the world of chess this would be a classic case of misinterpreting the offence. Our leaders were being fooled into protecting pieces that are not really under attack.
What we needed was statements like "The Republican controlled federal government is presently borrowing over two billion dollars per day and talking about a deficit many years in the future. If they can't do their own laundry, how can they expect to wash cloths that haven't even been manufactured yet?"
In what the chess world refers to as "King's gambit declined," our Democratic lawmakers, always on the defense, just kept saying that Mr. Bush should first come forward with a plan to plug Social Security's long-term deficit before privatization can even be discussed.
But now the president has presented an idea that seems reasonable enough to serve as the starting point for action. In his speech, Bush even managed to switch colors on the chess board, painting himself as a white knight champion of the poor. The public interest in defeating this new effort will fall off as early disability seems to be restored and our poorer Americans are still being taken care.
Bush is seeking to cast himself in the Democrats' traditional role as a defender of the underprivileged. This is not only a great strategy for throwing the Democrats off their own game; it will also serve for many accusations against the character of our democratic leaders. The conservative press has been so successful in America, that George W. Bush has taken on the roll of a Republican Robin Hood and the average voter actually believes it.
Already there are labels being put on the new plan that seem almost liberal. "Progressive indexation" is a catchy phrase that almost seems like only the affluent are going to pay. The fine print will never make it to most voters as conservative radio and cable news show host begin to lionize Bush for taking on this political danger zone. They will be talking about the lack of short-term political advantage but still, he has done it, made the tough decisions. A great president, looking out for the future of the nation!
For three months as social security reforms grabbed up many headlines, Democrats have declined to engage in a debate. The Republicans have painted a picture of themselves to be taking up a just cause while the Democrats were taking the out of sight, out of mind approach or offering protest. As our Democratic leaders hoped for a "Social Security Quagmire," staying away from the topic has only reinforced the Republicans new self proclaimed title as the "Party of Ideas."
When Bush held the press conference and promised that he is not giving up on privatization, he elicited the exact response he was seeking. The Democrats started lining up to the microphones to say "I will not deal until privatization is taken off the table."
The poor Democrats still haven't realized that privatization was always a Red Herring. The Republicans knew privatizing social security wouldn't fly before they proposed it. In a system where the workers are paying the retirees, the math never even added up. When privatization and protecting only the poor are unbundled, all of the Democratic effort against privatization will seem irrelevant. The Democrats will have no choice but to enter the debate. Before they know it this will have become a bipartisan bill.
This is a brilliant ploy by a master manipulator. Once the Democrats begin negotiating, all will be lost. As our Democratic minority struggle to decrease the pain suffered by future retirees and tries to raise the present cap of $90,000, Republican committees will poison any breaks for the working man.
The Republicans will then proclaim it a huge success and dismiss Democratic complaints as "a few malcontents motivated by politics." When this debate reaches stalemate over carefully hidden harsh cuts that will receive very little focus from the media, the Republican propaganda machine will begin to label Democrats as do nothings and obstructionist. They will run massive advertising, pressuring voters to support the bill while doing what they do best, badmouthing Democrats who threaten to filibuster the "bipartisan" bill.
Even if the Democrats can put together a unified message and get the information out to the public, Bush has a few moves which the Democrats haven't even begun to suspect.
Bush carefully sidestepped the Question of raising the present cap with "Everything is on the table." At this point, do any Democrats really expect George W. Bush to take away money from his real base? Bush adamantly opposes sensible alternative plans that would restore Social Security's solvency by raising taxes. Perhaps, as a last ditch effort, if things aren't going to well, this abhorrence to him will actually be put on the table. The president may even raise that cap in order to begin the demise of social security.
Bush probably won't even need that move to get this one through. Pawns don't move backwards and it is way too late for the Democrats to reset their defense to protect the Queen.
But the passing of "Progressive Indexation" won't be Checkmate. It will only be the beginning of the end game. The truly frightening part is, once the republican indexing plan is passed into law, there will be money left over. In a few years, Republicans will be coming out with charts and graphs showing there is now new money left over for private accounts.
Privatization will still happen. George W. Bush will still have his enormous Wall Street bailout. The Republicans will create another huge bureaucracy to watch the individual accounts. And with little or no cap on contributions, affluent and middle class taxpayers will start contributing large portions of their social security tax to private accounts based on the fact that original program will offer them little when they retire. This will undermine the solvency of the protected poor and social security will become a red ink resentment for the average voter. That will be the Republicans' Checkmate!
Social Security may be the most popular government program in U. S. history and it has always been a means of Democratic pride. Social Security may be too popular for Bush to destroy. But now, through careful planning and precise coordination, he can land a fatal blow.
In order to destroy the legacy of FDR and bring back "The Old Deal," he will change this beloved insurance program to something about as popular as welfare. This program will become one more aggravating tax. It will become the perfect stump speech for future Republicans, as they blame the Democrats for a shackle around the middle class voters' neck.
No matter how much we disagree with the GOP, they deserve the credit for doing what they do so well. By hyping an abstract insolvency fifty years from now that will only represent about two percent of the future GDP, they have succeeded in taking the focus on the very real insolvency that is going on now. At the April 28 press conference, as George W. Bush threw the Democrats a curveball on the social security debate, it masked the passing of a 2006 budget that eliminates dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs and still projects a massive deficit.
This should have been an insult to the intelligence of the average voter but there just aren't that many American Chess players.