This is the dumbest thing I've read so far in 2005.
David Brooks says the following thing in today's column about why it will be hard for Republicans to win Democratic support for Social Security reform:
"Second, it will be hard to get Democratic votes for a bill that includes personal accounts. Democrats oppose them for the same reason that Republicans support them: because they think the accounts will create Republicans. People who have them will start thinking like investors."
Exqueeze me?
Democrats don't want to preserve a healthy, successful program that applies a common sense floor in a retiree's portfolio that prevents elderly bankruptcy? They just secretly know how the inherent goodness and truth of Republican ideals but want to hide them from everyone? OMFG that is retarded.
The assumptions built into this blithely unsupported assertion are as follows:
- Social Security reform will be successful when it happens, this is a given.
- The administration couldn't possibly fuck this up, even if you assumed every other good thing about proposed reform.
- Social Security reform will cause people to make more money than before.
- Social Security reform would make people aware how much of a Democratic scam the system was before Republicans came in and gave people their God-given ownership rights.
Here's how he finishes his column: "Social Security reform plus tax reform go a long way toward getting you to an ownership society." OK. And then an ownership society gets you a long way toward a nation of individual dreamers. And then a nation of individual dreamers gets you to the salad bar of freedom. The salad bar of freedom helps nourish people of goodwill. The people of goodwill can then choose their own destinies. With destiny chosen, it's only a matter of time before a stitch in time saves nine. Only evil-doers refuse to listen to the mandolin rain.
Like I said, this is the stupidest thing I have read thus far in 2005.
On the other hand, this completely unrelated story leads me to think that human beings are inherently unredeemable.