the public about his plan for changing Social Security.
Social Security Push to Tap the GOP Faithful
Campaign's Tactics Will Drive Appeal
By Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 14, 2005; Page A06
President Bush plans to reactivate his reelection campaign's network of donors and activists to build pressure on lawmakers to allow workers to invest part of their Social Security taxes in the stock market, according to Republican strategists.
White House allies are launching a market-research project to figure out how to sell the plan in the most comprehensible and appealing way, and Republican marketing and public-relations gurus are building teams of consultants to promote it, the strategists said.
The campaign will use Bush's campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support -- contending that a Social Security financial crisis is imminent when even Republican figures show it is decades away.
Bush aides said that in addition to mobilizing the Republican faithful and tapping the power of business, they plan to target minority voters who have not been able to afford to save and might be open to the argument that the president's plan would turn them into investors. The campaign will also court younger voters, including many Democrats, who would potentially benefit the most from the change.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7797-200... Note that Bushfuck the Liar and his minions now are so arrogant that they are openly boasting of intending to use "the politics of fear" to manipulate the public.
By the way, the article describes the democratic party as
"scrambling to organize in the face of a multimillion-dollar juggernaut, have yet to settle on any particular counterargument but said they believe Bush's rollout of the idea has been rocky and new details will give them more ammunition."
So while the republican party already has a well developed strategy and is doing market research and building teams of consultants to promote Bush's plan, the democratic party have yet to develop a strategy. Democrats need to make a much greater effort if they are to have any effect at all on Bush's plan. Democrats need at least a preliminary strategy which can be implemented immediately even if the entire strategy can not be developed until later.
At a minimum, Democrats should be educating the public about the actual facts concerning the financial condition of the Social Security program. An astonishing number of people, especially younger people, think that the Social Security program, if left unchanged, will be unable to pay any benefits at all in the future. Democrats need to correct that misimpression. Democrats also should be talking about the fact that the republicans have announced that they intend to use misinformation, campaign style rallies and tactics, and the "politics of fear" to persuade people to support Bush's plan.
Democrats also should be doing some market research, including some focus group research which includes both people who support Bush's plan and people who oppose it. Because Bush is keeping the details of his plan secret, democrats should be polling Bush followers and other supporters of private accounts to learn more about the expectations of those people so that the criticisms of the plan can be tailored to weaken support for Bush's plan. They also should be preparing to talk about the information concerning the performance of the federal government employee Thrift Savings Plan. Many of Bush's followers think that his plan will allow thenm to get rich. Democrats need to be prepared to crush those expectations when Bush finally reveals the details of his secret plan.
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