Republicans are out to steal Social Security from us all .

[chieftain]

This should be the Democratic battle cry and exhibit A should be the idiot young Republicans at the Santorum rally chanting " Hey Ho Social Security must go " . The conservative agenda is to limit federal governmental spending to national defense . Grove Norquist has stated this publicly . We need to take these Neanderthals at their word and explain to the people that it is the Republicans that are engaging in class warfare and the great majority of Americans are the losers .

[senseandsensibility]

1. Congress members are scheduling

town hall meetings all over the country this week. Please attend one, and be vocal!!

[Jeebo]

3. I did, and I was.

I told Congressman Kenny Hulshof's (R-Mo.) staffers that I was there to defend my kinsman Claude Pepper's life's work. He is known as "the father of the Social Security system" because as a Democratic senator from Florida in the 1930's he authored the original Social Security legislation. My mother says he was my fifth cousin, but I think he actually was my third cousin, once removed. I told them that I don't want to live in a country in which old people have to sleep under bridges and dumpster-dive for food, and that inevitably is what this country will become if they start fooling around with Social Security.

Ron

[senseandsensibility]

7. I love Claude Pepper!

And he would hate to see what's happening now, although we could sure use his voice.

[chieftain]

11. I had the pleasure of traveling with " Red " Pepper

during the 1980 campaign in Florida . He was in his 80's and as spry and committed to social justice as he was when Smathers slandered him in the late 40's or early 50's Senate Election that he lost to Gorgeous George . The Democratic Party needs to regain the fighting spirit that Pepper exemplified .

[Erika]

2. They should make the GOP to guarantee

giving them back at least the amount they've paid in under W's plan. They can't. They could very well end up with less than they paid in.

[FloridaPat]

5. The GOP will guarantee anything. What happens when they go

back on their word? Just look at Iraq. They lie, period. Everything they say is a lie.

[Southsideirish]

4. Turn the clock back 100 years - that's what they are all about.

[chieftain]

6. You've got it .

What these fools are trying to do is to eradicate a century of progress championed by Democratic presidents . The irony , of course , is that the New deal and all of the attendant reforms not only provided a measure of security to folks who were at risk before but fueled a consumer economy second to none that has lined the pockets of the plutocrats who are working assiduously to destroy the wellspring of their prosperity . If it were not that so many innocent people would be hurt by their greed , and destructive practices it would almost be fitting for these idiots to destroy the goose that provides them their golden egg .

[Rainscents]

8. I heard Democrats are also doing the town hall meeting too!

They need to counter the thugs! Thugs are having hard time selling this as people are NOT buying into their crap!

[phish420]

9. Because we see..

...that this is just a ploy to get us to invest in 'private accounts' that will just happen to be managed by their 'ex'-cia banking and investment buddies who are the only ones who stand to benefit from this 'plan'.

[Hidden Stillness]

10. Serious--They are Trying to Kill Us Now

This issue should be the centerpiece (and is pretty much, of course) of the finally, finally developing Democratic "Refusal to Go Along." These people are showing their real faces now, and it can't be pretended any more that they are moderates, or misunderstood, or for "family values," or that we are the fringe extremists--all the games are gone now, and the biggest threat yet is solemnly, grimly revealed. People are now actually scared, who can't fight back against the rich organized forces arrayed now actively against us all, and will turn to Democrats and need them as they maybe never have before. Republicans, as they so often do, stupidly and greedily overplayed their hands, and I believe that , no matter what they do now, they will not win this one. We still need to fight them to end this threat, because as soon as you give up, of course, they will slash your throat.

This fight should not be fucked around with by ad campaigns, or DLC-style anti-Democratic slogans, or market-tested visuals and buzzwords, or "framing" or any of the rest of this crap, because this is all now too serious and important for that. Things have to be stated, explained, made clear, straightforwardly and with a sincerity of purpose everybody understands. Several really great phrases have been used on this thread, and they convey the message that was important to keep getting out: "Republicans are out to steal Social Security from us all"; "They lie, period. Everything they say is a lie"; "Turn the clock back 100 years" and others tell what the facts are, and should be stressed along with quotes from the devils themselves, (such as the cold bastard Newt Gingrich's remark about trying to kill Medicare: "Let it wither on the vine"). We should be angry, fed up with these people and their fucking around with everything. We should make clear--as you actually can now, after the evidence that they themselves now give, of their many recent attempts to rip up the most basic foundations of our whole society, with no concern at all, for anyone--that there is no end to this, if we don't forcibly stop them. You think there is a limit to these people, some basic human decency so that there is a line they will not cross, even with all their greed; but there isn't.

Social Security provides the issue to react to--because it is such a great program, so popular, needed by so many people, and the attack on it is so phony, such evil gratuitous cruelty--but it is only one of many, and if these things are stated honestly, with no phony media-sounding "framing," then maybe the grand-scale, mainstream rebellion against these horrible, treasonous Republicans can finally begin. The truth will finally be unfiltered.

[jfern]

12. They let the cat out of the bag here

Republican chant:
Hey hey, ho, Social Security has got to go!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/23/13522/6307

[chieftain]

13. I think this is political dynamite and

we should be keeping it front and center .