Social Security politics is splintering the GOP. How can Dems keep the [View All]

pressure on the Republicans, and help intensify emerging dissension within Republican ranks?

For now, Reid and Pelosi have implemented a brilliant strategy of not taking the "bait". Democrats are refusing to discuss Social Security until privatization is off the table for good. This strategy of silence is revealing important stress points in the Republican coalition, points which are discussed below.

What do you think of this way of looking at Social Security politics? When should Democrats abandon the strategy of silence on Social Security? What do you think Democrats can do to keep helping the Republican Party fracture itself over this issue?

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The curiouser and curiouser WH campaign to "reform" Social Security has exposed points of extreme stress in the Republican coalition. Cracks at these stress points already are visible, if you look closely enough. The Republican Party has started to splinter itself over Social Security politics (see post #1 below). Democrats who want to end the abomination of the Bush regime could help the process along by continuing to apply leverage at two main stress points where Republicans are ripe to break off into three major Social Security factions.

The three major factions are:

(1) A White House that has overreached and is pulling back from private accounts;

(2) A greedy Wall Street wing that is salivating over the prospect of trillions of FICA dollars hyperinflating stock prices; and

(3) A true-believer far-right extremist wing that fears "Pension Fund Socialism" most of all.

The two main stress points are:

(a) commitment to "carve-out" privatized Social Socurity accounts; and

(b) insistence on conversion of Social Security from a "defined benefit" social retirement insurance plan to a "defined contribution" privatized forced savings plan.

To keep this lead post from getting too long, and to help organize separate discussions of distinct issues, I'm adding two replies myself, to deal with each of the main stress points.