The Real Silent Protest, and Media Memory

A lot of folks here say something like this: "Oh, when 30 conservatives show up to a town hall, it's a big deal, but when 150,000 march against the war, you hear hardly a peep." I guess this is true, but it plays into the general silence over the real defeat handed to the last administration through organized resistance, and a defeat that was largely hushed up and forgotten: the defeat of Social Security "reform."

In 2005, I attended a "town hall" held by my then senator Rick Santorum. He was on his cross-Pennsylvania dog-and-pony show, trying to sell Bush's much vaunted Social Security overhaul - what was billed by all commentators of the punditariat as a major project of his second term. The meeting was held at - well - a somehwat major university in the state, where I was then employed. I got there early, and soon about 60 senior citizens rolled in (some literally rolled in), and all occupied seats way in the front. Santorum visibly gulped as they took up positions. He went through his spiel, which, quite frankly, even the undergraduates could pick apart (and did), then called for questions. He was eviscerated. Questioner after questioner, young and old, stood up, moved to the microphone, and calmly picked apart the logic of his premises and proposals. It was brutal. Nobody yelled. Nobody screamed. Nobody disrupted him. It was simply an exercise in public discourse that completely destroyed the proposal. When Rick Santorum finished up his Pennsylvania policy tour, Social Security "reform" had significantly less public support in the commonwealth than when he started. The next year he was unceremoniously voted out of office.

The major project of Bush's second term was dead and cold by the time the flood waters broke through the levies in New Orleans. The "political capital" Bush claimed to have earned on election day 2004 was depleted, and the American people resolutely told the privatization fetishists in no uncertain terms that their ideas was finished, done, unacceptable.

Unacceptable.

This was a political defeat on a scale rarely seen in modern history. It was made possible by organized and systematic resistance. It was so complete a victory against the Reaganite dogma that even in the debates today, all you have to do is mention the social character of Social Security and the Republicans get all red-faced and huffy and apologetic. It was, to some extent, the end of Bush's dominance over legislation. They didn't even get close to a bill, it was rejected so soundly. And it garnered almost no attention at the time, and has largely been forgotten by all the media screamers yammering on about the health care debates.

Today on CNN they acutally showed pro Obama/health care supporters. I was shocked but I expect we will be shown only one day.

That's the reason I got into politics in 2000..Social Security, because I knew I wouldn't have any other retirement and I thought the least I could do is be active for its preservation. I had no idea how far it would go beyond SS, but here we are and I just visited FDR's Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, on my 65th birthday to pay homage to him for implementing our Social Security in 1939 and checking out his amazing Library along with Eleanor's ultra important contribution to our country:patriot::bounce::fistbump::patriot:

And, then bush was determined to give it away to his wall street donors and did it not do my heart good to see The Peeps standing up against his wanting to privatize our Social Security. bush-cheney are FDR haters.