A new attack on Social Security is mounting

Most of us have seen the above video, where we diligently count the number of times a basketball is passed unaware that a gorilla has just walked before our eyes.

This is an apt metaphor for our two-party system. The “gorillas” are the wealthy corporations and individuals who govern us. Distraction is the game. We are usually busy counting passes as they go about their business.

Social Security has long been on their hit list. And since I watch the “two” parties closer than most, I know that if the program goes down, it will be Democrats, and not Republicans, who do it. They are gorillas in human suits.

Bill Clinton had a plan to privatize Social Security, and it was in an advanced stage when the Monica crisis set upon him.

His personal reputation, his presidency was at stake, and in one of the most fortunate of unintended consequences of his seedy administration, Social Security was spared. His sorry philandering ass was saved, and the fight to privatize Social Security was temporarily shelved.

It appears that Obama has a plan as well, and sadly for us, his personal habits appear clean. So we will have to hit the streets to save Social Security, and there is a big problem: Democrats will be busy watching the basketball as the gorilla mingles among them.

The plan is unfolding via a group called “America Speaks,”behind which lurks the Pew Charitable Trusts. They are running public forums.

They most likely will try to make their top-down plan to privatize Social Security seem like our idea. We will be told that we have to scale it back, lower our expectations, and perhaps, maybe, well you never know … might have to privatize it.

When George W. Bush went after Social Security in 2005, he had his hat handed him. This time might be different, as the gorilla has put on his Democrat suit. Because President Obama is a Democrat, and because Democrats do not see gorillas when Democrats are in office, we could well be in deep trouble.

The reasoning behind the “crisis” in Social Security is specious. They merely add up projected expenses in the long haul, and revenue in the short run. Then they say that the program is “unsustainable.”

If one were to apply this financial model to any other government or corporate enterprise, whether it is the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the space program, subsidies for oil and gas and sugar or the bailouts, none would pass. But Social Security is an egalitarian program that manages billions and billions of dollars. It is well-managed with low overhead. Not one Wall Street banker receives an obscene bonus from it. Therefore, it is targeted.

Politics in America is one scam after another. We get tired of fighting the corporate PR machine, we get lazy. But it takes fighters, and we need fighters most when Democrats are in office. That’s when the worst damage happens. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare is one of many groups that are fighting this fight. There are others – join any or many, and remember that the best way to do politics in our country is away from the two corporate political parties.

They have a plan. This time, we need to be the gorilla.