Josh Marshall, Nick Confessore, and Mark Schmitt have some interesting ideas about how to tie together the future of the Democrats and the future of Social Security. Privatization is a complete boondoggle, and leading Democrats can be counted on to block the destruction of the party’s greatest achievement.

But as long as the right controls the message, the spin is predictable: unreconstructed liberal obstructionists are preventing us from saving the bankrupt program. The electoral terror that the Republican media machine produces in typical Congressmen will no doubt cause many to jump ship — to “negotiate,” to be that tolerable “moderate.” That kind of Faustian bargain will give legitimacy to the privatizers that they do not deserve, and it will once again hurt us in the elections.

What Marshall and the others are suggesting is that we need the kind of party discipline and conviction of the anti-tax ‘94 Republican House. From Talking Points Memo:

Such unity has the obvious advantage of giving Republicans less breathing room in putting together majority votes in both houses. But it does much more than that. Making the elimination of Social Security a strictly Republican gambit raises the political stakes dramatically. Many Republicans will be far more cautious without bipartisan cover. Democrats must deny them even the thinnest of fig leaves.

He suggests we pull the plug on any defectors, or even run against them in the primary (as the right-wing did in Pennsylvania). I agree. Fundamentally, Social Security is not an individual retirement plan — it’s social insurance to keep the nation’s elderly off the streets and out of the soup kitchens. It’s not your money they’re talking about investing; it’s for a poverty program that you will most likely benefit from when the time comes when you can’t work any longer. There are many options for those who wish to invest for their retirement, to build up a nest egg, etc. This is not one of them.

Social Security Insurance is not a luxury, and I expect Democrats to stand up for it. If they can’t, then they probably can’t stand for anything. If they can, and if they do it well, I think they’ll be rewarded in the 2006 revolution.

If you haven’t been getting your news from Fox, then you have probably missed the biggest story of the year: Christmas under siege! One example of “the impending death of Christmas” has been the use of the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” by certain department stores. Well, add one more enemy of Christmas to your “naughty” list: President Bush. This is how he began his press conference (via It Affects You):

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. Please be seated.

Good morning and happy holidays to you all. I thought I’d come and answer some of your questions.

Where is Pat Buchanan on this story? When will Bill O’Reilly finally tell our secular president to go back to Israel?

UPDATE! Did I speak too soon? From WorldNetDaily: The Bush White House’s Christ-less Christmas: Official commemorations emphasize Santa, Rudolph over Jesus in 2004:

The White House residence, the site proclaims is decorated with “delightful vignettes illustrating many of the best-loved songs of the season.”

Not one of those songs is a traditional spiritual carol or hymn. Instead, the songs listed include “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth,” “Upon the Housetop,” “Blue Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” White Christmas,” “Frosty the Snowman, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Marshmallow World.”

… It has been noted that the Bushes’ holiday card this year includes a Scripture verse. But, again, it does not mention Jesus.

Adam Cohen of the New York Times highlights one of the major, under the radar projects of the radical right: dismantling the power of the government to regulate. This can include workplace safety, the environment, civil rights in hiring, any kind of consumer protection, any kind of wage law, and probably even Social Security, Medicaid, and public education. This is what they’ve been talking about when they’ve said “Big Government” — Basically, everything the government does except war.
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Let’s face, Howard Dean is the only movement. The only movement in the Democratic Party. The only force with any momentum whatsoever. Even if we thought Kerry was more electable. Even two years out, I liked him as a policy wonk. Word on the democratic street had it that he was closer to Bill Clinton than to Jerry Brown. To me this meant that he was a charismatic policy wonk. Me, I like policy wonks, I like nuance and I like intellect.

Unfortunately, Dean never made the transition from Jerry Brown to Bill Clinton, that is from angry insurgent to policy wonk. The guy with the answers. He allowed others to pigeon-hole him as an angry insurgent.

We thought the whole scream thing was media hype. Even if we did like Kerry as a candidate, we’re very happy to see the good Dr. back in action. We absolutely need someone not only to articulate the issues, and the direction our country should head towards, but we need someone to stand up for our values against a paradigm defined by the other side. And as Howard Dean is pointing out, we can’t continue to let the conservatives define the terms of debate. As Social Security reform is just around the corner and this administration will ad Last week at GWU and Sunday on Meet the Press, Dr. D gave a good ‘stand up for your Democratic Values’ pitches.
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The free market is not infallible; government must help level the playing field to protect Americans. By Rahm Emanuel. Rahm Emanuel represents the 5th Congressional District in Chicago.

Two major shifts in our economy have fundamentally changed the social contract between employers and employees. We are transitioning from defined benefit to defined contribution retirement plans and from employer-provided health care to individually purchased plans.

What Congress must realize is that market-based policies and strong government oversight can go hand-in-hand. Free markets cannot function effectively over the long run without a sense among all parties that the playing field is level and the deck is not stacked against one of the parties. As the mutual fund, insurance, boardroom and health care crises have shown, government is the only authority that can restore credibility to scandal-tainted markets.

By Katherine Webster, AP.

CONCORD — The former New England chairman of President Bush’s reelection campaign pleaded innocent in federal court yesterday to charges he helped jam Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, 44, of Bangor, Maine, faces two criminal counts each of conspiring to make harassing telephone calls and aiding and abetting telephone harassment. The operation also involved a ride-to-the-polls phone line set up by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters’ union.