Lenin Test

by digby

Michael Lind at Salon alerts us to the fact that tomorrow is cut social security day. Again:

On Tuesday, May 12, the trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare will issue their annual report. I don’t know what will be in the report. But I do know what the response will be. Conservatives, libertarians and center-right Democrats will take whatever the report says as evidence that there is an “entitlement crisis,” which should require us not only to address spiraling healthcare costs (a genuine issue, affecting the private sector as well as Medicare and Medicaid) but also the alleged “crisis” of Social Security (an imaginary problem).

The coalition of libertarian zealots, Jeffersonian conservatives, center-right Democrats and bankers and brokers who would like to earn fees or commissions from the diversion of Social Security payroll taxes into IRAs recycles the same arguments against Social Security, rain or shine, boom or bust. They’ve been doing it for more than a quarter-century, ever since a couple of libertarians wrote up a guide for small-government conservatives on how to spread doubts about a popular, solvent and effective entitlement. These tried-and-true arguments will be dusted off and dragged through the media once again, after the latest Social Security Trustees’ report is published.

He goes on to list the various predictable bogus arguments, which you should review just so you know what coming. But he also informs us about a piece of the history of this of which I was unaware, and it’s fascinating:

In 1983, in the Cato Journal published by the libertarian Cato Institute, Stuart Butler, a transplanted British Thatcherite, and Peter Germanis published their manifesto “Achieving a ‘Leninist’ Strategy.” Small-government conservatives, they argued, should learn from Lenin, who sought to shape history rather than wait patiently for the inevitable evolution of socialism: “Unlike many other socialists at the time, Lenin recognized that fundamental change is contingent both upon a movement’s ability to create a focused political coalition and upon its success in isolating and weakening its opponents.”

Our two Leninist libertarians went on to argue: “First, we must recognize that there is a firm coalition behind the present Social Security system, and that this coalition has been very effective in winning political concessions for many years. Before Social Security can be reformed [destroyed], we must begin to divide this coalition and cast doubt on the picture of reality it presents to the general public.” Because the “political power of the elderly will only increase in the future,” Butler and Germanis argued that any plan to phase out Social Security should assure the elderly and near-elderly that they would get their benefits: “By accepting this principle, we may succeed in neutralizing the most powerful element of the coalition that opposes structural reform.”While pursuing a divide-and-rule policy to “neutralize” the elderly and other supporters of Social Security, the authors of the Leninist strategy called for libertarians to build up a counter-alliance consisting of institutions that could profit from the privatization of Social Security: “That coalition should consist of not only those who will reap benefit from the IRA-based private system … but also the banks, insurance companies, and other institutions that will gain from providing such plans to the public [emphasis added].” They continue: “The business community, and financial institutions in particular, would be an obvious element in this constituency. Not only does business have a great deal to gain from a reform effort designed to stimulate private savings, but it also has the power to be politically influential and to be instrumental in mounting a public education campaign.”In true cunning Leninist fashion, the opponents of Social Security would disguise their revolutionary goal by pretending to be interested only in modest, piecemeal reforms: “The first element consists of a campaign to achieve small legislative changes that embellish the private IRA system, making it in practice a small-scale Social Security system that can supplement the federal system.” Only when all of the pieces were in place — when the concerns of the elderly had been “neutralized” by reassuring words, when banks and other businesses seeking to cash in on Social Security privatization were part of the libertarian alliance, and when business-funded campaigns of “education” [that is, propaganda] had convinced most Americans that Social Security was untrustworthy, would the Leninist right reveal its true colors: “If these objectives are achieved, we will meet the next financial crisis in Social Security with a private alternative ready in the wings — an alternative with which the public is familiar and comfortable, and one that has the backing of a powerful political force.”

Now, the stock market crash has taken the wind out of those particular sails for the moment, but
all they really need to do right now is push the idea that the deficit is the single biggest threat to mankind and that only by cutting “entitlements” can we possibly survive as a country. The “alternatives” will undoubtedly be ready and waiting. After all, the country has just added a trillion or so to that very deficit to keep wall street and the banks solvent. It’s a sweet deal all around.

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