Josh Marshall's posts about the wall some Republicans are confronting when attempting to persuade their consitutents to approve the destruction of Social Security, and the failure of most Republicans to even explain their position to their constitutents, leads of to believe that now is the time for those who wish to protect Social Security from Il Ducetto's greedy, rapacious schemes to run some ads.
We believe such ads should be constructed around a few principles:
1. Don't even mention Il Ducetto - He's not running for anything. God help us, half the country likes him. Blame Congress and Wall Street.
2. Create a "we can win this thing, we're turning the corner" mood in the ads. People like to participate in a winning political campaign. People like to be on the right side of a moral crusade. Hit that button. Moreover, wouldn't it feel good to have people united and charged up behind Democrats?
3. Frequently use the word "gamble" in the ads.
4. Use people who have actually benefited from Social Security in the ads (both famous and ordinary).
5. Run these ads in Connecticut, asap.
For example:
1. An ad about the Social Security program that gives payments to minors whose parent has died. These might include the children of civilian contractors who have died working for Halliburton in a Bush war. We might include a famous person and an ordinary person. We should include folks who represent the diversity of American citizens for whom survivors benefits have made a difference. E.g.:
Joe Jones talks about what Social Security has meant to him.
When my Dad died, my mom didn't know what to do. She had spent her married life making the family. Dad was the breadwinner. The Social Security checks she got as a widow, and we got as children meant she could stay home and raise us. It wasn't easy for her, but you know, without those Social Security checks, it would have been impossible. There's a word for the kind of person who'd take an orphaned kid's last chance to make it and gamble with it in the stock market. But I'm not allowed to use such words on T.V.
There's only one person who can save Social Security from the folks in Congress and on Wall Street who want take a sure thing and turn it into a crapshoot, and that person is you. Call Congressman/woman XXXX and tell them Social Security is supposed to be safer than investments in companies like Enron. We can win this thing. We have to.
2. An ad about the Social Security program that give payments to persons who suffer from disabilities that prevent them from working. Again a range of famous and ordinary persons.
Jane Doe talks about her experience with Social Security.
I'd been out of college for almost a decade when I was in the accident. Losing your vision in a car crash takes quite a toll on your career plans, let me tell you. I can't imagine what I would have done without the disability check from Social Security. It took me years to recover, to get back to school, to learn how to navigate the working world without sight. Every month during those years I got a check, which helped pay the rent and the grocieries and the tuition. When these people in Congress and on Wall Street talk about "reforming" Social Security, I think, "reform yourself first." How could they possibly want a person in my situation to gamble the only lifeline she has on stocks? When I had perfect vision I didn't know the first thing about the stock market. What happens if you pick the wrong stock, one of those high flying companies that blew up. Does Congress want us to sell pencils or something?
There's only one person who can save Social Security from the folks in Congress and on Wall Street who want take a sure thing and turn it into a gamble, and that person is you. Call Congressman/woman XXXX and tell them Social Security is supposed to be safer than investments in companies like Enron. We can win this thing. We have to.
3. An ad about a retiree who doesn't use a keyboard for a living.
Bill Thomas talks about his experience with Social Security.
I was a logger all my working life, just like my father. It's a good job, but it's not an old man's job. You work a chain saw, swing an axe, cable the logs, load the skidder. I suppose everybody who does my kind of job just chuckles when they hear the folks in Congress talk about raising the retirement age. What do they want us to do? Die on the job, while we're swinging an ax? I made about $30 grand a year, which was enough to raise my kids, but you don't get rich in the business. And you don't have enough to learn about Wall Street investments either. I was glad enough to hand the equipment over to my kids when I turned 65. All those years I was working, I knew my wife and boys would be provided for if I had an accident. And I knew when my day came I'd have enough to pay for my groceries and my medicine.
I don't know why Congress doesn't think my kids don't deserve the same promise I got. And I sure don't know why they want to gamble with a working man's security. Maybe they have enough corporate and foundation jobs to take care of them when they leave Congress. But for the rest of us, Social Security is our security. For a lot of us, it's our only security. Only one person can keep these fools in D.C. and on Wall Street from ruining what's good for ordinary folks. You are that person. Call Congressman/woman XXXX and tell them Social Security is supposed to be safer than investments in companies like Enron. We can win this thing. We have to.
We think the blogpac ads from There Is No Crisis were good for phase one, but don't have the zing needed to get folks out of their chairs and on the phones.
UPDATE: We think that NPR story on Richard Neal, the Democratic Rep from Springfield, MA is a good example of the material that would be effective in a Type 1 ad. His mom died when he was 13, his dad shortly thereafter. The Social Security payments meant he was able to put himself through college and famiy members were able to support his younger sisters. We can't find the NPR link, but the Massachussets paper The Republican has the story.
