NYT: Republicans Weigh Voter Response to Retirement Plan

[DeepModem Mom]

Republicans Weigh Voter Response to Retirement Plan
By ROBIN TONER
Published: March 10, 2005


WASHINGTON, March 9 - Republicans are having a senior moment.

President Bush's Social Security plan has prompted widespread and persistent anxiety and skepticism among retirees and near-retirees, who could cast a third or more of the vote in next year's midterm elections. Despite Mr. Bush's efforts to neutralize those voters, by promising to leave their benefits untouched, Republicans fear - and Democrats hope - that Republicans could be at risk.

In recent days, several top Republican strategists have been warning lawmakers that they must confront and defuse the anxiety among retirees. In a memorandum this week for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign organization for House Republicans, two leading pollsters said their focus groups "made it quite clear that the issue of Social Security and Social Security reform will be a very important vote determinant, particularly for 55-plus voters."...

***

David H. Winston, another pollster advising House and Senate Republicans, said in an interview that while Republicans had succeeded in driving home Mr. Bush's promise to leave the over-55 group alone, it was not enough. That age group still fears what could happen when Congress opens up the 70-year-old pension program, Mr. Winston said....

***

The stakes for Republicans on Capitol Hill are very high: they have carried the 60-and-over vote for House races in five of the last six elections, though often narrowly. Some Democrats have said that older voters are the main reason they have failed to regain control of Congress. Those voters are especially important in off-year elections because they are much more likely to vote than the young....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/politics/10older.html

[Frances]

1. My guess is that many older voters

voted for the Repubs because the Repubs exploited their fears about gay marriage and other "religious" issues. But I am hoping that their fears about Social Security will make them realize that Bush has been manipulating them.

[HockeyMom]

2. So the YOUNG overwhemling support it?

I don't think so. Not the ones I know at least.

[Frances]

4. I was just responding to the article

"The stakes for Republicans on Capitol Hill are very high: they have carried the 60-and-over vote for House races in five of the last six elections, though often narrowly. Some Democrats have said that older voters are the main reason they have failed to regain control of Congress. Those voters are especially important in off-year elections because they are much more likely to vote than the young...."

I certainly hope the young are against Bush's plans for social security, but this article was dealing with the over 60s.

[Yosie]

3. Just confirms Thomas Frank's thesis

that the GOP scare the people with tales of abortionists and chimeras (from stem cell research) and gay families -- while stealing them blind.

Maybe sheeple are waking up -- but we must continue to attack, attack, attack.

Read:
What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank