I'm going to try to get this passed here in El Paso county ( Colorado Springs )  - home of the enemy of SpongeBob, the Rev. "Psycho" Dobson himself.

and have forwarded it to the Sacramento For Democracy and Rapid Response California groups that I belong to on Yahoo (with credit to you, of course, paradocs).

These are the sorts of things the Democratic Party needs -- clear, resolute and united items that we can spread to the communities to which we belong.  Just one (but very important) way to counter the Right Wing Media Machine.

This is what I wrote in this thread:

Talk is great, but if you tell your child "little Johnny don't do that" and never follow up with consequences, little Johnny is gonna get wise that you ain't gettin off the couch anytime soon.

It's time we get off the couch. I'd propose that if these people, who are suppose to represent us - Democrats - want to go and be indoctrinated by something so obviously affiliated with the Right, then we hold them accountable.

The ATM is closed. No more campaign contributions will come to those who associate with obvious Right-wing operatives.

The Blogosphere is closed. You want press? You will only get the kind Mr. Roemer is getting right now. We'll mobilize your base for you. Just in ways you won't want.

The Fainthearted Faction and DINOs can only exist if the base supports them. We are the base. Time for us to take a walk and hold our representatives accountable to the people who pay their salary.

I know what I'll be posting about tonight...

Party meeting in Washoe County, Nevada, I am almost certain that Harry Reid's representative will be at the meeting. This will be a chilling message to the fence sitters in Congress; the population of the Party vocally willing to shun them if they lean toward BushCo.

I changed the resolution to insert the word 'privatize' where I could.  It turns out according to this forum at  The Rockridge Institute the Privatize word has worked too well for them and now "they did a great job of embedding the frame into people's minds, and now that they know people don't like it, they need some strong rhetorical crowbars to pry the frame out again.'

I have no intention of giving them anything in the framing department. Here are the sections where I added:

WHEREAS current Congressional Budget Office projections report the trust fund will remain solvent through 2052, afterwards covering 81% of promised benefits, with no change to the program, while transition costs alone for abandoning Social Security in favor of privatized accounts are estimated at 2 trillion dollars, and

WHEREAS the so-called "crisis" in Social Security is a manufactured scare tactic intended to bolster President Bush's plans to Privatize Social Security with an unstable market-based system.

BE IT RESOLVED that the Washoe County Democratic Party, Nevada, opposes any effort to phase out and/or replace Social Security, in whole or in part, in favor of a privatized or private accounts-based system, and

Sock it to them!

Eventually, we should have all Democratic members of congress sign it, and run it in TV Guide, or something.

The wingers scream that SS is going to go bankrupt.    But as this resolution makes clear, it is not.  And the other thing is, out in 2042 or 2052, however you count it, all that is going to happen is that SS is going to start running a deficit!

A deficit!  Horrors.

The government is running a huge deficit right now and the wingers don't seem to care.  

So the government will start running a deficit on SS in a few decades.  So what?

Talk of insolvency is ridiculous.  If SS is going to be insolvent, then the US is insolvent right now.

A couple of corrections which would make this even stronger:

1. Transition costs over the time frame discussed (until 2052) are on the order of $15 trillion, not $2 trillion (per Paul Krugman).

2. The warning about Social Security not being able to pay all promised benefits after 2052 is only for a very pessimistic economic outlook, one which is not based upon past economic performance and one which every year proves unrealistic.  For this reason, every year new estimates of SS's future put the "shortfall date" farther out.

We shouldn't give an inch on this.

President Bush's plans to replace Social Security with an unstable market-based system

That's really good language. Cheers to Johnson County!

This strategy of punishing the fainthearted faction using monetary threats is a reasonable strategy.  But I'd like to see a dual carrot/stick system in place.  I'd like to see the old "reward good behavior" idea taken to the next level.

Here is what I imagine: a monthly prize for "most principled senator or congressman."  Every month at the end of the month, the blogosphere votes to decide which senators/congressmen were the most effective at illustrating the principles for which the party stands.  So the prize isn't just for being principled - it's also for eloquence and raising awareness.  Given a choice between two senators who both voted against Condoleeza Rice, for instance, the prize would go to the one who gave the most clear and impassioned speech about how the Democratic party refuses to reward failure.

The prize would have to be big - we'd want it to be big enough that congressmen and senators would actively compete to win it.  We'd also need some big runner-up prizes, so that they could feel that they have a realistic chance of winning.  I think the blogosphere could raise plenty, month after month.

I used to work in Johnson County MO, and actually am quite surprised they did this. The county is usually Republican and quite conservative.   Of interest, a part of the county has Ike Skeleton as their representatiave in congress.  He is listed in the Faint Hearted Faction on Social Security by TPM.  So I wonder if this is a not so subtle message to him.  The pubs have tried to challenge him a couple of times recently without success.  

My My.

Grandma Jo

More talk about local politics on national issues. this is good stuff

I attended today's meeting of the Missouri State Democratic Committee. This was the first post election meeting, so the agenda was filled with the business of biennial reorganization. I did bring copies of the resolution to pass around - and I did. The reaction was the same. "Here's a resolution on Social Security passed by the Democratic Club of Johnson County." Their response, "Social Security? Great!" or "This is great!" From foot soldiers, party officials, party staff, and office holders alike. There are going to be more resolutions coming from local groups.

We adopted a similar resolution in two bodies of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota
I belong to.

Our candidate endorsements are made by delegated conventions, so we left that piece out.

We want to bring it up at the State Central Committee, but that was postponed due to the snowstorm.

See below:

RESOLUTION ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Adopted by Congressional District 2 DFL central committee on Jan. 12, 2005

WHEREAS Social Security is the most successful domestic program in American history, having provided a guaranteed safety net for millions of Americans since 1935, and

WHEREAS current Congressional Budget Office projections report the trust fund will remain solvent through 2052, afterwards covering 81% of promised benefits, with no change to the program, while transition costs alone for abandoning Social Security in favor of private accounts are estimated at 2 trillion dollars, and

WHEREAS the so-called "crisis" in Social Security is a manufactured scare tactic intended to bolster President Bush's plans to replace Social Security with an unstable market-based system,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of the Minnesota Congressional District 2 opposes any effort to weaken, phase out and/or replace Social Security, in whole or in part, in favor of a private accounts-based system, and

RESOLVED that the CD2 DFL encourages DFL members to write their congresspersons and send letters to the editor in support of protecting social security, and

RESOLVED that the CD2 DFL send a copy of this resolution to every elected Minnesota DFL Senator and Congressperson, and

RESOLVED that CD2 DFL send a copy of this resolution to every Senate District and County unit of the party within CD2, and to the other DFL congressional district units, with a letter encouraging them to adopt similar resolutions, and

RESOLVED that CD2 DFL present this resolution at the DFL State Central Committee Meeting on January 22. 2005

RESOLUTION ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Senate District 39

WHEREAS Social Security is the most successful domestic program in American history, having provided a guaranteed safety net for millions of Americans since 1935, and

WHEREAS current Congressional Budget Office projections report the trust fund will remain solvent through 2052, afterwards covering 81% of promised benefits, with no change to the program, while transition costs alone for abandoning Social Security in favor of private accounts are estimated at 2 trillion dollars, and

WHEREAS the so-called "crisis" in Social Security is a manufactured scare tactic intended to bolster President Bush's plans to replace Social Security with an unstable market-based system,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Senate District 39 opposes any effort to weaken, phase out and/or replace Social Security, in whole or in part, in favor of a private accounts-based system, and

RESOLVED that the SD39 DFL encourages DFL members to write their congresspersons and send letters to the editor in support of protecting social security, and

RESOLVED that the SD39 DFL send a copy of this resolution to every elected Minnesota DFL Senator and Congressperson, and

RESOLVED that SD39 present this resolution to the next meeting of the DFL Congressional District 4 Central Committee.

I'll be using the various resolution ideas here to create one of my own to present at my next party's meeting.  thanks!!

FWIW, it would be great to share more of these resolutions.  Some of us want to be more active in creating resolutions but have a hard time drafting them.  A collaborative effort in resolution writing, with various Dem party organizations passing similar resolutions, would be an effective way of ensuring that our voices are heard by our representatives and state/national party chairs.