AARP

The Bush Administration is out to change social security. It'll cost trillions, it'll decrease benefits for younger people, and it'll enrich Wall Street. There are lots of good ways that Social Security could be strengthened, but drawing money out of it doesn't seem like the best one. AARP opposes Bush's plan. If you were over 50, and someone was discussing gutting a program on which you're relying, you'd be pissed, (or at least cautious) too. Bushies can't tolerate disagreement with their policies, so they wage war on the dissenters. They literally hired the Swift Boat liars to smear AARP, and (like good little sheep) the disingenuous cretins at NRO join in on the fun. And so will Hindrocket and Big Trunk and other right-wing bloggers - those with and without homoerotic pseudonyms. As I briefly discussed previously, USA Next is wholly owned by the (mostly foreign-owned) pharmaceutical industry. It is supposedly the "conservative" answer to AARP, which is non-partisan. USA Next is also a dishonest and deceptive organization. AARP took a big political risk supporting Bush's medicare drug plan, and this is the thanks they get. What's so weird is that USA Next; a group no one had heard of a month ago, decides to call AARP "liberal", and the right wing just plays along. Not one critical question is raised. And why, pray, do I call NRO disingenuous cretins? Why, because they are!

Another sign that the AARP is driven by politics is that it has stumbled into that common pitfall of partisan advocates — hypocrisy. In one of its ads it has a couple saying of investing in the stock market: "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots." This from an organization that offers its members the opportunity to invest in 38 separate mutual funds. To date, the AARP doesn't encourage its members to play Internet poker or slots on its website, a sign that it doesn't truly consider investing equivalent to gambling.

Puhleeeese. Give. Me. A. Break. Rich Lowry must either be stupid, or he must think his readers are stupid. It is not hypocrisy for AARP on the one hand to offer its members discount stock market/mutual fund sales & services, and to oppose privatization of Social Security on the other. One is discretionary. The other would be mandatory. Big difference. And what of USA Next's horrible attack ad?

[It's] riding a wave of publicity from its (rather ham-fisted) attack on the AARP on the issue of gay marriage (an AARP affiliate in Ohio opposed an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment in the state).

And, I guess, therein lies AARP's liberal agenda? I mean, seriously, can someone explain to me AARP's supposed "liberal agenda" beyond its opposition to SocSec privatization and the preceding paragraph? I didn't think so. It's all made up. Unless 10% off at Comfort Inn is "liberal". It's a consumer advocacy group where the consumers are all over 50. An AARP chapter in Ohio opposed the anti-marriage amendment in Ohio, because they thought the wording of the measure was too vague, and might affect heterosexual relationships. The Bush attack machine is all about lying, manipulation, paid propaganda, a complete divorce from facts and reality, and getting the right-wing echo chamber to parrot it all. So go ahead, dittohead seniors, and join USA Next. Their agenda is directed from Washington, and paid for by big pharma. Sounds like they're really looking out for you. What does the treasonous AARP get its ideas, you ask? AARP's policies are determined not by the staff in Washington, D.C., but by AARP members. George W. Bush predicted the insolvency of Social Security by 1988. He was wrong then, and he's wrong now. Glad they've changed the tone.