Six Decades of Social Security "Reform"?

If you have any uncertainty about what the Republicans really want to do to Social Security, read this leaked memo from a Bush strategist.

The most telling sentence is, "For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win." What does this refer to? Have conservative Republicans being trying for six decades to "reform" Social Security, or to "save" it, or to "strengthen" it, or to "guarantee" that it will be there "for future generations"?

No. Social Security was created in the 1930s by liberal Democrats, and ever since then conservative Republicans have been trying to kill it. At first, they were open about it. Partly as a result of this extremely unpopular stance, their support in the country fell dramatically, culminating in the Barry Goldwater fiasco of 1964.

Then the mainstream conservatives put the issue to one side (although more extreme right-wingers, like the John Birch society, continued to fulminate about Social Security as a "socialist" program). During the 1960s and 70s, they gradually created the infrastructure and membership base that elected Reagan and the two Bushes.

Now they have hit on what they consider the winning strategy: To fatally undermine Social Security under the guise of protecting it. If the current "reform" movement is simply an extension of the conservative agenda of the past six decades, there can be no doubt about its objective.