Left in the Heartland

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall notices a "Storm for Reform" rally scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. on Capitol Hill. He writes:
writes

So back to the phase-out rally at the Capitol on Sunday.

A new phase-out group is holding what they're calling a "Storm for Reform" rally in support of phasing-out Social Security and replacing it with private accounts.

And to symbolize their rage against Social Security as we know it, these Storm Troopers will be hauling a bunch of paper shredders to Taft Memorial Park on Capitol Hill so that rally participants can shred their Social Security statements. (Sort of the wingnut equivalent of burning your bra, I guess.)

Here's the notice from the "Fix Our Future" site:

The STORM is here!
Join us for The Storm for Reform on Capitol Hill!

Social Security Reform supporters will gather from all across the country in one afternoon on Capitol Hill to show their support for Social Security Reform and Personal Retirement Accounts - the issue taking our generation by storm!

You want to be there. Be a part of the action!

Click here to tell us you're joining us in Storming Capitol Hill!

WHERE:
Capitol Hill - Taft Memorial Park (Taft Memorial Park located on the corner of New Jersey, Louisiana and Constitution on Capitol Hill)

WHEN: Sunday, June 26, 2005
1:00 p.m. Gates Open
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
The Storm for Reform!

LIVE BAND! FREE FOOD AND STORM FOR REFORM T-SHIRTS! HISTORY IN THE MAKING!

Bring Your Social Security Statement to the Storm for Reform. Shredders will be available.

That rally sounds vaguely familiar. Now where did I read about that again?

Was it at Conservative Match: Sweethearts not Bleeding Hearts? "Storm for Reform" is listed as an event for young sweethearts to hookup? Nah, that wasn't it.

Maybe over at "Save" Social Security blog?

Storm for Reform - Sunday June 26th
Taft Memorial Park from 2:00pm-4:00pm
Young Americans from across the country will rally at the Capitol for personal accounts. See Fix Our Future for details.

Young Americans from across the country! That could really widen the conservative gene pool.

Maybe not. My efforts to recover from my senior moment and try to figure where I'd read about the rally just kept going back to the same circle of friends.

The Save Social Security post by Young Stormer Jonathan Swanson (a graduate of Minnehaha Academy) hips me to a town meeting yesterday at a high school in Maryland that featured George W. Bush and BEN STEIN!

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush in a conversation on strengthening Social Security:

Montgomery Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland

10:03 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm reception. Ben, you always draw a good crowd. (Laughter.) He claims he went to this high school.

MR. STEIN: I did -- class of '62.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, pretty soon you'll be receiving a Social Security check.

MR. STEIN: I hope so. I hope my son and my grandchildren will, too.

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, thank you all for giving us a chance to come and visit with you about Social Security. Before I begin, I do want to thank Laurie Checco, who is the Business Manager at Montgomery Blair High School. Thanks for letting us come by; I appreciate you opening this beautiful facility. (Applause.)

I want to thank Mark Mackey and Linda Hollands, who are part of the National Retirement Planning Coalition for sponsoring this event. It's important that there be an open dialogue about Social Security, the problems inherent with Social Security and the opportunities to fix Social Security. And that's why I've come today. So thank you all for sponsoring this.

Kewl! Do I get Ben Stein's money for my personal account? Odd, Ben didn't get any applause when he told the audience he was a graduate of the high school. [White House video here].

You know how sullen high school students can be...oh, those spoilsports over at the Washington Post tell us that people who attend Montgomery Blair High couldn't get tickets:

So there was President Bush on stage at Montgomery Blair High School yesterday, with comedian Ben Stein, talking about Social Security. But here's the strangest thing: When Stein announced that he was Blair Class of 1962, there was no applause!

Maybe because there was no on in the auditorium actually from Blair High?

Then who the heck were those fresh young faces? That tattletale Froomkin continues:

Nancy Trejos writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush visited Montgomery Blair High School yesterday for a town hall-style meeting to discuss his plan to partially privatize Social Security -- an appearance that drew about 400 protesters outside the Silver Spring school.

"The loudest voices came from some Montgomery County residents and Blair students who questioned why they were not allowed inside. They were kept far from the president, but their shouts and beating drums could be heard by some of the 500 invitees waiting to pass through security. . . .

"Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said blocks of tickets were distributed to several nonprofit organizations, including Young America's Foundation, which selected the individuals who received them. . . .

"Duffy said he did not know if any of those invited were county residents."

Frommkin links to this USA Today report:

Many in the audience were college students, some of whom came on buses from Georgetown University to hear the president's speech. And Bush played to them, saying they will be paying into a system that will not be there for them when they retire.

Froomkin didn't include this tidbit about the "town hall meeting" that was in the WaPo article:

The event was organized by the National Retirement Planning Coalition, a financial industry and advocacy group. Comedian and author Ben Stein, a Blair alumnus, is the group's honorary chairman.

Wow.

Ben Stein is also part of the stable of speakers kept by Young America's Foundation, which gave out those tickets.

And where did the Young America's Foundation and the NRPC come up with those busloads of college students in the audience? The Gazette, a Maryland paper, gives us a clue:

As the president and his guests -- including Montgomery Blair alumnus, Nixon administration speechwriter and actor-game show host Ben Stein -- advocated what Bush calls personal saving accounts to noticeably young audience inside the school's auditorium, crowds gathered along the roadside to protest the president's plan, the war in Iraq and the fact that area residents and Montgomery Blair students were not invited to the "town hall meeting."

and reports these details:

"If Bush had really, really intended on having a town hall, and wanted to listen to what we wanted to say, he wouldn't have carted in two whole busloads of [Republican National Committee] interns from all over the county [sic] to represent my hometown," Cory Choy said. "Mr. Bush, this is Silver Spring, and we disagree with you."

The buses were rented from the school system and the school was rented through the county's Interagency Coordinating Board for Community Use of Public Facilities.

"The buses were rented by the organizing group and use of the buses were paid for by the organizing group as was the use of the school," said Kate Harrison, county schools spokeswoman.

One of the kids bused in reflected on the show:

The president's point should resonate with the 20-something crowd, said Kathy Korsmo, a 21-year-old intern with the Cato Institute in Washington who attended the meeting and said the president's plan still needs work. And part of finding the right approach to Social Security reform, she said, is public input.

"It wasn't a question-and-answer session," Korsmo said. "It was more of a cheerleading session: He's trying to get the message out to the American people. I really think the Q&A should be done at some point -- preferably sooner than later, because this is an issue that the American people really do have strong stances on, and this is our future."

And now it started coming back to me. In addition to the regular crop of interns, young Republicans started streaming into DC this week for their national convention. Could the YAF have picked up a few volunteers for the arduous school bus ride into Maryland from that red-blooded infusion?

I'd certainly identified the first place I'd read about the Social Security Rally at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Here:

Register now for the 56th College Republican Biennial Convention!

June 24-26, 2005
Crystal Gateway Marriott
Arlington, Virginia

[snip]
Sunday, June 26

10:00am – 11:00am Prayer Breakfast
Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Alphonso Jackson, Department of
Housing & Urban Development
1:00pm Social Security Rally
5:00pm – 9:00pm State Chair Training (also 9:00am - 2:00pm on Monday, June 27th)

So Washington DC just happens to be swarming with young Republicans right now. Good time for some photo ops, kids.

And it's not as if there aren't connections between Fix Our Future and the CRNC. By golly, there are! Indeed, the name of one of our favorite CR's, the brand new deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Eric Hoplin is listed on the "Fix Our Future Team." The pedigrees of the team seem awfully alike for a group billing itself "a non-partisan, nationwide effort." This group has a family tree that doesn't fork.

And Eric Hoplin is just the guy to sell shredding Social Security, because he cares so much about senior citizens' money.

But maybe Ben Stein can persuade Eric and his lovely wife Nicole, who has worked for the Young America's Foundation, to join the military and become real heroes.

Nah. In fact, Fix Our Future adopts a familiar message about how young Republicans can serve our country:

Say it with Plastic!
Or check. We're not picky.

Yes! Now you can fight for change without actually leaving your house. We'll use your contribution to support Personal Retirement Accounts and Social Security Reform, requiring no actual work on your end.

Bonus: A press release about the "Storm for Reform" rally:

U.S. Newswire
June 24, 2005 Friday 8:00 AM EST
IPI Scholar to Address Young Workers at Social Security 'STORM FOR REFORM' Rally

Institute for Policy Innovation's (IPI) Senior Research Fellow Dr. Lawrence Hunter will address a rally hosted by Fix Our Future (FOF) of over 2,000 Social Security personal account supporters on Sunday, June 26 at Capitol Hill's Taft Memorial Park in Washington D.C. IPI is one of the leading organizations calling for Social Security reform and Dr. Hunter has published numerous studies revealing why the current system is a failure and what can be done to remedy the problem.

For the first time, a major rally of young workers will show their support for such reform by shredding their Social Security statements.

Dr. Hunter, who also serves as Vice President and Chief Economist at the Free Enterprise Fund, is available for press interviews starting Friday, June 24. Please contact: Sonia Blumstein at soniab@ipi.org or (703) 912-5742 (office) or (202) 213-0379 (cell) for scheduling.

SPEAKERS

-- Lawrence Hunter, PhD, Vice-President and Chief Economist of the Free Enterprise Fund and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation

-- Nick Sinatra, White House Deputy Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs;

-- Ben Ferguson, Nationally syndicated youth radio talk show host of the "The Ben Ferguson Show"

-- Princella Smith, Winner of MTV's 2004 Choose or Lose Stand Up and Holla Contest

Also scheduled to speak:

-- Jessica Colon, Chair of Fix Our Future

-- Patrick Wetherille, National Director and Co-Founder of Students for Saving Social Security [note: another Minnesota connection]

LOCATION & TIME

Capitol Hill's Taft Memorial Park, Washington, DC (corner of New Jersey, Louisiana and Constitution; Union Station Metro stop)

Sunday, June 26 1 pm to 4 pm

[snip]

Contact: Sonia Blumstein of the Institute for Policy Innovation, 703-912-5742 or soniab@ipi.org

Yup. Pure genius. Build rally into the schedule of the College Republican National Convention, then call it a major rally of young workers. No one will notice.

How do younger Americans feel about the issue?

Congressional Quarterly Today
June 7, 2005
Young Adults' Views on Social Security Debate Remain Difficult to Pin Down
Alex Wayne, CQ Staff

The opposing sides of the Social Security debate are finding that young adults, notoriously fickle on any issue, are just as difficult to pin down on restructuring the government's retirement program.

Ask people under 30 if they would like the opportunity to divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into individual accounts they could invest, and they are likely to say yes. But they also tend to be less informed on the subject than any other age group, and, as they learn more about how individual accounts work, are more likely to oppose them.

"The idea itself is appealing; once they learn the details, some of that support dries up," said Carroll Doherty, editor of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which has conducted extensive polling on President Bush's Social Security proposal. "But they have not paid close attention to the debate."

Although polls show that Bush faces strong opposition to his proposals among most age groups -- especially elderly people -- adults under 30 are a demographic where Bush's supporters find hope. Bush's opponents, too, realize that individual accounts hold appeal for young people. So both sides are concentrating on convincing America's youth.

"This is a serious problem for your generation," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said at a news conference Tuesday attended by many young Hill staffers and interns and volunteers for groups that back individual accounts. "Depending on how we fix this issue, it's going to dramatically affect your ability to earn a living."

The groups, For Our Grandchildren and Students for Saving Social Security, later visited congressional offices to lobby Democrats to negotiate Social Security legislation. Democrats have refused to work with Republicans to craft a bill unless Bush drops his call for individual accounts, which they say would weaken Social Security.

'Rock' Critics

The two sides' youth outreach effort will come into conflict Wednesday night, when Rock the Vote, a group that tries to inspire youth political activity, holds its annual awards dinner in Washington.

Rock the Vote, which calls itself nonpartisan, has made defeating Bush's proposal to create individual accounts in Social Security its top legislative objective this year. Outside its awards dinner, members of conservative groups backing Bush's effort will be protesting Rock the Vote's activity on Social Security, calling its campaign "Rock the Hypocrisy."

"We think they're out of touch with the young people they claim to represent," said Ed Frank, a spokesman for the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a conservative group active on financial issues.

Yet Rock the Vote has scheduled Republican speakers who support Bush's proposal, including Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who has sponsored an individual accounts bill (S 540), and Jack Kemp, a former Republican congressman (1971-89), Cabinet secretary and presidential candidate who is co-chairman of the group FreedomWorks, which is helping to promote a Social Security overhaul.

Hans Riemer, Rock the Vote's political director, said the group would welcome any discussion of individual accounts by Hagel, Kemp or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who will be presented an award for inspiring young voters.

"In terms of tackling an issue of importance to public policy, there is no greater issue than this one right now," Riemer said. "We looked at the numbers. The consequences [of Bush's proposals] for young people are very stark."

And the consequences of winning youth support, which was split almost evenly among informed adults under 30, according to a Pew poll in March, could be high. "If we can get them engaged in the debate, obviously it's only going to help prospects of the legislation," Frank said.

Source: CQ Today