Sorry the blogging has been (very) lax lately. I've been really busy and overt he weekend I wrote a long post about No Child Left Behind that got eaten by Blogger, which killed my enthusiasm pretty quick.

Anyway, I got this email from Democracy For America (formerly the Dean Campaign) today:

"Dear Asa,

The right-wing fringe has declared war on Social Security -- and this week they launched their newest attack..."

I know its new standard operating procedure to declare everything the other side does as part of the "fringe." Lord knows how many completely mainstream Democrats, including Dean, have been called fringe or radical leftists. But really, let's call a spade a spade: the Republican MAINSTREAM is trying to dismantle Social Security.

Grover Norquist wants to drown it in the bathtub. President Bush wants to privatize it into obsolesence, removing the one function it was created for... as a form of social insurance for the elderly. These are not fringe activists removed from the GOP. They are the heart and soul of the modern Republican party. These days it is the moderates in the GOP, the Specters and Snowes, who are the put upon fringe.

Maybe DFA thinks that calling it "fringe" will make it easier for moderates to reject Privatization. I have no problem, though, telling the world that it is mainstream and accepted thought amongst the GOP leadership that we should dismantle Social Security. When the country overwhelmingly rejects this sham policy proposal I don't think we should let them pin it on the "far right activists." It was them.