We are fortunate to have, right here in our own Congressional District (NY-24), a co-founder of “Social Security Works” and co-author of the book “Social Security Works: Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke and Why Expanding It Will Help Us All.”
His name is Eric Kingston, a professor of Social Work at Syracuse University. He's running for Congress (against the freshman Republican't incumbent, John Katko) next year.
Sunday's newspaper featured an article by Kingston on the Op-Ed page, in honor of the 80th anniversary of Social Security but, more importantly, to help educate the public about the fact that not only is the program NOT going broke (a long-time lie that's been fostered by Republicans in their never-ending attempt to try to kill of the program), but it is so successful that it should be expanded.
Here's the article:
http://www.syracuse.com/...
It's unclear to me whether large numbers of people here are aware we even have such a credible national authority on the subject in our midst and that he wants to represent us in Congress.
No matter who the Democratic nominee is in this district next year, they will have an uphill battle against our freshman Republican't incumbent, John Katko. The reason is clear: While Katko is just a freshman in his first term, he is formidable, having beaten our incumbent Democratic representative (Dan Maffei) in a landslide (by nearly 20 percentage points). Katko has also carefully crafted what people perceive to be a “moderate” image (though, like most Republican “moderates,” it's mostly an illusion since Katko, like all Congressional Republicans, can always be counted on when it comes to aiding and abetting the Republican leadership whenever it really matters). Like most Republicans, he has access to massive amounts of money from the one percent, his one and only real constituency. And Katko hasn't done anything to piss off large numbers of people (so far).
However, having said that, the fact that we have someone who wants to make the central part of their campaign their support for protecting and expanding Social Security, gives me some degree of optimism that Kingston could be a credible and competitive challenger to Katko if, for no other reason that, like most areas of the Northeast, we have a large percentage of the population that is either retired or soon to be retired.
There's a parochial interest on my part in having a credible Democratic Congressional candidate to support next year (we have a very shallow bench here, for a large number of reasons that would require another diary to explain and there are no other Democrats who have even tested the waters about a run, let alone given off any serious signals they they intend to do so in this historically Republican district with a clear Republican enrollment advantage).
But, there's also something beyond just the Congressional race that makes me excited about Kingston: He is taking the Republican lies about Social Security right to the people, something that most Democrats have not been doing for the past 30 or 40 years. He is going on the OFFENSIVE regarding Social Security, instead of playing into Republican hands by merely defending the program.
Wanting to expand Social Security flies in the face of everything Republicans have been telling voters for the past 80 years. First, that Social Security was a disaster that would fail under its own weight (sound familiar?). And more recently, since that never happened, Republicans have been inventing and reinventing more and more lies and reasons to try to scare people about Social Security. For the past few decades, they have systematically been on a campaign to convince people that it is going bankrupt, even though there is no real evidence to support that theory/hope of theirs.
In any case, just wanted to let my fellow kossacks know that we have a leader on the subject of Social Security right here in NY-24 who, with the help of like-minded people throughout the U.S. could, conceivably, pull off a stunning upset by doing something Democrats should have been doing all along: Going on the offensive about not only protecting, but expanding Social Security for current and future generations.
(Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Kingston has a web site yet to share for people who may want to help his campaign.)