Though Social Security has long been called the third rail of American politics touch it and you die Governor Bush doesn t have a death wish. What he has are polls and focus groups. Republican polling suggests that young voters don t quite share the Social Security bond of their parents and grandparents. As the Roosevelt generation starts to die off, Social Security is not the automatic gold standard in politics that it once was.
Younger voters look longingly at the stock market.
They also have been influenced by the drumbeat of propaganda that Social Security is going bust and won t be there for them. And, truth to tell, twenty-somethings don t think much about their retirement at all. Whatever support he loses from older voters on the Social Security issue, he can more than make up among younger voters. In part, it depends on how Gore and the Democrats respond. He also suggests that partial privatization is just the ticket to solidify the retirement system s finances.