That third rail

"That third rail," a quote from this CNN article comparing the effect that the pending Social Security issue has on the midterm elections in 2006 with touching the third rail of an electric railway. The term itself is nothing new, but it seems to suit one of the major problem's with the President's future privatization of the Social Security issue. It's not whether or not the Republican's and Democrat's can come up with a solution to the problem, but whether they're willing to deal with the issue to begin with.

Sure it's not a crisis, but it is going to run into trouble one of these days, and it would be nice to figure out a solution sooner rather than later. It's refreshing to see preventive maintenance taking place rather than waiting till there's a fire and then putting it out (which pretty much seems the traditional way the government works).

The AARP is going to play a large role in the upcoming battle, and this is a reason why it's going to be such a hard topic for the Republican controlled Congress to push through. In a perfect world, I think most Republicans would jump at the chance of putting more control of the tax money in the public's hands, while at the same time, allowing investment in private companies. But of course, this is an imperfect world.

The AARP itself is a powerful lobby, but it's not so powerful that it could stop this legislation by itself. It has to have the backing of it's millions of members. Members who are of course generally above the age of 50. Which also happens to be just below the age at which a disproportionate (that is compared to the percentage of other voters in other age brackets) amount of voters turn out to vote than any other group. I mean this does make sense, they don't have "retired persons" in their name for nothing. It's just that these voters have so much more power than other age groups.

I find it sad that my generation cannot seem to get out the vote when it's our future that the older generation is deciding. I don't mean to seem improper, or crass, but I think the following needs to be said. Those that are deciding the future of the younger generations are the people that have already lived their lives. They are close to death, yet still wield a large amount of control over who gets into the government.

This is part of the problem with my generation, it's mostly our fault we don't vote. But there is also the issue that people are living much longer lives than in the past. With that includes newer drugs and medical procedures, that cost more money, to keep people alive. (Hey, I'm not saying we should get rid of this, just that our success at pushing back death has large financial costs). And with this comes their continued ability to be a power block among the voting masses.

So we come full circle. Politician's are voted in by the citizens, in their infinite wisdom, yet they have to carefully watch how they are perceived among the older generations. These older generations may have enough sway in close races to vote the politicians out of office. Do what they want (or at the very least, avoid the issue) and hope you stay on their good side. This is why the Republican's won't touch President Bush's SS plan. They have a fear of seeming against the older people. The AARP just knows how to exploit this fear. And the young kids don't have any fear of the future, or so it would seem.

I could say, hey kids, go vote. But like my generation, I don't think I care enough too. Whatever.