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Sidestepping the real issues
A Times Editorial
Published February 25, 2005
When the latest salvo in the argument over revamping Social Security centers on gay marriage, you know the public debate has gone seriously awry.
A group working with consultants who helped mastermind the GOP-friendly Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign attacked the AARP this week for opposing President Bush's Social Security overhaul with a slimy spot implying the advocacy group supports gay marriage. Developed by the conservative lobbying group USA Next, the ad features the image of a soldier covered by a red "X" next to the photo of a same sex couple kissing under a green check mark bearing the headline, "The real AARP agenda." Since presenting the display briefly on its Web site earlier this week, USA Next has basked in a deluge of free publicity as bloggers, newspapers and TV news shows endlessly dissected the controversy.
"AARP is the largest left-liberal lobbying organization on the planet," said USA Next president Charlie Jarvis, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, on CNN's Inside Politics. "We are going after them very aggressively."
Just when Americans need an honest, incisive discussion on Social Security, USA Next hands them a pointless debate on gay marriage and liberal-bashing, sidestepping substantive talk as the group attempts to decimate its opposition. It is an approach that worked for the swift boat veterans group, which distracted voters from a substantive discussion on Iraq by focusing on Democrat John Kerry's actions in Vietnam 30 years ago.
Such tactics also have helped turn gay marriage into an all-purpose stick that conservatives now use to bludgeon opponents - employing a ham-handed appeal to homophobia when arguments on the issues fail to spark significant support.
It is easy to assume such demagoguery will find little traction. These days, Republican legislators seem much more concerned about how AARP members will vote when the dust clears over Social Security than whether the organization opposed a referendum banning gay marriage in Ohio.
But it also seems unwise to underestimate the consultants who helped turn Kerry's heroic war record into his biggest liability. If the Social Security debate turns into a fight over whether the AARP is a "left liberal" group, USA Next has won. And anyone seeking an honest debate on the issues loses.
[Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:51:16]
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