Special Social Security Edition

Teaching Elephants to Talk Tip
By Matt Lewis
Jan. 24, 2005

Talking Points

When it comes to talking about Social Security, conservatives should use the term “personal accounts” and avoid using the term “private” -- according to a Washington Post article:

“The battle over the vocabulary of restructuring Social Security is the latest example of the lengths to which politicians and their consultants go to test and refine wording in an era when so many voters are influenced by the sound bites in television newscasts.”

The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner notes that “the term ‘privatization’ always polls about 20 points lower than a description of it.” Democrat pollster Geoffrey Garin tells the Washington Post that any form of the word “private” suggests “a radical change to Social Security.”

Fear Factor?

Liberals, on the other hand, are refusing to use the word“crisis” to describe Social Security. Instead, they want to talk about Social Security’s “challenges”. Calling it the “Fear Factor,” Hillary Clinton is accusing President George W. Bush of trying to scare voters into supporting social security reform. (Bush has said “the crisis is here” and that social security is “on the road to bankruptcy.”)

Critics who say President Bush shouldn’t alarm the public about the impending social security crisis just don’t understand the politics of change.

What All Leaders Know About Change:

• Humans resist change until the status quo seems untenable. It’s human nature to avoid making changes for as long as we can get away with it. This is one of the reasons 99% of incumbents are re-elected. It’s also the reason the British public scoffed at Winston Churchill’s warnings until after Germany invaded Poland. To make changes, effective leaders must convince the public that (in the immortal words of The Doors) “the time to hesitate is through.”

• BIG change must be linked to the future of your nation, company, or organization. Churchill correctly alarmed the British public by telling them the very survival of the British Empire was at stake. Conversely, Woodrow Wilson’s attempts to persuade America to join The League of Nations (a group he was responsible for establishing) failed. The reason: the President (who was very ill) did not draw a persuasive link between this action and the future of America.

• Leaders confront problems before they become a crisis. I applaud the President for wanting to solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations. As leaders, you and I must be willing to tackle problems before they become too big for us to handle.