Politicians are running scared

So far, no one has fashioned a vocabulary that an elected official can use to level with voters about Social Security and Medicare and live to tell about it politically. Everyone believes, and polls confirm, the fabled third rail is as electrified as ever.

A well-functioning democracy would, by now, have had a mature national discussion marked by a recognition of the need to set priorities among finite resources, as well as the intergenerational unfairness of the status quo, the ethical wrongness of borrowing for current consumption instead of investing in the future, the feasibility of alternative remedies if only we would start now and so on. Regrettably, but realistically, our republic at this point doesn’t seem capable of discussions such as that. Meanwhile, action really can’t wait much longer; the can is getting heavier, and we’re running out of road.

Maybe we should try rolling with the zeitgeist. Since we, for now, inhabit a polity dominated by cynicism, distrust and the belief that “they” are misleading everyone else, maybe a pitch aligned with those dispositions — and embracing the attachment Americans plainly have to programs that are bankrupting our government — would work better. Something like:

“Good evening, folks, and thanks for coming. Our topic tonight is the way those Washington elites are destroying the crucial set of government programs we call the ‘safety net,’ especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It makes me furious when I think of how our politicians, from both parties, have put the safety net in terrible danger and tried to cover it up. And we have to take some action to save it from them. Let’s start with Social Security.

“They’re not telling you this, but the money is running out, fast. They told us it was being held for our