The Next Media Debate? Will this one be for real?

There are so many things about which I disagree with the current Bush administration/Republican majority; and so many things about America that drive me mad. I know how hard it is to convince people in the States about, for example, the desperate need for national (yes, socialized) health care - not least because the last time it was floated, by Clinton in 1993, the media and the political system combined, in typical American fashion, to make a huge hash of presenting it to the American people. But that was something new. When it comes to social security, that's something that most Americans really like, and have done for seven decades, but which the current administration wants to effectively abolish (if not immediately, then certainly in the long run). Democrats CANNOT let that happen. Not if they want to call themselves Democrats. I sign on to Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo piece about the need for the Democrats to unify and refuse to give an inch on Bush's mad social security privatization plan. If the Democrats - or even a few of them - buckle, the media will immediately buckle with them, and we will be presented with a Republican fait accompli that closes down serious discussion on this very serious issue. This will happen, just as surely as it happened with the dreadful media coverage of the Iraq situation in the run-up to that war. Only if the Democrats really unify as an effective parliamentary-style opposition - since that's all that's left to them in Washington - will there even be a chance for anything like a serious media debate about this topic. Time to get some backbone, Democrats! (fish or cut bait; crap or get off the can - all that good stuff). You're now a Loyal Opposition, so start acting like one! That means you're either vehemently against social security privatization or you really really want this to happen; there is no middle ground! Sorry, but there isn't. People here need to learn how to take a stand on what's important. Unfortunately, the mainstream media in this country will never get backbone without the politicians going first.