Conor Friedersdorf reminds us of Social Security's history:
Old age pensions were a bottom up demand made by the citizens of a country far less accustomed to social welfare spending than is ours. Nor were they merely a leftist phenomenon. There were FDR Democrats and Upton Sinclair socialists, to be sure, but the Townsend clubs tended to support Republican candidates, and were seen by contemporaries and some historians as right-wing populists — that era's answer to Glenn Beck fans.
Conor warns those who wish to abolish Medicare and Social Security that such actions "would create the conditions for reintroduction of the very legislation just vanquished."
The Dish 