GW Bush wasn’t even able to get a portion of SS shifted to private investment accounts, which was widely supported by the voters, so replacing anything now is an uphill haul.
Of course, when the system finally crashes under its own weight, replacing it will be another situation entirely.

Here’s a good article on why Bush’s reform plan never materialized. The headline is somewhat unfair; the “losers” were the standard-issue bureaucrats of the DC establishment, and he was distracted by other concerns, which enabled them to change the reform platform he ran (and won) on.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2011/04/07/how-george-w-bush-lost-personal-accounts-for-social-security/#15471421494d

By the time the President was done trying to promote Social Security reform in late 2005, the polls still showed 50% to 60% of the public supporting the idea of personal accounts, down only about 10 points.

But when asked if they supported “the president’s plan” on Social Security, the public’s support dropped by half, to the range of 25% to 30%. This was the direct result of the touted work by the White House Social Security policy staff in switching the administration’s conception of reform from the positive, populist model focusing entirely on personal accounts that the president originally supported, to a Pain Caucus model focusing on a package of benefit cuts and tax increases with personal accounts as the dessert.

And here’s an interesting counter-factual from 2015.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/what-if-george-w-bushs-social-security-reforms-had-passed

Re: “…the payroll tax holiday scares me because it’s the first step toward getting rid of Social Security and Medicare.”

Crazy talk.

That’s like saying, “the Jan 31 closing down of the border with China scares me because it’s the first step towards a genocide of Asian-Americans, by rabid Mennonites, wielding sporks, while wearing clown masks and tutus.”

Look, we all live in bubbles of limited experience, so it’s important to check our gut inclinations against other folks’ perspectives (as I did above, on another topic). But you must take care not to trust, on this topic, sources which either (a.) have a vested interest in frightening you; or (b.) are themselves individual outliers of very limited experience. My guess is your fears are a triangulation between what Democrats claim about Republicans and what your anarcho-capitalist uncle said after 3 beers.

I have rubbed shoulders with classical liberals (that is to say: conservatives and libertarians), both wholesale and borderline, of every description, for a quarter-century. The more libertarian types (representing perhaps 15%, tops, of the overall right-of-center electorate) do, in fact, believe that it would have been better for Social Security and Medicare to have never been enacted; and they furthermore, in an ideal world and under ideal circumstances, would want a future phase-out of both, along with most other Federal-level assistance programs and about half of the state-level ones.

If I were to stop there, and say no more, you might think there was something to your fears re: Social Security and Medicare…albeit only in reference to 15% of the right-of-center electorate, which is a pretty small slice.

But that incautious “hot take” is the maximum extent to which your fears could be considered plausible. Further examination of the reality makes them far less plausible.

First, you must ask those 15% why precisely they wish those programs were eliminated. The first thing you’ll hear is: “Because the bad architecture of these systems actually tends to further impoverish the very groups they purport to help. Systemically they tend to replace better solutions with worse ones. In a system where no such systems had been established, people would have more, not less, for retirement and medical needs than they do now.” Then, if you ask them, “Thinking, as you do, that Medicare and Social Security impoverish the elderly and the needy, making their existence more tenuous, if you had the power to do so, would you abolish them instantaneously?” …, 99% of them will answer, “Whaaa…? Hell, no! You have to fulfill obligations to those grandfathered into the system! And you have to phase the thing out with minimal disruption! And you’ll have to do it in proportion to, and dependent upon, the availability of alternative systems! The whole point is to help better, while excising the dysfunction caused by government usurpation. Now that the damage is done, undoing the tangled web would be a 25-year project, minimum.” And when you ask them, “So, out of all the high-priority items you’d enact were you to have the power to do so, where does this one rank? Top priority?” they’ll chuckle and answer, “Actually, it doesn’t even make the top 20.” And finally, when you pry into their political opinions generally, you’ll find that the folks thinking this way are the libertarian purist wing, which is to say: The kind of people who never actually get elected, even in the GOP, with the notable exception of Ron Paul.

There. That’s a clearer picture for you, of this tiny sliver of the right-of-center landscape.

Now how does Donald Trump fit into this picture? Does he strike you as a “movement conservative,” a man with a principled, purist, small-government ideology?

*choke* *snort*

Are, indeed, any of the current GOP elected officials or candidates, apart from members of the Paul family, describable in such terms? Does Donald Trump have such persons in his cabinet? Among his advisors?

*crickets*

Even if he did, what power do they collectively have to initiate such an agenda? What evidence is there that such a political agenda is high-enough priority to expend limited political capital on it? What evidence is there that such an agenda could succeed over political opposition and be enacted? If they tried it, what evidence is there that current recipients wouldn’t be grandfathered in? What evidence is there that the current system wouldn’t, in fact, be replaced with a superior one which cared for retirement and medical needs better? And even if the replacement system were worse, what likelihood is there that you would live long enough to see its first year of use?

If you dispassionately consider all these questions, I think you’ll see that the odds of your fears materializing are so small as to be practically nonexistent. Your risks of being struck by lightning, or seduced by Kate Upton, or being contacted by a real Nigerian prince who needs help with a monetary transfer, are far more worthy of your time and attention.

Cordially,
R.C.

Other greatest hits:
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/389136/
JULY 23, 2020
ROGER SIMON: Et Tu, Nashville–How ‘Liberal’ Democrats Ruin American Cities.
Or as Iowahawk would say:
[can’t copy embedded Tweets, sadly, but it’s worth memorizing for later use]
* * *

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/
The Life Cycle of a Luxury Brand Image
1. I’m so rich I can afford this
2. I’m so stupid I spent a week’s salary on this
3. I stole this
* * *

Two to one vintage-auto insider-baseball posts to political snark.
But it’s goooood snark. Samples free on days ending in “y.”
https://threadreaderapp.com/user/iowahawkblog

“Jack, an entertainment industry hedge fund attorney, and wife Jill, CEO of Love Chukkers, a non-profit that teaches polo to inner city trans youth, expressed concern that the Southampton awareness fundraising season would be interrupted by COVID newcomers from New Jersey.”

“So your criticism of my criticism of his criticism of her criticism is to blast my timeline with SO YOU’RE SAYING questions? How do I subscribe to your podcast?”

“You can displace and ruin dozens of businesses, create a violent anarchist free-fire squatter’s camp, but by God if you as much as THINK of interrupting my Netflix-and-chill, I will nuke you back to the Stone Age
Jenny Durkan’s new campaign slogan: My Life Matters”

“Did you ever post a lighthearted tweet only to receive sternly worded rebukes from every last doctrinaire Akshuallyist on this hellsite [Twitter]”
* * *

Instapundit and Twitchy keep an eye out for Iowahawk sightings.

https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2020/07/27/iowahawk-mocking-aclu-staff-attorney-who-got-his-feelers-hurt-by-the-harry-potter-person-results-in-brutally-hilarious-debate-with-blue-check/

NO to both.

Think about this; the massive size of the federal bureaucracy and the (eventually) unsustainable, ever growing spending on non-discretionary items, the zillions of federal regulations that restrict economic growth, the zillions of arcane tax laws/rules/regulations that created the tax preparation industry; the federal policies that incentivized US based companies from setting up shop overseas with the resultant loss of US jobs; the unrestricted (till now perhaps) influx of illegal aliens, etc. etc., just to name a few.

ALL of these policies and the massive federal agencies that implement them, still exist and were created by the demokrats – while the dumpublicans sat with their thumbs up their ass or just went along with them.
The institutions/bureaucracy created by the demokrats never gets smaller – only bigger and more pervasive and more repressive.

Yea, the demokrats say stupid things and oft times appear ignorant, yet somehow they implement their stupid policies.
It’s all part and parcel of their socialist / neo-communist agenda; more govt., more control, less individual liberty.

Trump is merely a temporary roadblock; within 4 years at most he will no longer be prez.
Then what?
Another demokrat prez. or another useless republican liberal progressive like Bush or a Romney.

I for one never underestimate the resolve and determination and the nefarious / evil intentions of the demokrats.
FDR got the snowball rolling for them and it keeps rolling down that snow covered hill, getting ever bigger – with fits and starts.

The police chief of Seattle has resigned after the council votes to defund the police. I love her backhanded last line of the letter: “seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety. I relish the work that will be done by all of you.” ie I’m going to enjoy seeing you reap what you are sowing.

And now, today, BLM in Chicago rallies in support of the looters. How is that going to play in Peoria?

Maybe I’m seeing a bit of hope here, very unusual for a pessimist like me. The left may be pushing too hard, too fast before the election. But then, maybe the election is a moot point, and they know it so why not go all in now?

Keep reading down…it gets better!

Be of good cheer! Back in a February, Black likely voters polled at 43% job approval ratings for Trump. The last poll I heard on black registered voters (a larger, less informed segment) was mid-30s…34%? Trump job approval….And That was last weekend.
Both very stellar measures!

Trump can win decisively. And the steam and law and order disgusted storm is building.

Back in ‘72 and ‘84, the electorate decisively rejected Socialism of McGovern and the Big Government of my neighbour, Veep Mondale, respectively. 60% to 40% splits occurred, more so at the electoral college level.

But since ‘92, Prez elections have been closer, much closer. And with a Propaganda Marxist media, and Big Lie driven CommieCrats, bent on vomit projection, plus the virus crisis, who knows? I think Big Win would be 55% to 45% today. But in weeks, I think we’ll get a clue as to whether a Big Win is building.

However, with reports of 2,000 fake driver IDs seized in Dallas, and 20,000 in Chicago — both from China, natch — we know the Big Steal election is on for the Treason Party. I do worry there.

So talk this up! Dare to share Knowledge with friends, even in states where it’s spelled “Nnowledge” (I’m a teasing u, Cornflour!)….

Listen to Seb Gorka’s Happy Warrior interviews on his America First podcasts or radio. These will stoke you in pride, knowledge, and optimism.

For example, what states have the largest rate of Covid-19 deaths? Democrats.
What states have the highest rates of unemployment? Democrats.
Which states have the highest ballooning rates of crimes waves? Democrats.
And which states are people leaving in the highest numbers? Democrats!

Share the wisdom: no Sane person but Mayor Bane of Gotham City wants Democrats in power!

And would any of you want Biden fronting for you with a record of collapse and failure and death like this to campaign on? Of course Knot!
Go Tell It on The Mountains!
Trump can win Big!