How do you know when a Democrat politician is running scared?  That’s easy; it’s when he trots out that old Democrat chestnut that his opponent is out to destroy Medicare and Social Security.

Every election cycle, you can bet the farm that a few desperate Dems will begin running television ads aimed to scare the old folks – that sector of society whose desperate fear is losing their medical care and those twice-monthly checks that they worked all their lives for.

Seniors are America’s best voters, but they are also the demographic most dependent on television as their primary news source.  Many can no longer read the small newsprint in newspapers, and only a small portion of them are computer-literate.  So those Democrat ads are indeed effective in striking fear into older Americans.

Cruel, isn’t it?  Damnably heartless and despicable come to mind.  One has to wonder if these Dem candidates who spread these callous lies call up their own aged parents and grandparents and reassure them that they shouldn’t worry, that it’s just politics.  Yet they have no compunction about planting a cold seed of fear in the hearts and minds of the rest of the old folks out there, purely for political gain.

Such a cold fish liar is Mark Pryor, Democrat incumbent senator here in Arkansas, a state with a growing retiree population, the perfect target for such targeted deceptive advertising.  Pryor, raised as a true-believer Democrat by his politician father, marches in lockstep with his party with incredible obedience, devotion, and fervor.  Well, at least until re-election time rolls around and it comes time for Pryor to dance his little sidestep around all the lockstep loyalty demonstrated by his voting patterns for the past five years.

Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don’t,

I’ve come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,

Cut a little swath and lead the people on.

– Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 1982

Watch that video and tell me it isn’t just too easy to picture  Porky Pryor’s face on the corpulent Charles Durning, whose real-life credentials as a combat infantryman in WWII cause Pryor’s privileged path to politics to pale in comparison.

Tom Cotton, Pryor’s hard-charging young Republican challenger, is as much an opposite figure as any campaign manager could pray for.  Cotton, with the lean face and figure that reflect his service as a combat Army infantry officer in our Mideast wars, comes from a comfortable family background just like Pryor.  However, how the two chose to use their respective springboards of financial comfort and influence is where their paths diverge: Pryor pursued privilege, while Cotton chose combat

I sincerely hope that Cotton’s campaign has the good sense to produce a television ad pointing out that Pryor’s lies about Medicare and Social Security being targeted by the Republicans are as empty and baseless as they have been for decades.