Frederick R. Lynch, associate professor of government and an expert on AARP, Social Security, and Medicare, has just published an op-ed piece in the Friday, July 13 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune: AARP Must Bridge Class, Political Gaps, to Save Entitlement.
Lynch is the author of One Nation Under AARP: The Fight Over Medicare, Social Security, and America's Future. In his opinion piece, Lynch discusses AARP's mobilization of its 37 million members for the impending entitlement battle.
"As part of this mobilization," writes Lynch, "AARP must rebuild lost trust and lost membership (nearly half a million) in the wake of accusations that it sold out Medicare to the Affordable Care Act. Based on observations at two recent California town halls," he continues, "building an age power' consensus must also transcend two key divisions: social class and political ideology."
Lynch, no stranger to the AARP's leadership and methods, also discussed the nation's largest political lobby (and the emerging debate over the future of entitlements) in last summer's op-ed piece for The New York Times: How AARP Can Get Its Groove Back.