Like so many Americans grudgingly facing the inevitability of my fifth decade, some years ago I opened the envelope from AARP, informing me that I was entitled to membership in their organization, with much less than enthusiasm. Over the ensuing years, receiving their monthly publications and experiencing their constant assaults on my mailbox with offers of supposedly low-cost health, life and automobile insurance, not to mention discount drugs, diagnostic devices and dubious dietetic supplements my enthusiasm for this goliath of geriatric marketing declined with every advancing year of my own seniority.

For many of those early years, the publications and solicitations from AARP had all the slick sophistication of a 1960’s Readers Digest, a matter of some homey comfort to an aging Vietnam veteran who was definitely not on the cutting edge of the Information Age. However, in learning to use a computer, I became aware of two things about AARP: they were in it for the money and they were becoming increasingly liberal. Now, being in it for the money I can understand with no problem; we seniors are supposed to be the ones who hold the gold as the general wisdom goes: we got the real estate, we got the pensions and we got the savings. But, becoming liberal, with your subscribers being the one demographic in America that could almost be guaranteed to be conservatively inclined, the nation’s staunchest supporters of traditional values and status quo? What was up?

Then it began: the stuffy old monthly periodicals in my mailbox suddenly took on a new glitz and glamour with the focus turning away from subject matter such as dealing with a problem prostate to retiring in Rio, complete with slick photos of all these seductive septuagenarians, physically fit, magnificently tanned and obviously savvy investors, enjoying the very good life in exotic places. No more were there stories of Herman and Helen in Hoboken; nope now it was all about Ziggy and Zelda in  Zihuatenejo. AARP had stepped into the information age, gone glamorous and the result in this corner was no less than expected. I grumbled to my wife, “AARP’s been hijacked by a bunch of smart-ass kids who don’t have a clue about the realities of growing old.”

Worse, AARP wasn’t just hijacked by air-headed twenty-something’s wanting to show seniors a sure way to live out their lives with pizzazz rather than delivered pizza, it was hijacked politically by a seriously left-wing cadre that had clear, if undeclared, loyalty to all causes liberal. For example, they did their level best to scare the hell out of seniors about Bush’s Social Security reform when anyone with an ounce of investing knowledge knew the President was onto something there. May I interject here that I think I may have been a bit more aware of many aging topics than most seniors as I spent many years as my rural county’s representative on the senior advisory committee to a large multi-county, regional council of governments.

When it finally came to the point that I could no longer bear reading the AARP publications’ constant onslaught of Democrat Party talking points, not so cleverly disguised as informative articles, I said “Enough!” When my annual renewal form came in the mail, I didn’t just ignore it; nope, I used it as a little man’s soapbox and let them know that I no longer could support an organization that had become so supportive of political positions that I and many other seniors find totally repugnant. I think I may have told them they were seniorously out of tune with their readership. I know, I know, it’s hokey, but at the time it sounded, well, profound. Whatever pimple-faced kid opened the envelope probably flipped me a mental bird and classified me as just another grumpy old fart.

Tonight, with elections approaching, like all the rest of you I’m watching the unending stream of despicably negative political ads interspersed with brief glimpses of what TV producers call content, when suddenly the AARP appears with an ad admonishing voters, “Don’t Vote,” with the suggestion that to vote uninformed is the gravest of civil transgressions. The ad directs you to the AARP website, which, in fact, does contain a large amount of information to better inform voters. Now, please understand that, as a conservative, who believes that informed voters tend to vote conservatively, and that uninformed voters, ignorant of the issues, usually vote Democrat, I’m all for educating the electorate. But, “Don’t Vote?”

I’m just wondering how many of the seniors who retain their membership in AARP because they aren’t quite sharp enough to pick up on the fact that their supposed benefactor is a tool of the liberal wing of the Democrat party, are now sharp enough to pick up on the subtle message offered here. Me, I’m just cynical enough to think that AARP, in its ongoing collaboration with the Democrats is hoping that the retained message in the minds of all those potentially conservative, voting seniors is, quite clearly, “Don’t Vote,” period, nada más, Señors. Knowing full well that seniors, for the most part, are not computer savvy and likely will never access their website, has AARP, under the guise of being a good citizen and civic organization, embarked on an ad campaign that it hopes will keep conservative-voting seniors away from the polls on election day? Are they sneakily hoping that all those old gray heads out there will simply remember their single, bold admonition, “Don’t Vote?”

If that is indeed the case then this has to be one of the most despicable, election day, dirty tricks schemes ever dreamed up by any political party. But coming from a now all but avowedly, left-wing organization, another complicit arm of the Democrats like AARP, why should we be surprised? And we trust their advice on insurance, drugs and investments?

Contributed by Russ Vaughn on October 25, 2006 at 01:35 PM in Russ Vaughn | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: ponsdorf

Heh and YUP!

Reckon me and The Wife will vote with little coaching from AARP, we pay attention.

Thanks for the added emphasis.

Posted by: ponsdorf | Oct 25, 2006 1:50:29 PM

Posted by: 1st Cav

All extended family droped AARP memberships about two years back. It clearly became nothing but Dem messages.

Posted by: 1st Cav | Oct 25, 2006 2:45:50 PM

Posted by: The Gray Dog

Like our local geese, the AARP is still dropping things in/on our mailbox. What's really funny is that at one time we signed up for a "lifetime membership" yet they keep coming back for a renewal. Go figure! I've been preaching to my wife for the last two years the reasons she should NOT renew our membership. Thanks Russ, this adds to my argument.

Posted by: The Gray Dog | Oct 25, 2006 4:47:49 PM

Posted by: Ken Siegel

Although I'll be 63 next month, the AARP has nothing to offer me except nonsense, so I just ignore it. Being a retired army officer myself, with a wife who is also a retired army officer, and a son who is a sgt E-5 in the army, I'm not exactly enamored of the AARP's political posturings.

One good thing...the AARP has never made a penny off me and never will!

Ken

Posted by: Ken Siegel | Oct 25, 2006 5:36:53 PM

Posted by: Scrapiron

I also dropped the AARP a couple of years ago. They are about one step behind the ACLU in being anti-American and outright terrorists supporters. They still fill my mailbox with junk but I have a cure. From now on every prepaid envelope will be stuffed with credit card applications (name and address removed) and returned to them. This is a great process for all junk mail. Switch the junk and send it to other companies. Soon a lot of names will come off of their mailing lists.

Posted by: Scrapiron | Oct 25, 2006 9:11:45 PM

Posted by: OWB

Oh, yes! That using the prepaid envelopes is a stroke of brilliance, especially for the AARP.

For those who do not know, the "special insurance rates" can be had from the companies providing it for the same prices an AARP member would get it, unless they have recently changed their pricing structure. A friend tried this with the Hartford, and got a better rate than through AARP.

We got trapped into joining for 1 year. That's all it took for us to decide that AARP in no way represented our views on anything. We figure by now that they have spent much more in their mailings than we paid in dues...

Good comments everybody! And good post to begin with, of course.

Posted by: OWB | Oct 26, 2006 7:46:28 PM

Posted by: suek

We've never joined AARP - the basic principle of lobbying for goodies at the expense of the younger generation just doesn't appeal. I generally just pitch their stuff. Reading the original article plus the comments, I'm struck once again with the fact that the Communists are still with us and still plugging away with their infiltration and perversion of any politically active group into a tool for their own use. Check it out - _any_ group that has _any_ purpose will soon become politically active promoting the "liberal" (code word for Communists) agenda. Gotta give them credit for perseverence, tenacity and even creativity. I understand that they aren't "Communists" anymore, but a rose by any other name...! They are "shape-shifters". It's a war we're still fighting.

Posted by: suek | Oct 27, 2006 11:37:13 AM