When I lived down in Memphis, Tennessee, I had two people representing me in Congress: Harold Ford and Harold Ford. The office passed from father to son.

In a democratic meritocracy, these sorts of things don’t happen. But then, Democratic Party politics down in Memphis, Tennessee don’t operate according to the meritocratic standards. Down there, it’s more like an aristocracy, and the powerful office of congressman passed from father to son, as if it were an inherited title. Since Harold Ford, Jr. climbed into his father’s seat in Congress, Memphians have seen the results of this kind of nepotism: A disturbing lack of accountability to the people.

If Harold Ford, Jr. were accountable to the people, he’d be more concerned about protecting their well-being. Yet, Ford seems mostly indifferent to the real needs of his constituents – real needs that are addressed through good programs like Social Security. Though there will be no crisis in Social Security for decades, if such a crisis ever comes at all, Harold Ford Jr. is busy advocating the reduction in Social Security benefits for people who have already been paying into the system for over 20 years. Congressman Ford is telling those workers that they shouldn’t expect to get what they were promised, and that they’ll just have to keep on working longer into their old age.

Harold Ford Jr. thinks that’s fair – but, of course, he won’t have to work past the age of 65 himself if he doesn’t want to. Thanks to his family connections, his retirement is already taken care of.

Though he says that working Americans should prepare themselves to make do with less, Harold Ford Jr. has big ambitions for himself. He’s running for the United States Senate this year, seeking to expand his own personal power from his privileged background by calling for the reduction of benefits paid to working Americans.

That’s arrogant and abusive. Cutting Social Security to pay for unnecessary wars and gigantic subsidies for oil companies is cruel. There’s only one position on Social Security that a Democrat running for high public office ought to take: The government needs to keep the promise it has made to working Americans, and pay Social Security benefits in full.