'The Battle AARP Was Born to Fight'

Could this change?

As the economic situation gets increasingly dire for boomers, there are three possibilities for what might happen.

One is that they'll continue to practice the "politics of me," with everybody just going his or her own way, in which case they won't have any influence.

The second possibility would be the emergence of a big voting bloc, or even a social movement, centered around the issues of Social Security and Medicare. That's even more of a possibility, now that major changes in those programs are being openly discussed by politicians. When I started working on this book, nobody ever thought that would happen.

The third scenario is that the AARP will become the de facto leader of the boomers and articulate their interests.

Is an aggressive boomer rights movement a realistic vision? Even when the oldest boomers were facing the Vietnam War draft and the struggle for civil rights, only a minority of them actually got involved in protest movements.

It's true that only a small portion of boomers were superactive back then; the mainstream actually was more conservative. But they're older and more experienced and capable now. It would take a critical mass of talented, educated boomers to become the leaders and do the consciousness-raising.

The senior vote always has been divided by race, gender and economics. But that may change, because up until now nobody really has threatened Social Security and Medicare and created the sort of common crisis that would bring them together.

Do boomers and politicians consider AARP a policy advocate?

[Former senator] Alan Simpson, of course, has been the most visible foe of AARP all along. He's the one who says that the organization represents millions of people who are united only by their love of airline discounts.

I'm not agreeing with that, but he brings up one of the problems that AARP has in exercising leadership. It has a dual role. It's an organization that helps its members find reasonably priced services, particularly insurance, which was the one of the reasons for its founding. But there's also the social entrepreneur and advocacy side.

There is confusion in the public mind as to what AARP is, and that's where some of the criticism comes from. Do they really care about us or are they just interested in selling us insurance?

What are your thoughts on that?

AARP can be both an endorser of services and a political spokesman and leader. People such as Simpson may perceive a conflict of interest, but in my research, I really didn't see that. When I talked to people at AARP who were doing research on the boomer generation, there never was any sign that they were concerned about how that would affect the insurance side or anything else.

AARP is unique, and I think this hybrid structure is actually part of the genius of AARP. It's a self-funding lobby.

But that does raise the charges of conflict of interest.

In the book, you make the case that AARP's biggest problem has been what you call "mission drift." Would you explain?

I don't think that AARP founder Ethel Percy Andrus ever envisioned in her wildest dreams that the organization would ever reach 40 million members. But AARP has become so successful and gotten so big that it's a challenge to maintain its identity.

There's a lot of talk at AARP about how it's an organization for all generations, for everybody who has a birthday. I understand where that's coming from, because they want to build consensus. And Andrus did have the mantra, "What we do, we do for all."

But at the end of the day, AARP has to be for seniors. Otherwise, why don't we rename it the American Association of Persons?

Do you have a prediction?

The fight over Medicare and Social Security is about America's future, and it's going to be a tough battle. Aging boomers are not a popular generation. We've got a bad brand, and we're self-critical. We need a champion for us, not one who's talking about all generations. Let other people do that. If I have a current quarrel with AARP, that would be it.

AARP has done a lot already for older Americans, and it can do more. This is the battle that AARP was born to fight.

Read an excerpt from One Nation Under AARP >>

Excerpt From One Nation Under AARP

Aging boomers' senior power potential will depend upon whether age and generational identity transcend other social divisions. As with many other large groups, cohesive political action may fragment along the lines of class, ethnicity, gender, region and religion. Class and education divide boomers and other Americans in their responses to globalization, multiculturalism and changing demographics. This "wine track/beer track" fault line among boomers — along with potent negative stereotypes of each group — widened during the 2008 presidential election and was especially visible in the Democratic primaries.

Boomers' senior power potential also depends upon two basic social psychological processes that facilitate mobilization and social movement formation. First, pre-existing or socially constructed consensus among potential movement members on basic values, attitudes and norms facilitates communication, interaction and cohesion. Boomers' values and ideology emphasize individualism, competitiveness and mistrust of major institutions (including government); this clearly inhibits large-scale collective mobilization. There is greater potential for mobilization with regard to a second variable fostering collective behavior: convergence upon similar economic interests, especially when reinforced by shared background characteristics —  such as similarities in age, race, gender and religion.

Nothing unites a group like an external threat — especially one magnified by a major crisis. Thus the deep 2007-10 so-called Great Recession has forced recognition among boomers that a majority of them are financially "at risk" for their old age — at least 40 percent of them were financially ill prepared for retirement before the real estate and market meltdowns of 2008.

Into this atmosphere of crisis and doubt, the new Obama White House and heavily Democratic Congress injected another political controversy: major health care/Medicare reform.

Excerpted from One Nation under AARP: The Fight over Medicare, Social Security, and America's Future, by Frederick R. Lynch, published by the University of California Press, © 2011