Barack Obama is gutting the core principles of the Democratic party

The president's attacks on America's social safety net are destroying the soul of the Democratic party's platform

In 2005, American liberals achieved one of their most significant political victories of the last decade. It occurred with the resounding rejection of George W Bush's campaign to privatise social security.

Bush's scheme would have gutted the crux of that entitlement programme by converting it from what it has been since the 1940s – a universal guarantor of minimally decent living...