Despite their virtues, many conservative Republicans have an unfortunate habit of picking on the weak and disadvantaged, slandering the people least able to fight back. We saw a glimpse of this callousness in Mitt Romney’s disparagement of the “47 percent” who are “takers” living off the hard-working “makers.”

Democrats and their supporters must stand up to Republicans who want to dismantle or cut Social Security benefits – and then they must expand, not curtail, those benefits, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Tuesday.