“It’s hard to reconcile those with a claim that Perry really wants to protect it rather than end it.”
But of course we have to end it. That’s the whole point. We can’t have a system of social insurance that guarantees everyone a “decent” retirement. Such a guarantee fatally undermines everything that made our society successful. It has to change. We can have a welfare program for the poor, elderly and otherwise. We can ensure that nobody starves of freezes to death, but we can’t have social insurance. Period. If the electorate can’t grasp that reality, we are doomed.
Perry is trying to sell the public on the one thing it really has to buy if we are ever to return to our former glory or any approximation thereof. This isn’t a vulnerability in a candidate, it’s a prerequisite.
That's going to thrill those who depend on it, or who will soon depend on it then.