Tracking all those third rails

WHAT’S the third rail of American politics?

The answer used to be Social Security. As William Safire noted in the New York Times recently, a Democratic congressional staffer first spoke the metaphor more than two decades ago, likening the sacrosanct entitlement program to the high-voltage rail that runs near or between the tracks of an electric railway.

Providing words of caution to any politician who dared consider changing the program, the aide reportedly said, “Touch it, you’re dead.”

But now it turns out there are as many third rails as there are special interests.

In the previous year, the phrase has appeared more than 1,000 times in print and on television news, according to a Nexis search. The Times, the Washington Post and the New York Times used the phrase nearly 60 times in the last year, with about a third referring to actual train tracks. Of the rest, only five refer to Social Security.

It turns out that taxes (raising them, that is) is also an untouchable third rail. So are rent hikes, with half a dozen mentions. Certain elements of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fall into this category, as do eliminating Medicaid, using the “n-word,” legalizing gay marriage, altering New Jersey’s local governance structure and firing teachers in Los Angeles.

But it’s San Francisco that has the lowest bar when it comes to declaring what’s a third rail. According to The Times, up north, politicians can’t even tighten leash laws without running up against the power of the “dog lobby.”

“It’s the third rail of San Francisco politics,” Supervisor Sean Elsbernd said.