Last night the Senate Minority Leader, Nevada senator (and Mormon) Harry Reid addressed the Utah Democrat’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner at the Marriot Hotel in Salt Lake City. He pointed out that while the last election was disappointing for Democrats nationally, Democrats made huge gains in state legislatures across the country.
Reid said that the person who is currently helping the Democrats the most is President Bush. The more Bush talks about Social Security, the more his numbers go down. Read pointed out that there is no “crisis” in Social Security. If Congress does nothing at all, Bush will be able to collect 100% of his benefits until he is 105!
He then made four points that Democrats need to emphasize:
1. Democrats need to pay attention to the rural vote. John Kerrry lost Nevada by 2% because of extremely high pro-Bush turnout in the rural areas even though Las Vegas and Reno make up 92% of the state’s population.
2. The idea that Democrats are “bad for business” is a lie. Historically, the economy always does better under Democratic presidents. Clinton’s economic plan, which brought down the deficit and created a huge surplus, received no Republican votes.
3. It is a lie that Democrats are immoral and not religious. Reid read a letter from a number of mainstream American Churchs that claimed that the Bush budget was “immoral.” The Senator read this letter on the Senate floor a few days before. Reid also pointed out that when Tom Delay’s ethics problems first started to come to light, the Republican’s first move was to abolish the ethics committee!! Now they want to change the Filibuster rule by breaking the rules (against the advice of the non-partisan Senate parliamentarian).
4. It is a lie that Democrats are against a strong defense. The Department of Homeland Security was created because Democrats insisted. The 911 Commission was created despite strong opposition from the White House. On the other hand, the White House sent our troops into Iraq with half the force necessary, and without body armor or enough armored vehicles!
Wake up America. We need to toss those lying Republicans out of power.