More Utah convention stuff
Brian has two great posts on the convention in Utah, here and here. He also points to another post by Oldenberg at The Third Avenue on Reid's speech at the JJ Dinner.
Here's a bit of Brian's notes from the JJ Dinner speach:
# Democrats lost in 2004 because Democrats gave up on winning over rural America.
# Only 9% of Nevada is rural, but every rural county had voter turnout 84% or better.
# Kerry won the two urban counties, but Bush ran up four to one and six to one majorities in rural Nevada.
# Democrats are best for rural America, but we haven't put rural issues and rural Americans at the front of our agenda.
# Republicans represent the bankers and Democrats represent the farmers.
# Democrats care about getting everyone health care and Republicans don't .
# Democrats are good for business. The economy is better under Democratic presidents than Republicans, just look at Clinton and Bush for examples.
# Bush has taken us from surplus to deficit and lost more American jobs than we created for the first time since the Depression.
# The Bush budget is immoral. It shifts money from quality of life, children, and the needy to big business.
# A long list of mainline churches wrote a letter declaring the Bush Budget immoral.
# Bush cuts adult education 75%. Bush cuts hurt firefighters, teachers, scientists. Bush cuts student loans.
# James Dobson does not represent true Christian values.
# "Dobson, focus on your own **** family."
# Bush sent soldiers to Iraq without proper equipment and armor. Democrats fought for proper equipment.
# Dems created Homeland Security Dept. and 9-11 commission. Bush fought against national security.
# We're laying the cornerstone of a Democratic future today.
# Keep working and don't forget that eventually we're building a cathedral.
# House of our future will "not fall for it is founded upon the rock."
Emmett O'Connell | May 9, 2005 | Comment on This Post (3 so far) |
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Thanks, Brian. I wish I could have been there. I live in California these days, but was sorely tempted to fly to SLC. Here are links and a few quotes from the Deseret News and SL Trib:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382,600132099,00.html?textfield=Reid
Reid says Demos are set to gain
He tells S.L. audience that Bush's actions help their cause
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told a crowd of about 900 gathered for the party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, a run-up to the party's state convention today, that the groundwork has already been laid in states like Utah.
"The chief cornerstone of any political party is political activists, and we have 900 here tonight," he said. "The foundation is in place here in Utah, but the structure above the foundation is not. . . . Most of the assistance (in building the structure) is going to come from one person: President Bush."
..."He said a myth that needs to be countered is that Democrats lack values and religion. Reid, a member of the LDS Church, said his Democratic colleagues in the Senate "are every bit as religious" as the Republicans. In a briefing with reporters before the dinner, Reid said that Utah's LDS voters should listen to the church's general authorities, who regularly remind members to vote not based on party but based on who is the better candidate.
"Morality is in the eye of the beholder," he told reporters. At the dinner, he told of receiving a joint letter from several mainstream Christian churches across the country condemning Bush's budget as "immoral" because of its effects on the poor and its cuts in education funding.
"What they've done to teachers is immoral," Reid said. "What they've done to firefighters is wrong. What they've done to police officers is wrong. What they've done to nurses is wrong. What they've done to science is wrong."
http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_2719567
Reid blasts Hatch, tries to reassure Utah Dems
"In a feisty speech to a boisterous crowd of nearly 900 at the downtown Salt Lake City Marriott, Reid told Utah Democrats to take heart. Despite winning congressional seats in Colorado and state offices in Montana, Democrats failed to gain seats in the U.S. House and Senate and lost the race for the White House. At the same time, he noted, Democrats won 76 state legislative seats and now outnumber Republican state lawmakers by 64 nationwide.
Legislative seats are considered a barometer of grassroots political sentiment across the country.
Besides the filibuster fight, Reid said Republicans' overreaching to privatize Social Security and protect their own from ethics investigations will turn voters off.
In Utah, where Republican state lawmakers outnumber Democrats three to one, Reid says minority party leaders need to be more aggressive, challenging conservative characterizations of liberals as purveyors of abortion, gay marriage and secularism.
"You can't run from those issues. Democrats have to take them on. We have to let people know who we are," Reid said. "Where can you go, but up?"
Posted by: Leo Brown | May 9, 2005 6:08:59 PM
Another issue he ought to have raised and of which he's well aware -- water use rights. In NV, the unchecked growth in Las Vegas is causing the Southern Nevada Water Authority to explore pumping ground water down from rural counties; this has the rural counties furious, because not only will the local ranching economy be weakened but local water bills are going to go up to help pay for the pumps.
Its until now not a partisan issue here in NV but its one the Democrats ought to speak to -- improving the quality of life in western cities by containing sprawl and saving the rural lifestyle at the same time. Commuters and ranchers have the same interest -- standing up for utility bill payers against profit-hungry power utilities.
Posted by: desmoulins | May 11, 2005 12:45:16 AM
Harry Reid and Utah are on opposite sides of the Colorado River basin divide. Maybe he just didn't want to stir up any trouble with us by bringing up water in the middle of a contentious period between the basins.
Posted by: Brian Watkins | May 12, 2005 10:32:07 AM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
