Senator Harry Reid needs to be a leader, a real leader! Not a just a leader for what HE wants for himself but a leader to lead the entire Senate which in turn represents all the American people. He needs to open up his eyes, look beyond partisan politics and instead look for common ground in an effort to get solutions.
Politics should NOT be thought of as a game where winning is everything but rather viewed as means to fix things…and yes, that means compromise from both sides of the aisle. No one is going to get everything he or she wants, but if our leaders are so dead set on NOT leading (as I think Senator Reid’s letter shows below), no one will get anything at all…and worse, the country is rudderless with much uncertainty and peril ahead.
I received a fundraising email from Senator Reid and have highlighted part of it below because it does show you what is wrong with Washington and also with Senator Reid.
First, I think he believes that if you don’t agree with him you are “far right.” He might reconsider that thought – and perhaps consider some of his own views. If someone is very very far to the left (or right), a moderate will seem extreme.
Second, with the economic danger of the country, we need people to sit down and talk, negotiate. As leader of the Senate, yes, the ENTIRE Senate, he should work towards developing solutions — not simply declaring war and looking to defeat. That certainly is not acting as a leader or serving the American people. If he wants to be a partisan warrior perhaps he should step aside and let some other Democrat lead the Senate.
I am not suggesting it is easy to lead in these very partisan times (it is not) but he could at least try. He is not even trying.
Finally…Senator Reid’s failure to even get a budget to the floor for debate is evidence of his failure to even want to lead, to want to try to find solutions. He is the sole stop on the chances of getting a budget for our nation – one both parties could agree on. He should be ashamed.
Read below…and post your thought:
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“…In this election, there’s no negotiating with the far right. We simply have to defeat them…
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And below is the entire fundraiser letter emailed me: (and while I was posting this, another copy of this fundraiser went to another email address of mine!)
DEAR —-
Let me be blunt: The only reason Republicans haven’t passed their radical anti-woman, anti-worker agenda – the only reason we’re able to get anything done for the middle class – is that there are more of us than there are of them.
Remove the Democratic Senate firewall, and you’d be knocking down the last barrier to the House Republicans’ radical agenda. Eric Cantor and his Tea Party allies would become the most powerful force in America. And we would lose any ability to protect the middle class families we care about.
In this election, there’s no negotiating with the far right. We simply have to defeat them. But with a critical deadline just days away, the DSCC still needs to raise $1 million in grassroots contributions from people like you. Will you help by making a $5 or $10 contribution now?
I wish we could have a Senate where both parties worked together to get things done for the American people. But time after time, the Tea Party proves that it’s more interested in obstruction and division. Now they’ve brought back the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it – hoping they can ram it through the Senate even though we’ve already rejected it.
Make no mistake: That dangerous plan has no chance in a Democratic Senate. But if we didn’t have the majority – a majority we hold by just four seats – we wouldn’t be able to protect Medicare the way we have. We wouldn’t be able to stop the far right’s attacks on women’s health care the way we have. We wouldn’t be able to save the middle class from tax hikes the way we have.
The Senate should be where both parties come together to debate ideas and deliver solutions. But if we don’t keep the majority in November, it will become the place where the worst excesses of the Tea Party become law.
The DSCC is fighting to hold all 23 Democratic seats in 2012. But if we miss this Saturday deadline, that can’t happen – and Republicans need to win only four to put the extreme right in the driver’s seat. We’re $1 million away from the goal – please do your part to stand with Democrats today.
I’ve faced down the Republicans enough to know what it would mean for women, workers, and the future of the middle class if there were nothing standing in the way of the Tea Party agenda. And I have no intention of watching them do to the Senate what they’ve done to the House.
I’m taking action by standing with the DSCC to protect our majority. And I hope you will do the same.
The deadline is in just one week – and the DSCC has $1 million left to raise. Please contribute $5 or $10 today.
Thank you,
Harry Reid
