Harry Reid, Snake Oil Salesman

If you didn't sleep through Harry Reid's speech at the DNC convention, you got a glimpse into what it is the Democrats want for this country.

While I heard repeatedly last night that the DNC wanted to go boldly into the future, while others were stuck in the past, Reid went on to laud the energy policy of Nixon, Ford, and Carter. He assumed many in his audience were too young, I suppose, to remember that those policies caused a huge jump in gas prices, accompanied with long gas lines and shortages, all of which contributed to the enrichment of the OPEC nations. Of course, we are getting this from the man who has been in charge of Congress during the time when oil and gas prices have doubled.

You should also beware of anyone using terms like "hard solutions and common sacrifice" and asking Americans to "share common burdens." Someone using those terms understands that the "solutions" he has in mind are going to cause a great deal of harm. He criticized Bush for telling people to go on living life as they lived it after 9-11. It seems Reid would have preferred it if Americans' lives had been worse off afterwards. He is the one who is asking us to sacrifice ourselves to "the common good," which everyone knows is code for socialist government. He is the one asking us to burden ourselves. This is not necessary in a free country with a free market. Here's a glimpse of honesty here in the leader of the Left telling us that he wants us to all be more miserable.

I do love the irony in Reid's snake oil salesman analogy, telling us to ask first if a policy "first does no harm," and if it is "safe and effective." Certainly if we used those criteria when it comes to policy, I doubt we could justify more than 5% of what has ever been passed into law in this country. I think you'd be hard pressed to find much that Reid and his Democrats want to do that would pass these tests. One could take something as simple as seatbelt laws, which have caused more accidents to occur, while the number of auto accidents have remained steady -- resulting in a drop in the death rate per accidents, which is commonly touted as evidence the laws work. This is a law that does not meet either criteria, and certainly not the second. Also, any policy that requires that you take money from people through taxation does not meet the first criteria, as stealing money from people always does them harm, no matter how much money they may have. The DNC should really drop this line, because if people do get to thinking about these ideas too hard, the DNC will have a hard time getting votes ever again.