While most of us are enjoying summer activities, our county party candidates already are walking, attending house parties, organizing volunteers, meeting with their campaign committee, etc. And the county party has been active as well. We put together a beautiful float for the Freedom Festival parade. We have hired campaign interns. We're training candidates. We're fundraising and organizing volunteers and planning activities for the fall.
You may remember last election the county party ran advertisements in the Daily Herald, had signs up around the valley, conducted polls, and gave money directly to the candidates.
This year we're doing even more, as you will see.
Would you give a little to build the party and make the Democratic party once again a viable organization in Utah County? Would you give a little to assist these candidates to win this year?
The release of a list of people who are alleged to be illegal immigrants who registered with the state was the hot topic in the state last week. The release of the list was condemned by many political leaders. But not all. Senator Margaret Dayton said that people should focus on the names on the list rather than who released the list. Representative Stephen Sandstrom said release of the list was inappropriate. Of course, it was more than inappropriate. It was... illegal.
It is ironic that the main point of those who illegally released the list, and some like Dayton who want to accomplish the objectives of those who released the list, is that these people on the list are breaking the law. Does that oxymoron of breaking the law to identify lawbreakers occur to those who released these names or those who abet the leakers?
Illegal immigration is a problem today. The cure is not to fan heated rhetoric about how illegal immigrants are the source of most of the crimes committed or the myth that illegal immigrants are the biggest danger to society. Or Representative Chaffetz's call for placing illegal immigrants in tent cities. That kind of rhetoric has been common among those who have pushed for an Arizona-style law in Utah. It shouldn't be a surprise that some of the followers of the instigators of such rhetoric, such as those Utah government employees, decided it was time to take things in their own hands, vigilante-style.
A new study released last month by Education Week provided some disturbing news for Utah. Over a ten year period, the nation's high school graduation rate rose by 3.1 percent. That's good news. Across the country, more of our children are staying in high school to graduate.
However, during that same period, Utah's high school graduation rate dropped by nearly two percent. Fewer Utah children are getting the basic diploma they need to survive in our economy. That's bad news for all of us.
Here's another disturbing statistic from the Utah Foundation. In 1980, Utah was 8th in the nation in the percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree. By 2008, the state had fallen to 18th.
Then, there's the number we're all familiar with. Utah spends the least of any state in per pupil spending. But most people may not realize that Utah has fallen further behind the other states and is now more than $1,000 below the next lowest state.
All Utah County Democrats and their families are invited to attend the party's annual pot luck picnic on Saturday, August 28, from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. It will be held at the Northwest Pavilion of the Orem Community Park, 581 West 165 South, Orem. The Northwest Pavilion is the one closest to the tennis courts. The park is located south of Mountain View High School and the Orem Fitness Center.
This is an opportunity to have some fun, meet our great slate of candidates for state and county offices and socialize with fellow Democrats. This is pot luck so we’ll ask you to bring a main dish, salad, or dessert for 10 to 12 people. The county party will provide the drinks, cups, plates, and eating utensils.
Please RSVP by August 18 to Larry Brown at
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and let him know if you plan to attend, how many people will come with you, and what dish you intend to bring.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Incumbent Extremism 4
Richard Davis
Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Recently, Senator Bob Bennett spoke to the Ripon Society, a Republican group, and made some cogent comments about the Republican Party. Bennett, who was defeated by state Republican delegates for re-election, said "the demand of absolute party purity endangers our ability to govern." Bennett should know about "absolute party purity." Bennett is no liberal, but he was too far to the left for the Utah Republican Party. That says less about Bob Bennett and more about the extremism of his own party.
Bennett went on to criticize the Republicans as devoid of ideas. He told the group:
"As I look out at the political landscape today, I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas." And, speaking from experience, he added: "If you attempt to raise ideas... you're attacked as being a wimp, insufficiently pure, and unreliable."
A few years ago I had the opportunity to be in a boat in the New York harbor. As the boat passed the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, I thought back on the many people whose first glimpse of the United States was Lady Liberty. They came from all parts of Europe, but they shared a common bond -- the desire to start a new life in a new country. The United States was only a vision for them until they came into New York harbor. It was a land of economic opportunity. It was a land with a future.
The United States offered a more promising future to these immigrants in many other ways. It was a place where they could enjoy freedoms that were only distant concepts in their homelands. They could attend the church of their choice. They could stand on street corners and complain about the government. They could march in protests against the policies they disagreed with.
Even today, those basic rights we enjoy as American citizens are foreign to many people around the world. They cannot criticize their president. They cannot publish those criticisms in the media. They cannot assemble and organize to support their own views about government.
While most of us are enjoying summer activities, our county party candidates already are walking, attending house parties, organizing volunteers, meeting with their campaign committee, etc. And the county party has been active as well. We put together a beautiful float for the Freedom Festival parade. We have hired campaign interns. We're training candidates. We're fundraising and organizing volunteers and planning activities for the fall.
