I wish this were an April Fool’s joke, but it is not.
Harry Reid, a Latter-day Saint, has no regrets about lying about Mitt Romney not paying taxes because his fellow Democrat won the presidency in 2012.
Here is what Harry Reid said:
CNN’s Dana Bash asked the then-Senate majority leader about his 2012 remark that Romney hadn’t paid his taxes in 12 years.
“So no regrets about Mitt Romney, about the Koch brothers, because people have even called it McCarthyite,” Bash asked.
“Well, they can call it whatever they want,” Reid said. “Romney didn’t win, did he?”
So, according to Harry Reid’s moral compass, you can lie about anything, including who should be the president of the United States, as long as you win.
How can LDS parents possibly point to this sad, pathetic man as an example for anything positive when he justifies lying as long as you get what you want?
The embarrassment that is Harry Reid just became a shameful example of all that is wrong with America today. When Mormons look back on Harry Reid’s tenure, they will see a man who refused to repent about bearing false witness, a man who reveled in his dishonesty because he achieved worldly gains.
As Megyn Kelly said last night, it is just disgusting.
New Post: Harry Reid justifies lying about Mitt’s taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?”: I wish th… http://t.co/mQQdxOtQg0 #LDS #Mormon
TheMillennialStar: Harry Reid justifies lying about Mitt’s taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?” http://t.co/QqONdXo4C7 #lds #mormon
Just disgusting is right. I hope the world doesn’t judge us all to be dishonest like him because we are Mormons. I guess it’s harder for politician to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a rich man.
I wonder how he answers the temple recommend interview question: “Are you honest with your fellow man?”
Does he think he can compartmentalize his spiritual life from his political life, and the Lord will allow him to get away with it?
I don’t expect LDS to be perfect. I do expect LDS to strive for perfection and to repent of sins, not gloat in their sins. Harry Reid may be a member in good standing, but he makes me feel dirty….
While the incorrect assertion that Candidate Romney hadn’t paid taxes may have played a role in his defeat in 2012, I think the two largest factors in the narrow margin by which he lost can be attributed to America’s continued discomfort with Mormons and the recording of the 47% comment, leaked shortly before the actual election, when it could do the most damage and give the Romney campaign the least amount of time to perform damage control.
It would have been interesting to see what might have occurred in the wake of a Romney/Ryan victory. There are some I know who opine that the passions of those vested in an Obama/Biden victory might have led individuals to react violently to institutions believed to be aligned with Romney/Ryan.
Back to the allegation that Romney hadn’t paid taxes, I can imagine that this was planned to be a late-breaking revelation. By airing the question at such a high level early on, as apparently Senator Reid did, the question was able to be examined and refuted. Now, it did bring to public awareness the large amount of charitable donations the Romneys had made to their Church, which raised the “Ack, he’s a *Mormon*” hackle for those who were determined to see charitable giving in a negative light. But it’s also possible that raising that question that early in the campaign ensured the rumor did less damage than it might have done later on.
I say these things, mildly informed that there are assertions wandering around on the internet about my lack of intelligence, probity, etc. I happen to believe in an omniscient God who will, in a future day, share all (that we may see as we are seen). In that day I believe we will:
1) Love each other with a restoration of the memories from an eternity of companionship, enhanced by more recent memories of all striving together to support God and Christ in what we call the “War in Heaven.”
2) Desire all to repent and return to the glory of God, no matter what faults and anger may have separated them from God in life.
3) Be willing to forgive all those we love (which will be all mankind) for any wrong they have done to us.
4) For those who have decided to embrace God, we will have determined to give up all sin to return to His presence, a presence we will then remember we had desired for all eternity.
There will be a few who will not wish to give up their sins, who will not look to Christ in that last day. But I don’t know who they will be, and I wouldn’t presume to assert that any particular individual will be among those unwilling to confess and forsake every wrong.
I want to anticipate the inevitable partisan defense of Harry Reid, which is that he is a good man, has done a lot of good, blah-blah-blah.
On this particular issue, Harry Reid lied and has not repented and glories in the fact that his lie helped him win an election. Full stop. This is not a partisan issue, it is a moral issue, and all of us should be able to condemn his actions.
If Mitt Romney or any other politician had done the same thing I would be condemning him just as much. So, please spare me the defenses of Harry Reid. He lied. He doesn’t care because it helped him win an election. This is not a defensible action.
Meg, you may be right about why Mitt Romney lost, but that is really not the point of this post. Personally, I feel that a Romney/Ryan presidency might have been significantly worse than our current Obama/Biden malaise, at least when it comes to foreign policy and civil liberties, but again that is not the point of this post.
Can we agree that lying for gain is a bad thing?
JSH, I deleted your comment because it is not relevant to this post and is a partisan re-run of many long-disproven claims.
Is lying for gain a bad thing, yes or no?
Lying for gain is bad. Now, I can’t say that Republicans haven’t said things that weren’t entirely truthful, either. Still, from an LDS perspective, Reid shouldn’t have said something he knew, or reasonably should have known, was false.
Harry Reid did not make an “incorrect assertion.” He lied deliberately for political purposes.
The Washington Post gave him four pinocchios:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/four-pinocchios-for-harry-reids-claim-about-mitt-romneys-taxes/2012/08/06/c31a1402-e007-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_blog.html
Politifact gave him a “Pants on Fire” rating:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/06/harry-reid/harry-reid-says-anonymous-source-told-him-mitt-rom/
A few years ago, I wrote an article on the parallels between Gadiantonism in the Book of Mormon and the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. Harry Reid reeks of Gadiantonism even more. Although this is an example of bald-faced lying for gain, I believe it goes much deeper than this.
“Their hearts [were] set upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up above one another; therefore they began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain (Helaman 6:17).” They also sought “to be praised of men, yea, and that they might get gold and silver . . . they set their “hearts upon the riches and vain things of this world (Helaman 7:21).” To facilitate this they “did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed (Helaman 6:21).”
Platitudes about deeply held political convictions don’t cut it for me — irrespective of the particular type of politics involved.
I’ve always looked at LDS people in politics as having to have a higher standard, just because they are Mormon and under a microscope. I have been perpetually disappointed in Harry Reid, and I have no defense for him. Similarly, I have no defense for other LDS politicians that engage in dishonesty — several from my home state of Arizona come to mind. Thankfully, in those cases, the electorate saw thru the lies and voted them out. The other issue I have with Harry Reid is in regard to some of the things he’s said about Republicans. I’m not a defender of the GOP, but when you call Republicans all sorts of names, he’s calling many members of the Church, maybe even his ward, those names. How can he show up at church and face them?
Lying is a sin, no question. But being judgemental gives me pause too.
I don’t know Harry Reid, but I suspect his role as evil minion of the forces of darkness has been miscast. What I do know is that to me, he represents the quinessential politician. They have been known to behave in an odd manner, from time to time. Perhaps being constantly in public scrutiny has that effect on certain people. I am willing to overlook this, looking past the phony media attention. Harry Reid has proven himself to be a bad actor. But if he is guilty of any such thing, so am I.
I have heard it said that the Latter-day Saints in his home ward are not uncomfortable with his presence, when he attends Sunday meetings. If I am not mistaken, his local leaders issue him a temple recommend. Who knows, we might find ourselves sitting next to each other, serving in the House of the Lord one day. I will not presume to be more critical than those who know him personally.
Reid and Joyce, yes.
I am being insistent in this post on addressing one single issue: is lying for gain acceptable? With so much moral craziness going on in the world, we need to reach a point where we can simply agree that certain actions are not morally right. And if you think lying for gain on the Senate floor is acceptable, then make your case.
Jim, I think you are missing the point. Judge as you would like to be judged. If I had reached the point in my life where I was lying about a fellow latter-day Saint on the Senate floor, I would expect to be judged *so that I could repent about my actions.* I am pretty sure that Bro. Reid will repent about this particular lie sometime in his life or in the next life, but it would be nice to see him do it now that he has announced he is exiting the political stage. But this is not what he is doing. It is completely uncontroversial to judge that his actions are morally wrong.
I am not judging his worthiness before God, which indeed I do not have the power to judge. I am not saying that his bishop or stake president should not grant him a temple recommend because I do not have the authority to judge such a thing.
We all make moral judgements in our lives. The Lord expects us to. And it is, in my opinion, completely justified to judge whether the very immoral actions of another latter-day Saint are a good example or not, especially given Harry Reid’s prominence.
Judging acts is not evil. Judging intentions is not necessarily evil either. We have no power or authority to pass eternal judgements. Eternal reward/punishment is up to the Lord, and it is those types of judgments which I believe are proscribed.
We do need to judge others’ behavior/acts in the context of whether we emulate or avoid such behavior ourselves. For every thing we witness around us, we make a choice, consciously or not, to either emulate or avoid what we see. This is exemplified by a child defending a behavior by saying so-and-so (or “everyone”) did/does it, and the parent asking the child, “If Johnny jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” It also illustrates that emulation of peers is practically the default in the absence of a concious decision to avoid the behavior.
Geoff, if you found yourself in a temple endowment session with HR, would you walk out? Does the endowment session still have the thing about bitter feelings in the preamble?
Book, during the prayer circle part of the endowment, you are asked if you have any “unkind feelings” for anybody else in the circle, and if you do you are asked to withdraw. I don’t have unkind feelings for anyone, including HR, so I would not have any problem being with him in the prayer circle. But it does of course depend on how you define “unkind feelings.” My definition may be different than others, and I have had several people say to me they could not be in the prayer circle with Bro. Reid, but I do not share that opinion.
Did anybody really think that Harry Reid had inside information about Mitt Romney’s taxes? I don’t think the IRS is that corrupt. I’d be inclined to guess that what he really meant to say was that because of the favorable tax provisions available to him (granted, of course, by the very Congress that Reid was a member of), Romney hadn’t paid his fair share of taxes for years. And yesterday? Reid is 75, his mental capacities are on the wane, he’s still recovering from his treadmill accident (or was it a Mafia hit??), and he just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
Excusable? I don’t think so. How deep the moral culpability? Not mine to judge.
If this doesn’t stray too far from the OP:
Professor Bruce Charlton has some insightful essays, written from a Christian perspective, on judging others, and explains why it is sometimes necessary to discern/judge the intentions as well as the acts:
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2015/03/it-is-not-un-loving-to-judge-people-as.html
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2014/02/christians-must-exercise-discernment.html
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2014/12/dont-judge-me-what-does-it-mean-is-it.html
Mark B: That’s rather Clintonesque. “It depends on what ‘hasn’t paid taxes’ means'”.
Mark B, you write:
” I’d be inclined to guess that what he really meant to say was that because of the favorable tax provisions available to him (granted, of course, by the very Congress that Reid was a member of), Romney hadn’t paid his fair share of taxes for years.”
You can guess whatever you want, but the facts of the history of what Harry Reid actually said, meaning the words that repeatedly came out of his mouth, don’t agree with you.
Here is the summary of the history from the Politifact article:
==============
“In a July 31, 2012, interview with the Huffington Post, Reid attacked Romney for refusing to publicly release tax returns prior to 2010. Reid said, “His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” referring to George Romney’s decision to release 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.
Reid told the website that about a month earlier, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office and said, “Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.”
Reid continued, “He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” said Reid. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look? … You guys have said his wealth is $250 million. Not a chance in the world. It’s a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don’t pay taxes for 10 years when you’re making millions and millions of dollars.”
On Aug. 2, Reid repeated the allegation on the Senate floor, saying, “As we know, he has refused to release his tax returns. If a person coming before this body wanted to be a Cabinet officer, he couldn’t be if he had the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes, because he has not.”
And later that day, Reid tripled down on the accusation, releasing a statement that said in part, “I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years.”
================
So, to summarize, he was NOT complaining about the tax rate that Mitt paid, and it was NOT a one-time misstatement. It was a deliberate smear campaign, repeated at least three times. It was incredibly slimey by any standard.
Not to worry, Geoff. You won’t get an argument from me that Reid wasn’t slimy.
Or slimey, if you prefer. : )
And I didn’t drag up the history, so I was speculating. Sort of like Harry was–except that I wasn’t claiming to have got my information from a highly reliable source.
That alone should have told everyone it was BS. Since when do investors know the personal tax details of the management of a company??
I already didn’t like Reid, but now that I’ve lived in Las Vegas for a few years I’ve gotten an up close picture of what a horrible human being he is. He is corrupt, petty, insulting, and thus this revelation didn’t surprise me one bit. I’m a bit surprised he was honest about it, but I guess now that he’s retiring he can’t even maintain the pretext that he isn’t complete scum. I feel a bit bummed I won’t have the pleasure of voting him out of office, but I’m still thrilled he’s leaving the Senate. If Sandoval runs it’ll be a fairly easy pick up for Republicans.
It was such a strange statement at the time. It wasn’t just a political lie, but a stupid one on top of it. The only people who believed it were the deranged political extremists (who no doubt consider themselves normal).
As far as not having an effect, I think that’s a bold claim. It was one more lie added to the overarching theme that Romney was one of the plutocrats who got rich at the expense of the little people. Ironically, that’s exactly how Pres. Obama made his money as he never really made anything of value that others were willing to pay for (and hire employees to deliver services) and yet he’s very wealthy nonetheless.
DQ, you are correct that this was part of the 2012 campaign strategy. Mitt Romney did not have any scandals in his past. He had a proven record as a competent executive. The only real card the Dems had was the “he is a bad rich guy” card, and this is the one they played. Endlessly. Nobody can tell me that Harry Reid was not part of designing and carrying out this strategy. So, Bro. Reid pushed the narrative in his own way and it was deliberately designed to be part of the “let’s destroy the rich guy” strategy. Extremely cynical, and in Harry’s case, immoral.
I am not a big Mitt Romney supporter. He is not a true conservative on fiscal issues, and I think his foreign policy would have been a disaster. I wish that the Dems had spent more time on the actual issues rather than pursuing character assassination.
Geoff, As always I accept the fact that this is a privately run board and any post is subject to deletion. I’ll simply state that we have a difference of opinion about certain events and responsibilities. (Feel free to delete this as well if you feel so inclined.)
Lying in almost any context is wrong by definition. Unfortunately there is no shortage of people who are willing to do it (along with a lot of other undesirable things).
Perhaps something we can learn from this is that the Book of Mormon concept of “getting gain” affected the Nephites/members of the Church, as well as those outside of it. Creating a new truth, which is based on lies, with the idea that if it is repeated enough times then it becomes the truth, is something that was used effectively by the Jacobins and French media during the French Revolution. One group after another was targeted and executed, until all that was left were kangaroo courts. If accused, one was guilty. Period.
Sadly, we see this same tactic being used by the far left and far right today. They play loose with truth and facts, using emotion to stir up the crowds. Just look at what they are doing to Indiana right now in regards to RFRA, despite the fact that 19 other states, the Federal government, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have all voted for it! The facts are ignored, as emotion becomes the new truth. It is the best way to “get gain”, eliminating and destroying one’s opponent. I can imagine the Pharisees used the same tactics to inflame the crowds against Jesus as he stood before Pilate.
We may be LDS, and we may be Mormons, but many of us love a lie more than being a Saint.
Rame, I think you hit the nail on the head. I am continually appalled to see that people of all political stripes make statements that are clearly not true, and the people involved know it, yet they appear to have no moral compunctions about this at all. All people reading this need to re-read 2 Nephi chapter 28, especially this part:
“he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.”
It is a shameful thing to lie to get gain, and, again, this should not be a controversial statement.
So, I would implore readers, even if you otherwise love Harry Reid, to simply say to yourself, “yes, I don’t agree with all of the people who criticize Harry Reid, but in this case, yes, it was immoral for him to lie for political reasons.” That is really all I am asking.
Just playing devil’s (well, Reid’s) advocate for a moment:
What was the material “gain” to Reid by telling this untruth? Did it get him re-elected? Did it get him money? Property? Women? Worldly adulation? As far as I can tell–not really. I think Reid’s primary impetus for the lie was the advancement of a cause, or a group of causes, that he sincerely believes to be correct–“lying for the Lord”, if you will. That still makes him a pathetic, miserable eel; but I rather think it takes him out of Gadianton territory.
Obviously, the electoral process only works when candidates tell the truth so that the electorate can make an informed decision; and deliberately spreading misinformation to muddy the waters during that process is pretty grotesque. But IMHO, what makes this uniquely despicable isn’t that Reid said something untrue–but that the untrue thing was a knowing, deliberate, and personal effort to destroy the character of a man Reid knew to be fundamentally innocent.
JimD, you wrote:
“What was the material “gain” to Reid by telling this untruth? Did it get him re-elected? Did it get him money? Property? Women? Worldly adulation? As far as I can tell–not really.”
Nice try, but unfortunately Harry Reid has clearly gotten material gain out of staying in office. When he started in politics he had nearly no money, and now he has millions and lives in the Ritz Carlton when in DC. And, interestingly, one of his gains has indeed been property. So, if his team wins, he gets more money and more nights at the Ritz Carlton and more property. At least one of his children is involved in politics, so Harry Reid also gets “gain” for his posterity. There is a clear connection between his behavior and worldly gain.
We could also make some pretty solid speculation about the nature of his “exercise equipment” accident being related to some worldly thing that somebody wanted to gain, and I don’t think we would be far from the truth.
You are of course correct that one of the most despicable things about the whole ordeal was that Reid knew Mitt Romney was innocent of his claims, *yet he still said the things he said.* Yes, very bad form indeed.
I’ve had people who know him well tell me he is a faithful member of the Church, and I have personally seen him in the temple, so I know he has a temple recommend. However, there is a certain portion of the endowment ordinance that if I were there with him, I would have to excuse myself. I truly do have unkind feelings for the man. I would not shake his hand if I met him at church or in the temple.
If I ever do meet him, in any setting, this is what I am going to say to him. “Senator Reid, I have it on good authority, which I will not disclose, that you have not paid tithing for ten years, yet you hold a temple recommend. Now tithing would show up as a charitable contribution on your tax return, so will you publicly disclose ten years of your tax returns and clear up this issue?”
Harry Reid justifies lying about Mitt’s taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?”: http://t.co/65UtQtFz8L
JimD: Reid’s Gadianton like gain was _power_, as Senate Majority leader. Being a team liar, er, I mean player, got him into that seat and kept him in that seat as long as the Dems controlled the Senate. Lying about republicans in general tends to serve to keep dems getting re-elected. So lying in regards to a presidential candidate still has some effect on congressional/senatorial races.
i’m trying to be like Meg and have her outlook:
Everything will eventually get resolved, Jesus paid for everything regardless of whether the perpetrators repent in mortality, and all secret things will be shouted from the rooftops.
The questions of “are they stupid or evil?” will be answered; the stupid will learn (or be forced to acknowledge) the truth, and the evil will suffer until they are contrite (“ground to a powder”) _and_ then go through the steps of repentance (ie, suffering is not enough because atoning/paying for our own sins is not enough and the Atonement is _still_ needed, and repentance/change/reliance-on-Christ is still needed to have the Atonement applied.)
Even if one is on their way to the Telestial Kingsom, after haivng spent the Millennium in Spirit Prison/Hell, the Atonement is still necessary, since the TK is still a Kingdom of Glory.
We aren’t supposed to judge others (in the eternal judgement kind of way) just because their sins are different than ours. But when our sins are made known to us, we should not act as if they aren’t sins.
My understanding of the scriptures is that if we (purposely) don’t repent in this life, our hidden/private sins will be made public; the ‘shouted from the rooftops’ thing.
In regards to how left/right politics plays into religion, sociology, psychology, God, and Good/Evil, I just can’t recommend Bruce Charlton’s blog highly enough:
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/
I also recommend following his side-bar link to his online book “Thought Prison”. The guy is an absolute genius and master word-smith.
I wonder by what standards, biblical standards, Book of Mormon standards, a church that says God’s commandments are to be followed, such as Thou Shalt Not Lie, as in the KJ version used by LDS – the Quorum of the Twelve, down to his Bishop use in calling out Sen Harry Reid for his bald faced, unrepented, self gloating LIE to the whole world. When asked to obtain a recommend to the temple, “Are you honest with your fellow man?, What can his answer now be? How about honesty with his constituentcy, the Utah public or the people of America? He told a lie to millions.
Member in good standing? Before God? The LDS, like all churches of Christian denomination are required to call out a unrepentant sinning member. Where have all the LDS elders gone? Speak out or there will repercussions in the eyes of members and a loss of respect in the world. Honestly, one LDS says this against another LDS – and Salt Lake City remains silent. And, we haven’t even brought up his unabashed support for the liberal agenda on abortion, and other issues.
I agree with your OP point, Geoff. Well said.
I highly doubt he goes to Church often or if he has a Temple recommend (or attends if he did). There is no first hand testimony or evidence of his Church participation. Most of it is “I heard so and so, who said they know so and so, who attends his ward.” True that he spoke at BYU once about his religious convictions, but its easier said than done. We all have busy lives, but certainly the world of Mormonism is still small enough for some real investigation.
This is enough evidence for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAfdK_9aj84
Starting at the 1:22 mark and going for the rest of the video.
I am not a Harry Reid fan, but I don’t feel like he is the spawn of Satan like most of my friends do.
Harry Reid justifies lying about Mitt’s taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?”: http://t.co/mnwH2gLLdw
I live in Las Vegas and when I went to a sealing session with a fellow ward member yesterday and the topic of Harry Reid came up. He was present fairly recently when Bro. Reid was at the temple and they received instruction from the temple workers to treat him as any other LDS person – with charity, regardless of political opinions.
I would treat him with charity, but I could not be in a prayer circle with him. I have a lot of unkind feelings about his behavior as a representative of Nevada. I think he is one of the most corrupt, dishonest politicians of the age.
Is Harry Reid any less worthy of discipline than John Dehlin?
Curtis C, thanks for that interview with former Sen. Bennett. For those who don’t want to watch it, he says that Harry Reid has done as much as any politician to help the growth of the Church and that he has a current temple recommend.
Please note that I have not questioned Bro Reid’s worthiness in this post and have instead pointed out that such questions are up to God and the appropriate authorities. I have concentrated on one issue, which is that he lied to get gain. I judge that act immoral and have no problems saying that. Is this a worse sin than I and others who have commented here have ever committed in our lives? Well, again God gets to judge that, not I. A bit of repentance on Harry Reid’s part would be nice to see, however.
I agree with you, Geoff. Reid’s response certainly is disappointing (regardless of how you may feel about him), though probably not surprising coming from a politician.
FTR, I am not going to make a call as to who deserves salvation in the end, and who does not. But at the same time, it isn’t going to look good to the nonmembers when some church member publically lies to the world over and the guys at the temple just take any member at their word when giving them a Temple Recommend, it really makes the Church look corrupt, if anything else. I hope that this all blows over with time.
Harry Reid justifies lying about Mitt’s taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?”: http://t.co/ba4NJm49yo #TaqiyyaInChief #EndJustifiesTheMeans
Whew! What a nasty mess this is.
In private conversations I have had VERY strong opinions about Harry Reid. Similarly, I have had doubts about Orrin Hatch and Mitt Romney as well, mainly because they seem to be quite comfortable with the Federal Reserve and its control of the US economy.
Having said that, I don’t believe I have seen the Mormon yet that should be president. Would Romney have been a better president than Obama? Dude, a fire hydrant, yanked at random from a city street, and placed in the POTUS’ chair in the Oval Office would have made a better president than Obama.
Reid is a Progressive. Listening to Ezra Taft Benson on the issue of Socialism I would have to say it is my OPINION that Reid needs to re-evaluate his politics. Romney is comfortable with the Fed and Keynesian economics, so no comfort for me there. Hatch is a Republican, and well known as a MODERATE Republican so again, no joy for me.
It does appear to me that Reid with his actions and rhetoric, and admission to lying about Romney, has placed himself in a spotlight that needs to be addressed by his local bishopric. If they feel there is no need then I am comfortable with that. They have to answer for their stewardship just as Reid will have to answer for his, and I for mine.
I find it unfortunate that it has reached this public stage but you have to remember that fully 20% of the elders of the Church voted for Obama. While it would just be delicious to rant and rave about what that means and what I think about it, I think I will just leave it at maybe asking yourselves why we have wandered from the strict criticism of Progressivism/Socialism we enjoyed under President Benson to the quietness on the subject we get now from the Brethren.
Personally, I think it may be because the time and opportunity to stop the march of that poison has come and gone, but that is a personal opinion.
…and quietly accepting that we need to be careful in our comments from the pulpit makes me want to bow up, too. We do have Constitutional rights in this country but the only way we keep them is by fighting for them, not meekly asking can we exercise them.