Comments about ‘Candidates from Utah County's 'mainstream party' woo delegates’

If we vote Democrat this Fall I guess we deserve what will happen. We have an enormously bloated Federal bureaucracy and are headed to a European socialist type economy with a growth rate of about 1% and long lines at the doctor's office. I don't see how we can compete internationally with a 38% tax on business. How we will pay off the national debt which Obama has doubled is beyond me.

If the Dems are mainstream in Utah County, does that mean the Repubs are now the mainstream party in Boston, let alone the avenues in SLC?

The Republicans are obviously extremists for opposing most American voters. It's clear from their voting record over the past six years, that most Americans wish to increase the size, scope and control of the federal government, increase taxes, ease restrictions on abortion, socialize medicine (or at least health insurance), increase foreign aid, give more rights to foreign combatants, subsidize loans to people who can't afford their McMansions, and roll back the Bush tax cuts on middle-income citizens. Yes, the Republicans are extreme because most of them are opposed to all those things.

I would recommend that anyone thinking of aligning themselves with any of today’s Democrats read the Democratic Party Platform. You will find it quite illuminating and a bit disturbing. I urge all Utah voters to scrutinize closely every word and action by Democrat and Republican candidates but especially Democrats lest we end up with San Francisco style politicians. We as the electorate are the only ones who can stop the progressive bent held by Democrats and their policies.

150 Democrats met in Utah County? They must have brought in some ringers from Salt Lake.

All nice sounding fluff, but thanks to evil triad of Obama, Reid and Pelosi (as well as Jim Matheson), I will never, ever vote for another Democrat. The part is so far left they are about to drop off the planet.

National debt? Have you been asleep for the past 30 years? National debt has increased under every Republican in the White House. It's only a Democrat who managed to balance the budget. Obama took the office in the midst of a fiscal crisis. Give him time, and he'll have the budget balanced as well. The health care plan Utah likes to complain about? Paid for, and unless you are among Utah's wealthiest, you didn't see your taxes go up for it. In fact, middle-class taxes have gone DOWN under Obama.

Surprised by the Democratic platform? Have you looked at the Republican platform? The Republican party is all about tax breaks for the wealthy, and it shows. Since the so-called Reagan Revolution, only the wealthiest Americans have progressed. In the past 30 years, middle-class America has stagnated, and the lower-class has regressed. Does that sound like a prescription for America to you?

Careful, eyes open (10:30 a.m.) -- you're going to confuse a lot of people with FACTS.

"I would recommend that anyone thinking of aligning themselves with any of today’s Democrats read the Democratic Party Platform. "

Go right ahead. If you read the Utah County Democrats' platform, for example, you'll discover that the abortion wording in it mirrors almost exactly the LDS position. The Republican platform, on the other hand, is far more extreme to the right (in fact, in its last incarnation, they took out the "life or health of the mother" clause).

"I urge all Utah voters to scrutinize closely every word and action by Democrat and Republican candidates but especially Democrats lest we end up with San Francisco style politicians."

This is what political discourse is reduced to in this state with its communist-style one-party rule: scrutinize one party but ignore the dominant one (when they, say, go hot-tubbing with naked teens or get DUIs), and when all else fails, invoke clumsy Pavlovian catchwords like "San Francisco Politicians." Seriously, in this state Republicans have to resort to demonizing their opponents at all costs--very much like pentacostal preachers telling their followers that Mormons have horns.

Dear Eyes Open: Bill Clinton was dragged kicking and screaming into a balanced budget by the Republican Congress. THAT IS AN INDISPUTABLE FACT. I love the revisionist history people manage to come up with.

Since phone booths no longer exist, the Democrats in Utah County had to find some other place to hold their convention.

@Cats, your "INDISPUTABLE FACT" is in fact disputable. Clinton and Gingrich had disagreements over the approach to balancing the budget, but Clinton did campaign on a balanced budget and the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation act passed with NO republican votes (Al Gore cast the tie-breaker).

Maybe some people are missing the double meaning behind the "mainstream party" moniker the Utah County Democrats have taken on themselves. A Democrat in Utah County would probably be running as a Republican in most other places in the country. It's just that the Republicans down here in happy valley tend to be so extreme right-wing, it's just difficult for me to actually vote for them when I really read up on their platforms and ideas. The Utah County Democratic platform does not align with the national Democratic party; they're really their own thing. And if you ask me, that's exactly what this state needs -- more independent political thought and less toeing the party line.