With the unfortunate death of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, I’ve been thinking about political capital and if it still truly exists. While I try to formulate those thoughts into something more substantial, here’s a little bit about Harry Reid.
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Remembering Harry Reid
Harry Reid had a story that was really only possible in the United States. He grew up in a home with a dirt floor and no running water in a little town named Searchlight. It was in the middle of nowhere. Searchlight had gold mining but once the gold was gone and the federal highway was reworked to not stop in it, the town became a ghost town. It had 50 people in it by the time, Harry Reid (he was nicknamed ‘Pinky’ growing up because of his skin's hue) was born in 1939. Since Searchlight didn’t have a high school (and still doesn’t), he hitchhiked 40 miles to high school in Henderson.
Reid was a massive boxing fan and is the only US senator to be in the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. He used to listen to the legendary play-by-play announcer Don Dunphy call fights on the radio when he was younger. When he reached high school, he would become a boxer himself. He only fought as an amateur but once Reid began to fight, he never stopped. Whether it was fighting with Republicans in Congress to give millions of Americans affordable healthcare or running the mob out of Las Vegas’ casinos. Reid was never scared of a fight, perhaps even when he should have been.
Whodunnit? Who placed a crude car bomb in Harry Reid’s family car in 1981, after he was no longer chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission? Was it the mob?
Growing up as poor as Reid did instills certain values and a certain attitude. Reid was a man of the people. He, like President Obama (who he encouraged to run in 2008), was an outsider and he was an outsider who didn’t forget he was an outsider. Reid stood up for the common man through his votes but also in his hiring practices.
Harry Reid used to ask people where they went to college and the better school they mentioned, the less interested he was in the person. He wanted people who fought to get where they are. He had a sharp class edge to him that is mostly gone in Washington among Democrats. - Ryan Grim
Anyone who has observed Reid’s leadership in the past is definitely a better leader because of it. He knew how to form a coalition and how to turn it’s weaknesses into strengths. In 2005, President Bush was trying to get rid of social security. The GOP held 55 seats in the Senate. With only 45 votes, the democratic caucus wouldn’t have much say in the manner but they could lead a pretty successful resistance if they could find Republicans who disagreed with dismantling social security. Before you go out and find outsiders, you have to make sure your base is strong. The biggest weakness in the caucus was Senator Max Baucus. He was a Democrat from Montana who had very little wiggle room at home when it came to disagreeing with the President.
Instead of alienating Baucus as a ‘DINO’ and exiling him, Reid made Baucus the team captain. Baucus lead the effort to save social security. He made the caucus’ biggest weakness into it’s strength. It’s because of that lesson in leadership that social security was saved.
Senator Reid was one of a kind. A trailblazer. A master strategist. He brought Nevada to the national stage. Without Harry Reid, it’s hard to see Nevada becoming the great place it is today. Reid was the man he was in spite of the circumstances and hardships he was born into, but he was also the man he was because of them.