Lonzie Cox – 4/3/08

This page was last updated on April 3, 2008.

Rich rewards; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; April 3, 2008. I am not related to Mr. Cox.

Mr. Cox is back to his focus on Republican bashing and race. His last two letters (here and here) are examples.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Isn’t it ironic that in the middle of the vicious attacks on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that a perfect example of his truthfulness is laid before our eyes?”

[RWC] Given his body of work, I was wondering when we’d get a letter from Mr. Cox on this topic. Note, though, Mr. Cox doesn’t yet endorse a Democrat candidate, at least not publicly.

“In the middle of the Republican flogging of Wright, Prince George Bush II flies in to one of the most economically destitute regions of his kingdom and within two hours flies off with at least a cool $1 million for John McCain to continue the utter destruction of the American working classes. Contributions, no doubt, from people who wouldn’t give a homeless person downtown a quarter.”

[RWC] You have to love this. The left-leaning media unmasks Mr. Wright, and thereby unmasks Barack Obama, but Republicans are to blame. I guess Republicans wrote Mr. Wright’s sermons and forced him to give them.

Regarding President Bush, is Mr. Cox referring to his attendance of a Republican fundraiser at a Sewickley Heights home? When did Sewickley Heights become “one of the most economically destitute regions of his kingdom?” As far as the contributions being for John McCain, the funds were for the PA GOP, not Mr. McCain.

Note how Mr. Cox smears those who attended the fundraiser. Though he probably doesn’t know anything about the attendees other than their likely party affiliation, Mr. Cox asserts they “wouldn’t give a homeless person downtown a quarter.”

Since Mr. Cox wants to write about contributions, let’s accommodate him. As of the February 2008 FEC reports, the Clinton campaign raised $169 million and the Obama campaign raised $194 million. How much did that evil white rich guy John McCain raise? $65 million. That’s right; evil white rich guy John McCain has raised only 38% as much as Mrs. Clinton and only 34% as much as Mr. Obama. Put another way, Mrs. Clinton raised 2.6 times as much as Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama raised three times as much.

Let’s look at the demographics of the contributions. Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have far more than twice as many contributors who contributed the $2,300 max per election. Further, while Mr. Obama has 76% more $4,600 contributors ($2,300 for primary; $2,300 for general) than Mr. McCain, Mrs. Clinton has six times as many.

“Wright spoke of how the rich and the super-rich own and run everything in the United States. So how was that untrue? They do own and run everything. Loudly denying it changes nothing.”

[RWC] What BS! By the way, Mr. Cox forgot to mention Mr. Wright’s assertions that the U.S. government invented AIDS to commit genocide against blacks, the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. were “the chickens coming home to roost,” and nuking Japan to end World War II was unjustified.

While we’re talking about the rich, what about Mr. Wright? Mr. Cox failed to note Mr. Wright’s church is supplying him with a $1.6 million retirement home (10,000+ ft², four bedrooms, four-car garage, etc.) on a golf course in a gated community in Tinley Park, IL. The demographics of Tinley Park? Why it’s 93% white and less than two percent black. Based on his sermons, it appears Mr. Wright subscribes to the theology of “do as I say, not as I do.”

Finally, let’s remember Mr. Obama refers to Mr. Wright as his friend, mentor, and spiritual advisor of 20 years, attended Mr. Wright’s church, and contributed monetarily to the church. Do you do all of that if you don’t share the same principles?

“Wright could have used the word ‘plutocracy,’ as did the late North Dakota Republican U.S. Sen. Richard F. Pettigrew in his 1922 book on American public life.

“Pettigrew wrote: ‘Plutocracy is a word that means rule … by and for the rich. The United States … is run by and for the rich. The rich few own the United States.’”

[RWC] Mr. Cox referred to Mr. Pettigrew as a Republican, but failed to note Mr. Pettigrew left the Republican Party for the Populist Party at least 20 years before he wrote the book (“Triumphant Plutocracy”) from which Mr. Cox pulled the quote.

“In Pettigrew’s view, that’s the way it was planned after the American Revolution fought by the lower classes of white peasants, slaves and free blacks. The conservative Constitution was worded to counteract the liberal tone of the Declaration of Independence.”

[RWC] “[W]hite peasants, slaves and free blacks” fought on both sides of the War, as did the wealthy.

“Later, as an afterthought, some liberals added the Bill of Rights for the common man. That still left a lot of problems for future generations to solve, the worst of which was slavery.”

[RWC] These last two paragraphs are hysterical as he tries to use today’s definition of “conservative” and “liberal” to describe the Founding Fathers.

To try and describe the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights as “liberal” and the Constitution as “conservative” is amazing. All of the concepts in these documents were considered liberal. At the time, strong central government like a monarchy was the norm and thus conservative. The conservatives of the day were Tories (those loyal to King George). Around the end of the 19^th/beginning of the 20^th century the meanings of conservative and liberal flip-flopped. That’s why today’s conservatism is also referred to as classical liberalism. Further, the drivers behind all of these documents were mostly the same group of men.

The Bill of Rights was not added “for the common man.” It was added for everyone to guard against too much government power, especially federal. That’s why the Ninth Amendment says, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” and the 10^th Amendment says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” People who believed as today’s leftists (liberals, progressives, etc.) believe would never have supported the Constitution or the Bill of Rights as written.

Mr. Cox does realize slavery was abolished over 140 years ago, right?