Lonzie Cox – 9/29/09

This page was last updated on October 1, 2009.

Let’s have ‘liberty and justice for all’; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; September 29, 2009. I am not related to Mr. Cox.

Most of Mr. Cox’s 40+ letters since 2004 are tinged with race. This letter continues the trend.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Since President Harry Truman proposed national health care, we have had 11 presidents.

“Never before have Americans shown real interest in health care. There were no demonstrators with guns, no Hitler moustaches or witch-doctor signs disrespecting presidents or threatening their families.

“Nothing.”

[RWC] If “Never before have Americans shown real interest in health care,” perhaps Mr. Cox can explain why a Democrat-majority Congress (both House and Senate) defeated Hillarycare in the 1990s. Hint: It wasn’t because congressional Democrats didn’t want a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system.

During the Bush administration, folks on Mr. Cox’s side of the aisle routinely referred to Mr. Bush as Hitler. Let’s also not forget the books, movies, and plays that described the assassination of Mr. Bush. FYI, the vast majority of people depicting President Obama as Hitler come from Lyndon LaRouche supporters, on Mr. Cox’s side of the aisle. As for the “demonstrators with guns” charge, the only picture I saw was of a black man carrying a sidearm on his belt. Was this guy a racist?

Finally, as other lefties, Mr. Cox appears to believe the demonstrations are one-topic events. In this case, Mr. Cox believes the demonstrations are only about a government-run healthcare system. Earlier this week another lefty told us they were only about taxes.

“So what changed? Barack Obama beat John McCain and sent Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their followers spinning out of control, using inflammatory, racist language that was always off limits toward presidents.”

[RWC] I regularly listen to the Limbaugh show and occasionally drop in on the Beck shows. I’ve never heard either man say anything that could remotely be construed to be “racist language.” Regarding “using inflammatory … language,” did Mr. Cox ever listen to folks like Lynn Cullen, Chris Matthews, et cetera during the Bush administration?

“The Constitution allowed the importation of slaves until 1808. Official slavery morphed into Civil War, with lynching and discrimination persisting until today. That’s institutional racism.”

[RWC] “Lynching” continues “until today?” Where? Does anyone want to bet Mr. Cox doesn’t consider so-called “affirmative action” and “diversity” laws to be “institutional racism?”

You’ll note Mr. Cox fails to note it was primarily fellow Democrats who weren’t exactly “colorblind.” As a reminder, Democrats watered down the 1957 Civil Rights Act and filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“So when Jimmy Carter called the phony health-care protests racism-inspired, it rings true. Born into the apartheid system of Jim Crow, Carter knows racism when he sees it.

“The year 2009 one day may be known as the year we lost our collective mind, and Carter emerged as the bravest and wisest American left in politics, with no help from top Democrats who are scrambling to distance themselves from his remarks.”

[RWC] Oh please. During his presidency, I felt Jimmy Carter was an honorable man who meant well but simply wasn’t up to the job. Given his behavior in recent years, I now view Jimmy Carter as simply another bitter partisan without the class befitting a former president.

It turns out Mr. Cox’s hero is now claiming he did not say what he said. During a 10/1/09 interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, she accurately paraphrased Mr. Carter’s comment and asked him about it. Mr. Carter responded, “No, it wasn’t. If you read the remarks carefully, you’ll see that’s not what I said. I said those that had a personal vituperative attack [sic] on- on President Obama as a person- that was tinged with racism, but I recognize that people who disagree with him on health care or the environment, things like that- the vast majority of those are not tinged by racism.” The problem for Mr. Carter is the transcript says he said, “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

“America should stop shrieking and strive to actually be a nation where ‘liberty and justice for all’ really means something.

“And those who don’t want health care should be allowed to suffer without it. Let them eat aspirin.”

[RWC] Who doesn’t “want health care?” What most of us don’t want is a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system. It’s too bad Mr. Cox won’t admit there’s a difference. It’s like when people claim those on the right don’t want clean air and water when we oppose lefty environmental programs.