This page was last updated on January 8, 2012.
Don’t give Reagan so much credit; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; April 13, 2011. I am not related to Mr. Cox.
Most of Mr. Cox’s at least 64 letters since 2004 are tinged with race, and all take leftist positions.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“This year is the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth and the 30th anniversary of his being shot, which has started yet another phony round of Republican Reagan worship.”
[RWC] Does anyone care to get which anniversary Mr. Cox will celebrate? Mr. Reagan appears to scare the daylights out of Mr. Cox. This is at least the 10th letter from Mr. Cox since 2004 attempting to smear Mr. Reagan. The previous letters are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
“His supporters honor the man who destroyed us industrially and unleashed the media hate we see in our country today by his elimination of the Federal Communications Commission’s Fairness Doctrine from 1949.”
[RWC] As for the “destroyed us industrially” comment, this is at least the seventh time since 2004 Mr. Cox made this claim, usually referring to the steel industry in particular.
As for the misnamed Fairness Doctrine (FD), Mr. Cox complained about this in “Media encourage misinformation.” Note Mr. Cox didn’t tell us how eliminating the FD “unleashed the media hate we see in our country today.” I suspect you’ll find Mr. Cox’s definition of “media hate” is when a person expresses non-leftist positions.
“What about Reagan starting his first presidential campaign promoting ‘states rights’ at the 1964 Mississippi murder site of three civil rights workers to show his personal disregard towards civil rights? What about Reagan visiting a cemetery for Nazi war criminals?”
[RWC] The speech to which Mr. Cox refers was not at the start of Mr. Reagan’s “first presidential campaign.” Mr. Cox may forget Mr. Reagan ran for president in 1976 but incumbent Gerald Ford got the Republican nomination instead. Mr. Reagan didn’t give this speech until after his 1980 nomination.
As a reminder, lefties like to claim supporting “states rights” is code for supporting discrimination. Those same lefties also like to ignore most of the officials who supported discrimination, segregation, et cetera were Democrats and more Republicans than Democrats supported key civil rights legislation.
The “Reagan visiting a cemetery for Nazi war criminals” comment is a smear, and Mr. Cox likely knows it. Mr. Cox is referring to Mr. Reagan’s visit to Germany’s Bitburg military cemetery in 1985 as part of an itinerary set up by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Among the approximately 2,000 German soldiers buried at Bitburg, approximately 49 were SS. You can argue about whether a U.S. president should visit a cemetery for previous enemy soldiers, but to imply the visit was somehow to celebrate “Nazi war criminals” is a smear.
“He was also against environmentalism, conservation and women’s rights.”
[RWC] Wow, Mr. Cox sure gave a lot of examples! <g> Was this before or after Mr. Reagan nominated the first woman (Sandra Day O’Connor) to the U.S. Supreme Court?
“Reagan’s worst legacy, though, was the long-term damage his policies have done to American workers and their jobs, which is still being felt by the unemployed - and massive tax cuts for the already rich.”
[RWC] Which Reagan administration policies did “long-term damage … to American workers and their jobs?”
As for the “massive tax cuts for the already rich,” that’s the same lefty BS we heard about the George W. Bush tax rate cuts, only to have Democrats backtrack when the time came to let the Bush tax rates expire. What President Reagan and Congress did was cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 50% in 1982, to 38.5% in 1987, and to 28% in 1988. At the same time, some deductions, exemptions, tax shelters, et cetera were eliminated. As always happens, cutting tax rates increases economic activity because people get to keep more of what they earn. It’s simple human behavior; they more you get to keep, the more you will produce. As a result, lower tax RATES result in greater tax revenue because the lower rate applies to a bigger pie. For example, 40% of a 10” pie is 25% more pie than 50% of an 8” pie. Further, these changes result in “the rich” paying a greater portion of total income taxes. That’s what happened with the Reagan tax RATE cuts just as it did with the Bush tax RATE cuts. Whether or not lefties know this to be the case, they can’t admit it because it goes against their class warfare tactic.
“Also, the credit often given Reagan for ending the Cold War is a big lie. Mikhail Gorbachev of the U.S.S.R. chose to take his country out of the Cold War, thereby ending that historic waste of lives and money. Reagan leaped on the bandwagon. He couldn’t have a Cold War by himself.”
[RWC] It’s a tough call to know if the “credit often given Reagan for ending the Cold War is a big lie” comment is primarily anti-Reagan or anti-U.S. You see, many (most?) U.S. lefties actually admired the USSR just as today they admire communist countries like Cuba and leftist strongmen like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. For example, I heard an interview of a famous actor who still believes the Soviet Union could have been a “success.” When asked why he believed the USSR and the rest of the Soviet bloc failed, the actor gave two reasons. First, the actor claimed we simply didn’t give the Soviets enough time. Second, the actor blamed the United States (naturally) and a few of its true allies. You see, the actor believed the Soviets could have “succeeded” if they didn’t have to compete/keep up with the free world. Even if you accept the idea “Gorbachev … chose to take his country out of the Cold War,” it was the Cold War equivalent of Germany or Japan surrendering in WWII. When an entity (USSR) based on your ideological principles fails, you can’t admit those principles and your ideological opposition (U.S.) were the reasons. You have to say something like “Mikhail Gorbachev of the U.S.S.R. chose to take his country out of the Cold War.” I suspect Mr. Cox really meant “U.S.” where he wrote “Reagan,” but recognized that wouldn’t go over well outside his ideological brethren.
“Reagan leaped on the bandwagon?” Mr. Reagan gave his “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech on June 12, 1987, and left office in January 1989. The Berlin Wall didn’t begin to come down until November 1989 and the USSR didn’t go out of business until December 1991, shortly after an attempted coup. Isn’t it a little hard to jump on a bandwagon before the bandwagon exists?
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.