Rich Laughlin – 12/21/05

This page was last updated on December 22, 2005.

No reason to enshrine Reagan; Rich Laughlin; Beaver County Times; December 21, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Letter writer Michael Alberico (‘Reagan deserves much more,’ Friday) is indignant that someone would object to enshrining Ronald Reagan’s face on the dime.

“In fact, he claims that anyone who doesn’t share his obvious hero worship of Reagan must be brainwashed.”

[RWC] Mr. Laughlin needs glasses or reading lessons. Mr. Alberico wrote that Mr. Gaona was “a consumer of brainwash” because Mr. Gaona wrote, “I can’t think of anything that Reagan did as president to impress the American people.”

That said, Mr. Alberico shouldn’t have stooped to the liberal level and gotten into the equivalent of name-calling.

“He cites the destruction of the PATCO union and the institution of macro-economic government policies, i.e., the shipment of American jobs overseas, as examples of Reagan’s accomplishments.”

[RWC] Mr. Alberico didn’t use the PATCO firings as an example of President Reagan’s accomplishments. He merely responded to Mr. Gaona’s whining on the topic.

To be honest, I don’t know what Messrs. Alberico and Laughlin mean by “macro-economic government policies.” I believe you’ll find President Reagan’s main tool to get the economy moving again was reducing taxes. As happens every time it is tried, the economy took off after the tax cuts. If President Reagan shipped American jobs overseas, how did Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate drop from a high of 11.8% to 5.1% by the time he left office? Nationally, unemployment dropped from a peak of 10.8% to 5.4%.

“In that he is correct. Reagan was a heck of a union buster, the worst thing to happen to organized labor, and unorganized labor for that matter, since the Robber Barons.”

[RWC] PATCO busted itself. By contract and law, PATCO was forbidden from striking. The PATCO strike was illegal and the union members paid for the poor choice made by union management. Labor union management is “the worst thing to happen to organized labor.”

I suspect Mr. Laughlin believes labor unions are above the law, especially during a strike.

“On the other hand, he was absolutely great for big business and the very rich.”

[RWC] Ah, the class warfare strategy.

“The end result of his administration’s agenda was the beginning of a downward spiral of the American working class, and the Bush administration is pushing that same agenda, only now to levels that amount to class warfare.”

[RWC] I guess Mr. Laughlin forgets what it was like when President Reagan took office. Internationally, our enemies had become emboldened during the Carter years and began flexing their muscles in Afghanistan, Iran, and Central America. Carter even gave away the Panama Canal. At home, we had stagflation as a result of Carter policies. This resulted in double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, and 17% mortgage rates. All of those problems were greatly improved by the time President Reagan left office.

Regarding use of the term “working class,” don’t the vast majority of Americans belong to the working class, whether they are poor or rich? I could be wrong, but I believe the number of people who don’t need to work is trivial.

Class warfare? Is Mr. Laughlin kidding? Class warfare is a major tactic of leftists like Mr. Laughlin and he even used it in the previous paragraph. That’s why they’re always grouping people and trying to use the “us vs. them” strategy.

“I assume Alberico must be a high-level corporate executive or a very rich investor who’s profiting from these GOP policies.”

[RWC] Here’s another example of Mr. Laughlin himself using the class warfare tactic.

Louisiana has been completely controlled by Democrats for nearly a century. Perhaps Mr. Laughlin can explain why Louisiana is not the paradise it should be given the Democrat control.

“If not, he looks like a dupe, rooting for the people who are beating him up.”

[RWC] Since we have a Republican president and so-called Republicans control Congress, Mr. Laughlin apparently believes over 50% of Americans are either very rich or dupes.