Alex Yawor – 9/13/07

This page was last updated on October 6, 2007.

Blame the GOP for NAFTA; Alex Yawor; Beaver County Times; September 13, 2007.

Mr. Yawor’s previous letters attempted to bash President Bush regarding Iraq and Iran, and VP Cheney regarding his hunting accident. In a July 2006 letter, Mr. Yawor implied if you support our action in Iraq, you are “eager to send our young to die in Iraq.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Letter writer Paul Kahr is a friend of mine, but I cannot let his letter go unanswered (‘Liberals damaging America,’ Monday).

“I agree that Bill Clinton was president at the time of the NAFTA agreement, but that is as far as it goes with that big mistake.”

[RWC] Not exactly. Check your history, and you’ll find Mr. Clinton made passage of NAFTA a priority for his administration.

“In 1992, daddy Bush negotiated to create a free trade zone ‘from the Yukon to the Yucatan.’ That covers land from Alaska to the southern tip of Mexico and everything in between.

[RWC] “[D]addy Bush?” Geez, talk about tacky.

“U.S. Rep. David Bonior, a Democrat, pleaded to stop NAFTA. He said, ‘It will cost jobs. It will drive down our standard of living. If we do not stand up for the working people in this country, who is going to?’

“He also said, ‘Whose side are we on? Are we on the side of the Fortune 500? Or are we on the side of the unfortunate 500,000 who will lose jobs because of this agreement?’”

[RWC] And none of those dire predictions came about, did they Mr. Yawor?

“What did Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich do? He rallied House Republicans to support NAFTA by saying, ‘This is a vote for history, larger than politics, larger than reelection, larger than personal ego.’

“If my friend would have gone back in history and checked on the voting for NAFTA, he would have found that the conservatives, not the liberals, passed this agreement - 132 Republicans and 102 Democrats for and 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans and 1 independent against.”

[RWC] Mr. Yawor makes the mistake of equating conservatives and Republicans.

“This vote shows that the Republicans were overwhelmingly for the agreement. Case closed.”

[RWC] “Case closed?” Not exactly. As I noted in my critique of a similar letter, NAFTA was passed and signed in 1993 and at the time Democrats had the majority in both the House (258-176) and the Senate (56-44). If Democrats were so dead set against NAFTA, Republicans could have voted unanimously in favor of NAFTA and it still would not have passed. Though he provided the figure, Mr. Yawor skimmed over the fact 102 (40%) House Democrats voted for NAFTA.

“This liberal does not lay awake at night thinking what he can do to damage this country, and I do not think any others do.”

[RWC] Kudos to Mr. Yawor for identifying himself as a liberal. Too many liberals (socialists) try to hide behind labels like “centrist,” “moderate,” “progressive,” et cetera.

“But we do stay awake thinking how the next president, Democrat or Republican, is going to fix the mess that the present president has put this great country of ours in.”

[RWC] Note Mr. Yawor didn’t describe “the mess.” Why is it so hard for folks like Mr. Yawor to provide details backing up their innuendo?