The Greenville News - Cox's Ideas Struggle Toward the Light

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The Greenville News - Cox's Ideas Struggle Toward the Light

Dan Hoover

John Yossarian, had he been a flesh-and-blood guy and not a fictional character, would have identified with John Cox.

The protagonist in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 would have identified with the intrepid, but little-known Republican presidential candidate, who faces his own Catch-22 in seeking a stage in big-time politics.

Cox, 52, a self-made Chicago businessman-accountant-lawyer up from a southside Chicago housing project, is a blip, if he's even included in presidential polling. Consequently, when nationally televised debates are held, he isn't invited.

"They tell me they're watching the polls and if I move (up), they'll see, but how can I move up in the polls if I can't get in the debates?" Cox told The Greenville News in an interview earlier this week.

He may be unknown to most primary voters, but he's neither inactive nor lacking in policy initiatives.

Cox says he made 26 trips to Iowa, 16 to New Hampshire and 12 to South Carolina, all early primary states, and expects to spend perhaps $1.2 million on his effort.

That's a good night's work for most of the top-tier candidates, who, Cox says, get the media's attention while much of a public weary of the "corrupting influence" of career politicians prefers "none of the above."

After 20 years of the families Bush and Clinton running the White House, Cox said, "the country is ready for somebody else. What could be better than to have a president like me, who started with nothing and made a fortune. That's an American story."

Like his better-known competitors, Cox has his own ideas for a better America.

The self-described evangelical Catholic says he's "pro-life without exception, supports the development of alternative fuels and increased domestic drilling, immediate disclosure of political donations along with repeal of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, and elimination of the IRS and Departments of Education and Commerce.

The problem in Iraq, Cox says, is undue focus on the military and not enough on that country's economy.

The United States must develop internal support from the Iraqi citizenry, such as it enjoys among Kurds in the relatively peaceful and prosperous north, he said.

"It's one thing to kill the bad guys, but if we're killing the bad guys and making people suffer," Washington's policy becomes counterproductive.

Cox said the U.S. must implement policies that will restore Iraq's oil production and with it, a viable economy and improved quality of life that will cause people to fall away from terrorism and sectarian violence.

Speaking of the Kurds, Cox said, "They think we're the best thing since sliced bread, because they're prosperous, the people are working. It's paradise compared to what goes on in Anwar and Fallujah (where) the electricity hardly works, the water hardly works.

"Yeah, we're going house-to-house killing bad guys, but let's replace it with some prosperity," he said.

Cox says stand a few CEOs before a judge and send them to prison for hiring illegal aliens and "you won't have any more problem. The jobs will disappear, forcing the 12 million illegal immigrants to return home, he says, then, Washington can focus on processing the millions of people who are legally seeking to enter the U.S.

"A fence sounds great if you're in San Diego, but a $1 billion fence across the desert is not going to do the job if you're not going to enforce the law," Cox said.

He would attack the cost of health care and uninsured families through a variety of means.

"You've got to reduce the cost," he said, embracing the concept of private-sector neighborhood mini-clinics and injecting increased patient and doctor choice into the system to increase accountability. Also, ending tax deductions for employee health insurance will increase patient choice and consumer power, bringing down treatment costs and insurance premiums, he says.

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