4/4/2018 9:34:34 AM · by RightGeek · 31 replies
Bizpac Review ^ | 4/2/2018 | Tom Tillison
Posted on 04/04/2018 12:02:15 PM PDT by Behind the Blue Wall
On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, if you can indulge me a quick soapbox about the political use and abuse of his legacy.
I'm not going to argue that MLK was exclusively a man of the right. He wasn't and his legacy isn't. Most of us know of his too close for comfort associations with Communists, as well as the extent to which some of his ideals and rhetoric veered off into leftist territory, particular in his later (and less successful) years.
But there is far too much that is valuable about the man and his legacy to let those things cut him off from us, particularly when they are viewed against how the left and right have evolved over the past couple of decades.
King's most influential messages were grounded in the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He was a Christian and an American patriot. The left hates all of that.
King's most famous speech called for people to be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. The left judges everyone based on skin color, and rejects all judgment of character.
King was a product of solid and grounded social institutions. When not leading civil rights demonstrations, he was preaching in his father's church, located in a neighborhood in Atlanta full of black businesses, professionals and community institutions. The left wants to destroy civil society and replace it with totalitarian government.
King's essential quest was to appeal to the Judeo-Christian moral conscience of the nation in order to expand the American dream to include everyone regardless of race, and in that he succeeded. The left believes in moral relativism, and seeks to deny the American dream to as many as possible so as to maintain their power over them.
King was not a partisan of any kind, and instead challenged the leaders of both parties to confront the great moral questions of his day. The left expands and exploits partisan divisions in order to subvert anything that might transcend them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, King is "problemmatic" for the left. He was not in any way postmodern, he believed in one God, one truth, and the difference between right and wrong. In the world we now inhabit, that makes him a "conservative".
Hmm, well I think the right looks silly when they constantly bring up King’s name. It is pandering. See, we aren’t really racist because we love MLK! It doesn’t work. The more the right grovels, the more the left and black activists dump on them.
Personally, I don’t think he was all that admirable. From what is reported, he was a womanizer, an abuser, and a plagiarist.
MLK was a proud Christian who despised PC and wanted people treated fairly. No SPECIAL TREATMENT, just fairness.
He voted Republican ever election until he was blackmailed by the Kennedy’s into supporting them.
MLK would be a proud member of the TRUMP TRAIN if he were still alive today. Infact, he may even have been a solid VP choice for Trump
The Left wants to make King into a new-age, social justice warrior. He was not - he was a Baptist Minister, and if you listen to every one of his speeches, it is a Sunday Sermon. Every speech that I have listened to is steeped in the Bible.
But King was also a socialist in many of his views - on minimum wage, on “minimum incomes” on unions, on reparations in one form or another to blacks, on affirmative action, on the size of the nanny-state, etc.... This is hardly conservative or right wing.
Every man contains contradictions, even more so the most famous ones.
Too many of “his people” have rejected that content of character thing.
Yes, that’s the kind of argument that I’m writing against. I’ve not heard anything re: abuse, but yes, there are allegations of extramarital affairs and of plagiarism. In my view, they are insignificant relative to the good things. I love Trump, but can accept that he’s clearly not been perfect in his marriages, and likely not even in his business affairs.
And yes, appealing to King could be seen as pandering, but I don’t think so. His leadership, and the movement he led, did help correct a certain degree of mismatch between our founding ideals and our actual practices (caused mostly by Democrats not coincidentally). In doing so, in my view, they reinforced the power of those founding ideals, and thus contributed substantially to the greatness of America.
King was turning left the last several years of his life. There’s plenty of interviews out there where you can listen to him regurgitate leftist platitudes.
“society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”
But he didn’t actually say “affirmative action” or something.
I agree with you.
I don't embrace MLK in all the things that are leftist about him including his socialist leanings and alleged communist influences, but I do embrace his non-racist viewpoints on race relations.
I do have a problem with the use of him by the Left as an icon. It isn't that I don't think he is a worthy icon, I despise the use of him as a racial cudgel and the way that they use him, which I believe is detrimental to race relations.
From what I know of MLK, his views were largely based in Christian love, not racial hate. But when we see his memory invoked these days, it doesn't seem like there is much love there, and much hate.
Winston Churchill, one of the greatest men of the 20th Century, is a good example of a great man with flaws.
Full disclosure: I embrace his flaws, because it makes him so much more interesting...:) Smokes...drinks...swears...eats bad food...is occasionally stubborn, stupid, dense, and wrong. In other words...he is like many of us!
Now I have. Thanks! That’s a great example of what I’m talking about. We should not cede that territory.
Yes, and the more he turned left, the more unsuccessful and depressed he became.
True, way too many.
MLK was not a Christian. In his own words he did not believe in the deity of Christ, the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection.
His private life was a mess.
Winston Churchill is my favorite person from the 20th Century.
If by “Right” you mean Republican Party and “Left” the Democrats spare me the drama.
The two phony baloney Uniparties were King’s enemies. He worked outside of them like all of us should.
After his death Jesse Jackson talked of a third party but so many people associated with “Civil Rights” sold out to the Democrats and the big business elites in the end including Jesse Jackson.
Too late.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.