Monday, August 25, 2008

Obama is Not MLK's Dream

Something to keep in mind as the media no doubt will invoke Martin Luther King during the course of the Democratic convention.



Vis the National Black Republican Association:


Forty-five years ago, on August 28, 1963, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican and embraced the traditional values that made this country great delivered his inspirational civil rights "I Have a Dream" speech.

Today, Senator Barack Obama, with the most liberal voting record in the US Senate, is delivering his political acceptance speech, in an apparent attempt to assume for himself the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King did not embrace the type of secularist agenda promoted by Obama and the Democratic Party of today, which includes fostering dependency on welfare that breaks up families, supporting same-sex marriage and partial-birth abortion, and banning God from the public square.

Obama is no MLK!

4 comments:

Straadin said...

I don't think it matters what MLK's political leanings were. The fact that a black man can get this far in the process is the realization of his dream. Whether or not MLK would agree with Obama's positions is largely irrelevant, unless Obama all of a sudden starts supporting things like black supremacy.

Straadin said...

As an addendum, I'm not trying to imply that MLK would or wouldn't vote for Obama. I believe it's fully possible for MLK to be happy Obama is running, and yet still vote against him if indeed he does disagree with Obama's positions (which of course we'll never know).

kazoolist said...

I agree there seems to be something inherently good about having an African American at the top of one ticket and a woman on the other ticket. There is some notion of progress for women and blacks that this represents.

I think the same can be said of high level appointments Bush has made, such as the first and second African American Secretaries of State (the second of which was also a woman), the first Hispanic Attorney General, and so forth. Those get a lot less fanfare though.

But what I really look forward to, and what I believe MLK's dream truly is, is when gender and race truly don't matter in these arenas. When no one would care that Obama's black and no one would care that Palin is a woman. That will be the day we judge "[not by the] color of their skin but by the content of their character." I think MLK would be disappointed by how many voters will wind up voting for or against Obama simply because he's black.

What I find really irritating though is the notion that Obama, simply because of his skin color, is somehow better positioned to further realize MLK's dream than McCain would be. MLK's values were that of traditional American values. His appeal was made based on the Declaration of Independence and was for civil rights extending from the promise of basic freedoms. McCain shares these traditional values as much, if not more than, Obama.

Anonymous said...

Actually, MLK was a Christian Democratic Socialist:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/169/169_street_mlk_democratic_socialist.html

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/50151/

He originally registered as a Republican back in the early 50's when he first registered to vote. That was also when the Republicans were still thought of as the Party of Lincoln (the progressive Radical Republicans) and the Party of Eisenhower. However, by the 60's he no longer agreed with the Republicans because he grew to have strong anti-war views, anti-death penalty views and by 1964 he no longer believed in capitalism. He also did not like the Republicans or the Democrats' lack of concern for economic equality or social/economic justice. He condemned the Vietnam War and built the "Poor People's Campaign" before he died (which fell apart shortly after he died) which would have mobilized poor and working class blacks and whites against capitalism on religiously ecumenical values. MLK was called a "Communist sympathizer" by the so-called 'liberal' New York Times for condemning the Vietnam War as imperialist and saying it is reminiscent of America's founding on genocide of the Native Americans. The COINTELPRO hated MLK and actively conspired against him to undermine him with Black conservatives who were against most civil rights goals.


So this myth about MLK being a Republican is a lie fostered by Republican agents as an attempt (that has so far failed) to get black voters to vote for (current Neoconservative) Republicans and link the Republicans with the Civil Rights movement.