…or, as we’ve come to call it in recent years, annual White Conservatives Attempt To Co-Opt Dr. King’s Legacy Day.
A conservative is a man who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead.
~ Leo Rosten
Ever since Glenn Beck tried to hijack the March on Washington/I Have A Dream anniversary in 2010 for his ludicrous “Restoring Honor” rally, however, it’s clear that modern, FOX News-fed conservatives have, in fact, progressed…in that they now no longer feel the need to wait centuries before praising (and trying to co-opt) dead radicals; they’ve whittled the time-span down to decades. Yay, progress!
However, since one of the main GOP pastimes (after repealing Obamacare and yelling “Benghazi!!!!”) seems to be claiming that Martin Luther King was a Republican – or at least would’ve been sympathetic to today’s conservative agenda – it seems worthwhile on the day we celebrate his memory to allow Dr. King’s own words to speak for themselves on the matter.
For that, I will turn it over to my friend, the excellent Terry Canaan at Griper News, in a post composed entirely of both brief and lengthy passages of King’s own words entitled I believe MLK spoke for all Republicans when he said… A taste:
Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.
~ May 1965 speech to the Negro American Labor Council.
Go read the whole post; it’s not only entirely worth your time on this particular day, I would describe it as near-mandatory in the face of GOP revisionism to recall what made this man a titan of justice.
Joan Walsh in Salon and Igor Volsky at Think Progress also have must-read pieces today on not allowing the right to whitewash the real Dr. King