In this week's Nashville Scene, reporter Jeff Woods quotes the curator of the National Civil Rights Museum as saying that King "leaned" toward a "more liberal" party affiliation. Last Friday, I posted a quote from King's writings showing that King explicitly advocated alliances between African-Americans and "liberals." That's more than just leaning.
However, it is not clear given the way that today's Democratic Party is accommodating to conservatives (via Blue Dogs and the DLC) and retreating from the title of "liberal" that there would have been a critical mass of liberals left in the party with whom King could ally were he alive today.
Have you noticed the PR onslaught by the GOP to paint the Dem Party as racist? I guess it was inevitable, since a direct attack on Obama is problematic for them...but they are so heavy handed about it, its almost comical.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are on to the real purpose of TNGOP's recent MLK campaign: they are trying to inoculate themselves from charges of racism when they attack Obama by fabricating the myth that King was a Republican.
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