Published: January 23, 2008 11:36 pm            

LUCINSKI: MLK and the GOP? Think about it

It’s a few days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s fashionable in our society to gorge ourselves in the moment, then turn the page and quickly move on to something else. Just ask the folks who run food banks. They get all sorts of donations around the holidays, then wonder where all those donors went the rest of the year. People do eat 365 (this year, 366) days a year, you know.

We do that with other holidays as well. But since this is being written on the day we honor Dr. King, here’s one more thought. It’s probably the last you’ll read about him until next January.

It’s somewhat dangerous for an old, white guy from the suburbs to comment on the experience of blacks in this nation. It, of course, is because we’ve never walked in the shoes of those who have a steeper hill to climb from day one simply because of their skin tone.

But, at the risk of being politically incorrect, here’s a thought that might shake you up a bit: If he were still with us, Dr. King would be a Republican.

What? Wait a minute. Isn’t the GOP the party of rich white folks? More than 90 percent of African-Americans either vote for, are registered as or at least identify with Democrats. Why on earth would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his life in the service of the oppressed and downtrodden, give two thoughts to Republican ideals and philosophy?

It has little to do with the fact that Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, was a Republican. It has a lot to do with the philosophy and teachings of another GOP icon who came along much later: Ronald Reagan.

Reagan preached true equal opportunity; that all men and women should be free from the shackles of any form of restrictions (as long as what they do is legal and harms no one else) to pursue their goals. That doesn’t mean success should be handed to an individual. The theory is that the person should work to earn it: That which is earned is cherished.

How is that any different from one of the most critical, yet often ignored, lines from Dr. King’s most famous address, his “I Have a Dream” speech? Let’s refresh our memories:

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Delivered in Washington in August 1963, this was not a call for special treatment. This was not a call for quotas and set asides or for reversing inequality by instituting more inequality in the other direction. It is a call for true justice.

Now that’s not to say that, as a part of the process, minorities didn’t deserve some help along the way. After centuries of being kicked and knocked down and held back and worse, those discriminated against needed a boost, especially in the areas of education and measures that made it clear that their citizenship must be on equal footing with all other Americans.

But when is the time for extensive affirmative action programs to expire? At this point, they serve only as a crutch for those afraid to stand on their own. Birds eventually must fly from the nest in order to live as adults, on their own and self-sufficient. So it is with free people.

A number of states have voted to end affirmative action; there are initiatives on the ballots in more states this year designed to do the same. More and more the attitude is that showing preference by race is simply discrimination of another form and that no form of discrimination is acceptable.

Would Dr. King really be a Republican? Hhis thoughts on standing tall and being responsible for one’s actions are consistent with Reagan’s. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Judging by the content of one’s character seem to have been lost in the shuffle these days. We need an inspirational figure like Dr. King to keep that dream alive and to set us straight.

Dick Lucinski is the managing editor of the Niagara Gazette.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.