Martin Luther King Was Republican?

[PoppySeeds]

Why am I not surprised that the New Black Panthers are angry with this claim?
The second link is to the group that paid for the billboards. These people seem like a class act that has it all together.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/14/billboard-claiming-martin-luther-king-republican-angers-activists-houston/



http://www.ragingelephants.org/

[lunchlady]

Yes, he was. The Republican Party used to be friendlier to blacks than the Democrats, especially in the South. It used to be more intellectual, more interested in constitutional law, and it was the party of the Union, the abolitionists and Lincoln way back when. It was historically the party of the industrial North, while the Democrat party was historically the party of the slave-dependent and then defeated and struggling South.

That changed during the last few decades, when GOP strategists began to court the South by marketing the GOP as the party of Family Values- the Silent Majority-the Moral Majority-AntiCommunism and painting the Dems as spenders, bleeding heart liberals, soft on crime and defense, and so on. IMO this was the GOP response to the huge stain left by Nixon. They also attempted to appropriate Christianity and patriotism.

It worked pretty well, and the Base became the Republican anchor at the polls. IMO blacks shifted to the Democrat party because the racist Southern Democrats had become Southern Republicans. The fingerpointing about welfare queens and Willie Horton and the general evils of social programs also alienated blacks.

I find the billboard transparently cynical. Would MLK Jr. be a Republican today? I seriously doubt it. So why is the GOP bringing it up? Probably goes along with Steele's plan to use fried chicken and potato salad to lure blacks to the GOP. Maybe he should promise watermelon too, to make the recruitment picnic totally irresistible.

Feel free to correct me anyone if I got some detail wrong here.

[Brentwood]

Excellent post lunchlady. I think you got it right. IMO, the republicans are not going to attrack AA votes with this kind of ploy. I do not understand how some people cannot see thru such transparent carp....just unbelievable! MLK is a hero in my opinion.

[MercedesV]

Maybe the Republican Party should think about returning to some of their positions they had when King was a Republican. And retreat from the extreme ideology they rely on these days.

[PoppySeeds]

You all did look at the links and you DO know that http://www.ragingelephants.org/
is the site for black Republicans, right?
They are the ones who paid for the billboard.
And since you didn't comment about the stink the New Black Panthers and Quanell X are making about it, I will take it that you didn't read either link.

[Briar]

Yes, he was. The Republican Party used to be friendlier to blacks than the Democrats, especially in the South. It used to be more intellectual, more interested in constitutional law, and it was the party of the Union, the abolitionists and Lincoln way back when. It was historically the party of the industrial North, while the Democrat party was historically the party of the slave-dependent and then defeated and struggling South.

That changed during the last few decades, when GOP strategists began to court the South by marketing the GOP as the party of Family Values- the Silent Majority-the Moral Majority-AntiCommunism and painting the Dems as spenders, bleeding heart liberals, soft on crime and defense, and so on. IMO this was the GOP response to the huge stain left by Nixon. They also attempted to appropriate Christianity and patriotism.

It worked pretty well, and the Base became the Republican anchor at the polls. IMO blacks shifted to the Democrat party because the racist Southern Democrats had become Southern Republicans. The fingerpointing about welfare queens and Willie Horton and the general evils of social programs also alienated blacks.

I find the billboard transparently cynical. Would MLK Jr. be a Republican today? I seriously doubt it. So why is the GOP bringing it up? Probably goes along with Steele's plan to use fried chicken and potato salad to lure blacks to the GOP. Maybe he should promise watermelon too, to make the recruitment picnic totally irresistible.

Feel free to correct me anyone if I got some detail wrong
here.

Excellent post lunch lady. The GOP has turned into a multi-headed monster, IMO. They seems to have lost sight of what they stood for after Regan. It's ironic that the party that opposes homosexuality and loose morals are the ones making the news for infidelity and some of it same-sex.
Steele baffles me and reading that Alan Keyes got a judge to listen to evidence that President Obama's birth certificate is faked? I don't care who you are, diversity and any advancement that overcomes shameful intolerance seems not only a long time coming, but it's a huge move in the direction of an equal and free country. The America Martin Luther King dreamed of.

[LisaM22]

Of course he was. As were Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver and Fredrick Douglas, among others.

http://www.nbra.info/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.blackgop&x=2924855

http://www.nbra.info/MLKWasARepublican

You think JFK would have had him wiretapped if he were a democrat?

yep, the republican party has changed so much over the years, the religious right fanatics have take over, republicans need to take their party back, I wish them luck, but I wont hold my breath

[lunchlady]

Do you have any links to back up these statements, please??? :shrug:

JMHO

Here's a few.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Democrats
Gives much more detail than my oversimplification. I didn't realize that Nixon actually started the Southern Strategy; I thought it started after Tricky Dick, but I was too young to vote then...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500
Ultraconservative source, explains why blacks have fled the GOP. Also says the Dems started the KKK, among other things.

[jaxback]

Being a 50's baby boomer you will remember the Black Panthers. It turned my stomach to even see the words NEW Black Panthers. Remember the angry violence of the 70's? I wouldn't think either party would want to be affiliated with them.
IMO

And neither party is affiliated with them. The Black Panther PARTY was its own political entity, so I'm not sure why you are bringing it up. Are you trying to suggest that the Black Panthers were affiliated with the Dems? If so, you are wrong.

[lunchlady]

I love how progressives love to rewrite history so they can claim things that are untrue. MLK was a Republican because of the conservative values the Republican party holds, and he would probably still be a Republican today because of his devout pro-life stance. I don't see the Reverend being a member of the party of Margaret Sanger:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger

and Ruth Bader Ginsburg who supported abortion because:



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html


It amazes me how progressives work so hard to vilify conservatives, that they have to try and commendeer historical figures and try and get people to believe the opposite of what those people stood for.

It's like trying to make people believe that if Jesus were alive today he would be a progressive....officiating at gay marriages and marching in pro-abortion rallies.

Altering reality doesn't make it so.

Democrats believe in goverment contol over people to make provide people with an equal outcome of mediocrity.

Republicans believe in less government and personal responsibility to provide people equal access and the opportunity to acheive greatness.

There are corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle and ideologs and demogogues, but the basic concepts I put forth are the bottom line.

IMO

IMO

Only MLK Jr. could tell us how he would vote today, but I doubt he would only consider the abortion issue when he went to the voting booth. He actually tried to avoid partisan politics as much as possible. I also doubt that MLK Jr. or Jesus would be one-issue voters, or that Jesus would be interested in our two-party system at all. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be in favor of the wealthy getting wealthier though.

Speaking of rewriting history, I find the Human Events site pretty creative in that area of endeavor. Claiming superior virtue for today's GOP because of the historical connections of the Southern Democrats to slavery and secession is pretty specious. What's the next logical step in that direction? The entire episode of slavery in the New World can be blamed on Democrats? Slaveowners=Democrats=Progressives, therefore modern progressives approve of historical slavery?

[lunchlady]

I forgot to say that I agree that the history of eugenics is pretty disgraceful, especially when it led to the forced sterilization of poor black women. Sanger might have been a racist and approved of this, but I still appreciate the fact that she was a pioneer for birth control at a time when women had no tools for family planning besides abstinence, which of course didn't work well back then either, especially for married women who were expected to be totally obedient to their husbands. She saw women lose their health and even their lives from having too many children, unable to care for their children properly due to poverty, and she tried to do something about it. If she left out the important point about Choice, then she was overzealous and unethical. If a woman chooses to have more children than she can care for she is able to do that, under current law. I don't see a way to ethically prevent this, but you can educate her and offer alternatives.

Poor black and white women were sterilized as late as the 70s, sometimes without their knowledge during C-sections, and sometimes as a condition for receiving public assistance for their existing babies.

The fact that Sanger was a Democrat doesn't seem to have much to do with anything. I doubt she alone was the reason MLK Jr. and other blacks were Republicans.

[Briar]

You read something into my post that isn't there. I did notsay the Panthers were affiliated with the Dems and I did notsay that either party is affiliated with them.
IMO

Yeah that was odd. I didn't get that you were implying affiliation in any direction. Sometimes I think that people like a reason to go off. MHO

[PoppySeeds]

And neither party is affiliated with them. The Black Panther PARTY was its own political entity, so I'm not sure why you are bringing it up. Are you trying to suggest that the Black Panthers were affiliated with the Dems? If so, you are wrong.


Did NO ONE read the story? The New Black Panther Party complained about the billboard. A black republican group, Raging Elephants, paid for the bill board.
It would not be an issue at all if people actually read links that are posted.

[LisaM22]

Did NO ONE read the story? The New Black Panther Party complained about the billboard. A black republican group, Raging Elephants, paid for the bill board.
It would not be an issue at all if people actually read links that are posted.

the The New Black Panther Party is no more democrat then the kkk is republican, they are pretty much outcasts on their own, both groups have very few members, kinda like that one church, what's it called that is against gay rights and protests funerals and stuff like that

[LisaM22]

The KKK was NEVER Republican....<snip>

"Ku Klux Klan Member Elected as Republican Precinct Delegate in Midland" (2008)

http://www.mediamouse.org/news/2008/09/ku-klux-klan-me.php

but as I said "the The New Black Panther Party is no more democrat then the kkk is republican, they are pretty much outcasts on their own"

[lunchlady]

http://www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/the-kkk-endorses-john-mccain/454/

I guess its no surprise that the KKK endorsed McCain, Obama being kinda black and all.

[LisaM22]

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was KKK member and has been in the senate since 1959. What's your point?

as I said "The New Black Panther Party is no more democrat then the kkk is republican, they are pretty much outcasts on their own"

I think you have helped prove my point

[momof6]

lunchlady states that republicans used to be more friendlier to blacks. Can lunchlady provide some links?

[February]

lunchlady states that republicans used to be more friendlier to blacks. Can lunchlady provide some links?


My 83 year old uncle ( who is black) told me somethiing similiar.
I am currently reading 'Michelle' a biography by Liza Mundy.
There are a lot of insights into the democratic party in Chicago in the 40's and 50's as far as blacks are concerned.
I am a democrat and it was surprising to me.
However, we have evolved into the best party IMO. :smile:

As for the Black Panthers ( the original party) , I spent my summers in Oakland in the early 70's and ran into Huey Newton quite often. Their agenda was not politically motivated. They were socially motivated in an attempt to raise awareness for black people who they considered to be oppressed.

[lunchlady]

lunchlady states that republicans used to be more friendlier to blacks. Can lunchlady provide some links?


The two links I gave above provide a history of the Southern Democrats and how things have changed in the South and in both parties.

Here's another about the history of the two parties. There are many others out there.
http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/electoralhistory.html

IMO neither party has been all that concerned with the welfare of blacks, and both parties have often participated in disenfranchising their votes. It has probably usually been a matter of choosing the better of two evils for black voters, and mostly still is. Both parties are still dominated by whites, some of whom are perhaps kinder than in the past.
The current concern with how blacks and other non-whites vote is perhaps only because of their growing impact at the polls.

The Black Panthers solicited change for the Free Breakfast Program for years in my neighborhood in Seattle. This was before this was available at the school for qualifying kids. I never heard of any violent activity connected to them. They worked hard to get something going for black kids.