Contrary to what too many Republicans & Conservatives say, if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today he not be one of them; he would instead be engaged in all out war against the Republican Party and all things Conservative His own words bear this out. On the matter of voting rights which the GOP is trying to suppress for people of color Dr. King wrote:
"“So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote, I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others.”
The Republican Party and the Far Right of today is opposed to Unions & Labor whereas Dr. King was firmly on the side of both. In response to the Union busting efforts of his time he said:
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone. Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights."
Republicans like to say that by being a Christian Dr. King would be against a woman's right to choose and speak out against Planned Parenthood. Really? Well Planned Parenthood certainly did not see Dr. King as an enemy when it awarded him its first series of Margaret Sanger Awards in 1966 at which point Dr. King said of Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive rights:
“For the Negro, therefore, intelligent guides of family planning are a profoundly important ingredient in his quest for security and a decent life. There are mountainous obstacles still separating Negroes from a normal existence. Yet one element in stabilizing his life would be an understanding of and easy access to the means to develop a family related in size to his community environment and to the income potential he can command.”
Republicans/Conservatives today not only oppose the abolition of the death penalty but are calling for its expansion and a shortening of the appeal process that is designed to prevent an innocent from being executed. Here's what Dr. King said about the death penalty:
“I do not think God approves the death penalty for any crime — rape and murder included. Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.”
Now of course the Republicans say that the GOP & Conservatives were the ones behind the progressive civil rights legislation of the 1960's and that it was the Democrats who were the real racists who opposed it. Well Dr. King certainly didn't think so. Reflecting back on the 1964 presidential election he wrote:
"The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism. All people of goodwill viewed with alarm and concern the frenzied wedding at the Cow Palace of the KKK with the radical right. The “best man” at this ceremony was a senator whose voting record, philosophy, and program were anathema to all the hard-won achievements of the past decade. Senator Goldwater had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated. On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal.
While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy." This sort of sounds like the Republican leadership of today, doesn't it?
This being so, would Dr. King now be a Republican and support the GOP's agenda? Not according to what he said here. Finally what did Dr. King think of the Conservatives patron saint Ronald Reagan who openly contemplated running for president in 1968? Well looking ahead to that prospect in the final months of his life, Dr. King didn't sound all that enthusiastic about the prospect of a Reagan presidency writing:
"When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor can become a leading war hawk candidate for the Presidency, only the irrationalities induced by a war psychosis can explain such a melancholy turn of events."
So Dr. King would be a Republican today and support the GOP's agenda. Not according to him. He would be at war with the Republican Party and all things Conservatives and for proof we need only look at his own words.
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