The radical as conservative
- From: jose <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:07:52 -0800 (PST)
The radical as conservative
January 21, 2008
By Paul Greenberg - History is up to its old tricks again. The radical
agitator of one generation becomes the conservative icon of another.
Martin Luther King Jr. meets the very definition of an American
conservative -- someone dedicated to preserving the gains of a liberal
revolution.
Even when he was leading the civil rights movement, what appeal could
have been more conservative or more American than his now classic
speech before the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963?
"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and
frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation
will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a
dream that my four little 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."
Is any passage cited more often against the quota system called
affirmative action? Is any passage so clear a call for what
conservative presidential candidates always seem to call for --
character?
Even then Martin Luther King's words sounded conservative to those
with ears to hear and minds to comprehend, for his message was rooted
in traditional values. No wonder the young black radicals of the 1960s
used to deride him as De Lawd. It was a toss-up whether his politics
or his religion offended them more; the two were inseparable in his
case.
To watch this black Baptist preacher out of Alabama on the old, black-
and-white television tapes as he describes his very American dream is
to realize how easily his ideas could have come from a conservative
political tract -- if only conservative political tracts were better
written. Nothing was clearer about Dr. King's dream than the
transformation of political struggle into morality tale. That explains
his effectiveness. He appealed to a common moral ground.
There were always those who thought of Dr. King's sermons as just
window dressing for his social aims. They had it backward. His
religious ideas compelled him to make the case for social and
political change, and seek to create what he called The Beloved
Community.
"Black and white together," the demonstrators used to sing. You don't
hear that song much any more. That may explain why the civil rights
movement stopped moving. It became infected with much the same racial
myopia it had fought, only with the colors reversed. (Black Power.)
After he was gone, a new black intelligentsia arose that knew not
Martin. His would not be the name embroidered on the baseball caps of
another generation. The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. would give
way to the frustrations of a Malcolm X, the demagoguery of a Louis
Farrakhan, and the general hucksterism of the Al Sharptons and Jesse
Jacksons.
Today, any black leaders who don't adhere to the party line -- a Ward
Connerly or Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell -- are called traitors to
their race. Others are dismissed as "not black enough" because they
reach out to all of us. This is the new racism, and it needs to be
called such.
A new intolerance divides us by Race and Gender, and into Minority and
Majority. It strives to make many out of one. It's called
multiculturalism, and it reverses that most American of mottos: E
Pluribus Unum.
But the light can be blinked only so long. John Marshall Harlan's old
ideal of a colorblind Constitution still shines and begins to be
reflected in Supreme Court decisions -- and in a general American
indifference to racial appeals. Barack Obama runs for president not as
a black candidate but as one more choice, and does well. Indeed, he
demonstrates daily that a black presidential candidate can be as
vacuous as any other. It's progress of a sort.
You can tell a lot about an age by the heroes it chooses. While the
Malcolms and Farrakhans come and go in favor, Martin Luther King Jr.
remains the standard by which all other leaders are measured, and not
just black leaders. That's a hopeful sign.
Paul Greenberg is a nationally syndicated columnist.
.
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