As the United States honors Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), the American Left has been comprehensively engaged in dismantling his work, belief system, and legacy. MLK believed in America and embraced her exceptionalism creed. Equality under the law, in a colorblind society, was what the civil rights activist peacefully fought for. Black Lives Matter (BLM), the Biden-Harris administration, the Democratic Party, Marxist Critical Race Theory (CRT) pundits, and corporate media are just some of leftism’s entourage that antithetically seek to deconstruct MLK’s dream.
There are vast philosophical, epistemological, and methodological differences between the civil rights movement that MLK founded and lead, and the socialist revolution that CRT activists conspire to bring about. The Left’s source of knowledge that underpins its actions are worlds apart from MLK’s. The BLM’s strategy for dealing with perceived deficiencies in race relations contradicts the Baptist minister’s mode of challenging the system.
MLK was not a communist. In his 1957 book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, a chronicle of the nonviolent account of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, MLK flatly rejected Marx and Engels’ “scientific socialism.” “Man becomes hardly more, in communism,” he wrote, “than a depersonalized cog in the turning wheel of the state.” Revealing not just a repudiation of the practical consequences of communism, MLK pointed to epistemological sources of the sociopolitical doctrine that made it irreconcilable with his worldview.
“I rejected their materialistic interpretation of history,” added MLK in the cited classic. “Communism, avowedly secularistic and materialistic, has no place for God. This I could never accept, for as a Christian, I believe that there is a creative personal power in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality — a power that cannot be explained in materialistic terms.” MLK’s deep Christian roots placed him in the same supernaturalist, transcendental realm as the Founding Fathers. Natural Law, America’s moral underpinning, is at the base of the Declaration of Independence, as well as all the previous covenants that argued for self-governmental, consensual rule, under the guidance of Providence. MLK was adamant about this.
“Since for the Communist there is no divine government,” he reasserted, “this type of relativism [is] was abhorrent to me.” MLK repeated the commitment to work within the existing American political order to better it, not to overthrow it. Echoing Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address, a great hero to the civil rights leader, the hallmark “I Have a Dream Speech”, is laden with parallels to America’s founding documents, its Natural Rights origination, and the need to make better the American Creed, not destroy it.
Yes, MLK did oppose the Vietnam War. Also, he favored welfare-state programs to address material disparities. This, however, does not align him with socialism. Many liberals (in the American context) and some conservatives opposed the war in Indochina, not for ideological sympathy for the communists. Many opposed it as a nascent critique of what today is known as “nation-building.” Otto von Bismarck introduced the world’s first welfare-state laws and benefits scheme. The German statesman was conservative and religious.
Yes, MLK did oppose the Vietnam War. Also, he favored welfare-state programs to address material disparities. This, however, does not align him with socialism. Many liberals (in the American context) and some conservatives opposed the war in Indochina, not for ideological sympathy for the communists. Many opposed it as a nascent critique of what today is known as “nation-building.” Otto von Bismarck introduced the world’s first welfare-state laws and benefits scheme. The German statesman was conservative and religious.
There are many black Americans that share MLK’s vision for America and disdain the cultural Marxist, CRT-based pagan doctrines that aim to overhaul the United States. Robert Woodson, Shelby Steele, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Carol M. Swain, and Jason Riley are among the many. The first two were members of the original civil rights movement that MLK crafted.
Marxist CRT, the “1619 Project”, victimology as a political weapon, “white fragility”, “intersectionality”, all components of identarian socialism and the woke revolution, are at direct odds with MLK. They know it. The Baptist preacher would be appalled at the voting rules changes that Democrats are proposing which would reintroduce mail-ballot programs that facilitated electoral cheating and thievery and were abolished in the 19th century. The thought that black Americans could be denigrated in such a way, by having a special set of voting rules for people is insulting. America’s Left is destroying all that MLK did.
Julio M Shiling, political scientist, writer, director of Patria de Martí and The Cuban American Voice, lecturer and media commentator. A native of Cuba, he currently lives in the United States. Twitter: @JulioMShiling // Julio es politólogo, escritor, director de Patria de Martí y The Cuban American Voice. Conferenciante y comentarista en los medios. Natural de Cuba, vive actualmente en EE UU.