Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King, a Baptist preacher, stressed the viability of the Constitution of the U.S. and constantly urged Americans to seek the rights already guaranteed them therein. MLK knew that it was hard work, individual liberties, and constitutional government that would give all men equal opportunity and equal access to the pursuit of happiness.

There's a debate raging over which party MLK belonged to. The fact is, he stressed the tenets of Christianity and faith in Christ more than political parties. And with that being said, let's take a quick history lesson.

Most black voters in the 1950s and 60s were registered Republicans. In their segregated South, it was the democrats like Lester Maddox, Al Gore, Sr, and George Wallace that fought for segregation, "whites only" schools, and "separate but equal" public facilities. Even John F. Kennedy voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 when he was still a senator.

The Civil Rights Act of 1963 passed because of the Republican Senators that supported it. Al Gore's father voted against it. Senator Fulbright, Bill Clinton's hero, voted against it. Leading Democratic Senators across the board, mostly southerners, voted against it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican appointed the Supreme Court justice that would lead the charge to overturn the Jim Crow Laws. It was Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, that maintained a strong hatred of slavery and racial injustice. A southern democrat killed him.

There were racist Republicans, too, like Senator Jesse Helms, but their voices never resonated among true constitutional conservatives or the Republican Party as a whole.

The debate goes back and forth about which party favors the minorities in this country. And there are racists in either camp. But it's the constitutional conservatives of BOTH parties that carried the day. Eventually, JFK came around and demonstrated conservative views. For example, he was pro-life and against big government handouts. Remember this: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." That should be a bumper sticker!

I say, let's drop the party labels of Democrat and Republican when we talk about the direction of our government. We should clarify whether a person is a constitutional conservative, or a constitutional revisionist. The framers of the Constitution were visionary, intelligent, God-fearing men. Most hated slavery but were unable to end slavery using the Constitution. The best they could do is include this: "all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; among which are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

They added "liberty" so that future courts and generations would be able to end the atrocity of slavery. They added "pursuit of happiness" because they knew it was not the government's place to guarantee happiness.

That's a fact that we learn from all the letters and journals written by these great men.

There's enough fault to go around in both parties. Let's stick to the Constitution as our one and only reference point for all our laws and government reach. Then, like President Washington said, we too will agree, that "no government can rightly rule without the Bible."

I, too, dream of a country where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Thank MLK for that dream. I hope that dream will belong to all us one day.