Martin Luther King Jr. Day has come and gone, and CNN host Don Lemon is just not right here for all of the faux love Republicans and two Democrats confirmed MLK whereas both blocking voting rights laws or being complicit within the blockage—as if the precise for Black folks to vote wasn’t a central battle in King’s legacy.
“Inevitably, you get the politicians–particularly those in Washington now who’re blocking folks’s entry to the voting sales space–and so they need to use Dr. King conveniently,” Lemon stated. “They’re the largest hypocrites on the planet.”
Now, lemon was largely speaking in regards to the GOP legislators (all rattling 50 of them) who opposed the voting rights invoice that was put earlier than the Senate on Wednesday, however he additionally had smoke for Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) and Joe Manchin III (D-West Virginia), aka—these “white moderates” King warned us about—as a result of they refused to finish the Senate’s filibuster rule that blocked the laws from being handed.
As for the GOP, Lemon is de facto solely scratching the floor of why we should always all be side-eying Republicans who have been singing MLK’s praises on Monday.
Not solely have Republicans been doing their greatest to make sure as many boundaries are put between the voter and the voting sales space as humanly potential, however the Republican conflict on Important Race Principle—which is a faux conflict as a result of Republicans don’t even know what the hell CRT is—has led conservative America to undermine the truthful teachings of Black historical past, all whereas fake praising their fake model of who MLK was.
For instance, right here’s Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praising MLK and his “I Have a Dream” speech as if his state didn’t move an anti-Important Race Principle legislation dropping necessities for educators to provide classes on MLK’s teachings.
Then there’s the truth that Republicans (and a few Democrats for that matter) reward MLK whereas lowering him all the way down to a single passage from a single speech and the phrases “won’t be judged by the colour of their pores and skin however by the content material of their character.” (And even that line from the “I Have a Dream” speech is basically taken out of context.) Conservative politicians have insisted that CRT goes towards the whole lot MLK taught us as a result of it makes white folks really feel unhealthy, and all of the whereas, they fully ignore the entire quite a few disparaging issues King himself has stated explicitly about white folks.
So mainly, if Republicans and Democrats alike can’t be actual about who MLK was and/or honor his legacy by defending the precise to vote—then all of them actually simply must hold the great reverend’s title out of their mouths.
