Normally, I don’t pay any attention to Taylor Marsh and crew’s unhinged anti-Obama tirades.  It’s been clear for some time now that Marsh is deeply invested in smearing Obama, and frankly, there’s no reason to give her blog the time of day.  But today, one of her guest posters - Marc Rubin - attacked Obama by claiming that he betrays the principles of Martin Luther King Jr.:

Race has always played a role from the beginning, either notable by its absence in Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucus and mostly white mid west caucus states, or notably present in getting 90% of the African American vote. Unless you believe that one ethnic group has suddenly acquired a monopoly on wisdom, about half of the 90% of African Americans voting for him were voting for him because of skin color, the same reason their grandparents couldn’t use white restrooms.

Which means that half the African American community and everyone else, black or white, who has voted for or supported a candidate simply based on race, has decided to take everything Martin Luther King took a bullet for and throw it out the window.

King’s most enduring comment was, “I dream of a day when a man will be judged on the content of his character and not the color of his skin”. That idea has been discarded by supporters of Obama both black and white who have been trying to promote the idea that having a black President is a good reason to vote for him regardless of anything else. [Emphasis mine]

I really have no patience for anyone who willfully misinterprets King or lifts his statements out of context for the purpose of scoring a cheap political point.  Usually it is anti-affirmative action and anti-multiculturalism crusaders who are quick to do this, so it’s a bit disappointing to see this kind of rhetoric from the left.  But truth be told, liberals have been equally guilty of appropriating King, so I guess it really isn’t that surprising. 

When - in the “I Have a Dream Speech” - King says that he hopes for a country where his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” he isn’t referring to an “end-state.”  It’s clear in the speech that he is expressing a sort of eschatological yearning, which - by definition - can only be satisfied by divine intervention.  King was a radical, but he was also a realist, and recognized that for the foreseeable future the color-line would be the central fault line of American society.  King even, towards the end of his life, spoke forcefully for affirmative-action policies and a sort of quasi-black nationalism.

It’s impossible to know whether or not King would have supported or opposed Obama, but it is clear from his writings and speeches that he was not opposed to using race as the sole consideration in some cases.  King recognized (correctly I think) that for an oppressed community to focus on race isn’t racist, but empowering.  Instead of simply dropping King quotes for rhetorical flourish, I wish people - liberals and conservatives - would actually delve deeply into King’s ideas and treat them with the seriousness the deserve.  Something Marc Rubin really isn’t doing.