What Would Martin Luther King Think of Barack Obama’s Speech?

What would Martin Luther King think of Barack Obama’s speech? one pundit asked here, derisively, on The Hill’s Pundits Blog. I would ask as well: What would Martin think of that pundit using his name to demean Obama, repeating Republican talking points, again, this time with talk of Greek temples, and Charlton Heston playing Moses, and Madonna? What would Martin Luther King think of his name being used as a prop for that?

Here is my answer: There were tears of joy and pride from heaven from one of the greatest men who ever walked the earth that an African-American male, from a multiracial background, having grown up in a single-parent home with little money and no advantage except love and aspiration, having succeeded against the odds through hard work, having earned through talent the presidency of the most prestigious law review on earth, having forsaken great sums of money to help laid-off steelworkers find jobs, having run a campaign based on racial equality and shared opportunity and national unity, would stand before America nominated for the presidency.

Tears of joy and pride from heaven flowing like a mighty river of goodness and hope is how Martin Luther King would have reacted to Barack Obama’s powerful, compelling and historic speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

What would Martin have thought of using his name to demean Obama with condescending and ridiculing words about Greek temples, Charlton Heston and Madonna on the 45th anniversary of his great speech and the historic hour of an African-American accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency in a campaign based on racial and religious tolerance and national unity?

I leave it to you, dear reader, to ponder this for yourself. But make no mistake, when Martin’s name is invoked for this kind of politics, you can bet your autographed picture of Karl Rove that I and others are going to answer.

As Obama said in his powerful and compelling and historic speech: enough. Enough of this kind of politics and this kind of government. Enough of the personal attacks and personal demeaning and personal ridicule and personal slanders from the talking point writers of the party with nothing left but negativity, and those who repeat the talking points of personal destruction, whether it is labeled news or opinion or blogging.

As Obama said in his powerful and compelling and historic speech: It is time to fight back against the slanders and stand tall for the truth. It is time to bring the nation together and end the politics of hate, fear, ridicule and division that have poisoned the state of the union and polluted the state of our civic discourse.

As Obama said in his powerful and compelling and historic speech: It is time for a new generation to take the torch, and for the pundits who have difficulty understanding what this means, it is time for a generation of leaders and voters and citizens who appeal to the better angels of our nature and reject those who appeal to the darker instincts of the soul, and the petty corruptions of our politics, to which Obama and Americans and good people throughout the free world now say: enough.

What Obama was saying in his powerful and compelling and historic speech: It is no longer 2000 or 2004, when the petty slanders will go unanswered and the larger truths will be ignored in a debate unworthy of our democracy with divisions that do grave damage to our republic.

What Obama was saying in his powerful and compelling and historic speech was what Michael Douglas said in “The American President”: these are serious times that demand serious people and this is now a debate that we are ready to have.

To the politicians of the dead hand of modern Republicanism who try to turn a big election on small things involving big lies, your time has come, your age has ended, your days are over, you are living in a past that is about to perish, because you are promising a future that Americans consider dirty, and demeaning, and destructive, and want no part of. I have no doubt that there were tears of joy and pride from heaven as Martin Luther King looked down on Denver on this historic day.

Anyone who says otherwise has not learned a thing from what has gone wrong over the past eight years, and does not have a clue about the page that Americans are about to turn, or the history that Americans are about to make.