RSSWhy is Mitt obsessed with MLK?
W.H. Chellis
Have conservatives co-opt Martin Luther King as their own? Do Religious conservatives know mark him as their patron saint?
Let me know your thoughts.
3 Responses to “Why is Mitt obsessed with MLK?”
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Josh M.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Pastor Chellis,
The conservative co-opting of MLK has occurred for the past two decades. I had thought this was obvious by now to everyone, even though 30 years they would not have done so. Paul Gottfried recent book Conservatism in America (2007) goes into the whos and whys (IIRC). National Review used to condemn MLK’s radicalism back in the ’60s, but now just the opposite.
W.H. Chellis
December 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Thanks you Josh. I am a Chronicles reader and deeply appreciate Professor Gottfried. I will have to pick up his book on your recommendation.
I am all to aware of the situation but wonder how DRC reader react to it… has this shift in thinking impacted our readers?
Josh M.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I do recommend it, as I recommend Gottfried’s other books on the managerial state in Europe and America. Having read a few of your comments, please know that Gottfried does challenge Russell Kirk’s welding of “transcendent values” with American conservatism, pointing out the problematic results of that (especially in its reappropriation in neoconservative rhetoric).
A fine review of that book is here:
http://www.conservativedonnybrook.com/2007/11/08/viva-gottfried/
Sorry to wander a bit off-topic.