Was MLK A Communist?Obviously nobody really knows. Before they discovered the plagiarism, the biggest item the loopy Left had discovered in Ben Domenech's writing was a negative comment about President Bush attending Coretta Scott King's funeral, where he described Mrs King as a communist.
Now the odd thing about this is that the hardcore Left often implies that King was hardcore Left-winger himself; if not a communist, at least a socialist.
Here's a column from far leftists Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon from 1995 where they certainly imply that King was way out on the fringe:
But after passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging the nation's fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without "human rights" — including economic rights. For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, anti-discrimination laws were hollow.
Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between rich and poor, and called for "radical changes in the structure of our society" to redistribute wealth and power.
"True compassion," King declared, "is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."But of course, pointing out King's comments is only appropriate when the far Left wants to buy some credibility for their redistributionist agenda. When folks use the redistributionist agenda to tarnish King, it's
considered racist.
Hat Tip: Wizbang, which
points out the irony of Steve Gilliard calling anybody a racist.
