I didn’t expect this out of CNN. Back in mid-January they published, “How MLK can get you out of your ‘Trump Slump’,” by John Blake, and I found it quite interesting. I don’t know a lot about MLK beyond the general He fought the good fight. I hesitate to call this inspirational, but it has good information on how he responded to the mistakes of the day. Here’s just one observation:
Source: Southeast Denton News
After Trump’s stunning victory, some people opposed to his candidacy vowed not to call him their president. Some cut off relationships with Trump supporters or called them all racists.
It was a new form of segregation: I shall only associate with those who share my political beliefs.
That kind of decision wouldn’t fly with King. He didn’t withdraw from his white jailers or lash out at them. It was a pattern that ran throughout his life, says David Garrow, author of “Bearing the Cross,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of King.
“King consistently distinguished between the evil deed and evil doer. He never hated anyone,” Garrow says.
“I see all these progressives filled with this hatred and loathing of Trump voters, but we never see King talk in hateful or loathing terms about Bull Connor or Jim Clark,” Garrow says, referring to two notoriously racist Southern white sheriffs.
“So much of the liberal left today is allowing themselves to be subsumed with a hate and anger that is utterly contradictory to King’s spirit.”
That is certainly true of a lot you see on The Daily Kos – a loathing for the conservatives who vote for Trump, Ryan, Gohmert, and most of the GOP. They spend a lot of their time tracking the transgressions against progressive orthodoxy, but, at least in their daily Daily Kos Recommended e-mail, which is as far as I read, there is very little time spent on actually trying to understand their enemies fellow Americans (which I emphasize) and what may motivate them. One of the most important steps in winning an argument is understanding the other side’s assumptions and logic, both intellectual and emotional – and that appears to not be important to the progressives. They seem fixated on finding transgressions, laughing at them in a sort of bulging eye sort of way, and then moving on without asking for the real motivations.
Their absolute certainty in themselves is discouraging. And the same is true of the conservative base – their frenzy over Obama was positively shameful.
As I’m sure Mr. Blake would agree, no doubt we have a lot to learn from Martin Luther King, Jr.
