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Hillary and MLK
The Wall Street Journal ^ | January 16, 2008 | JOHN MCWHORTER

Posted on 01/16/2008 6:02:45 AM PST by forkinsocket

There are many people in our great land aggrieved over the idea that Hillary Clinton thinks Martin Luther King Jr. was not the hero of the civil rights movement.

This idea seems so illogical that the only way to understand it is to approach it as a puzzle. After all, why would a white person running for president in 2008 dismiss the legacy of King near his birthday, which is celebrated as a national holiday, and right before a primary in a state with a large black vote?

To do such a thing would suggest inability to tie one's shoes. Let's imagine that in private Sen. Clinton thought little of King, which is vastly unlikely for someone of her background. Still, the puzzle remains: Why would she, an intelligent person, say it in public?

Yet there she was on "Meet the Press" Sunday, having to defend herself for simply saying that while King laid the groundwork (which she acknowledged), another part of the civil rights revolution was Lyndon B. Johnson's masterful stewardship of the relevant legislation through Congress. She was arguing that she is more experienced in getting laws passed in Washington than is Barack Obama -- which is true.

Why do people like op-ed columnist Bob Herbert, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and countless black bloggers hear a grievous insult in her simple observation? The outcry is so disproportionate to the stimulus that one can barely help suspecting something outright irregular.

I think of a study published last year in the Journal of Black Psychology. It documented that the extent to which black Americans perceive their lives to be affected by racism correlates with symptoms of general paranoia disconnected from racial issues.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; hillary; mlk; race
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There is a willful frailty, a lack of self-confidence, in this kind of thinking. It suggests someone almost searching for things to claim injury about, donning the mantle of the noble victim in order to assuage a bruised ego.
1 posted on 01/16/2008 6:02:46 AM PST by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket

2 posted on 01/16/2008 6:04:33 AM PST by al baby (Hi mom)
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To: forkinsocket

Shh. The truth is very near by. Put down that fork.


3 posted on 01/16/2008 6:05:14 AM PST by Steely Tom (Steely's First Law of the Main Stream Media: if it doesn't advance the agenda, it's not news.)
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To: forkinsocket
now now now....the clinton camp has called a convenient truce, race as an issue has to be saved until the general election....or until Hilda gets her teef kicked in again..*grins*
4 posted on 01/16/2008 6:07:47 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: forkinsocket

“Why do people like op-ed columnist Bob Herbert, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and countless black bloggers hear a grievous insult in her simple observation? The outcry is so disproportionate to the stimulus that one can barely help suspecting something outright irregular. “

It is the politics of victimhood, and this is completely predictable.


5 posted on 01/16/2008 6:10:33 AM PST by Canedawg (In God We Trust)
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To: Doogle

I couldn’t help but notice that they declared a truce on race and gender. I’m willing to put down money they decide to put all their smear in the drug basket for a while.


6 posted on 01/16/2008 6:12:22 AM PST by faloi
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To: forkinsocket

I agree that the statements were a tempest in a teapot but where was that thinking while conservatives and non-politicians were being destroyed by the hypersensitive for such misstatements as the author now thinks is unfair in regards to Bill and Hillary?


7 posted on 01/16/2008 6:12:34 AM PST by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things.)
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To: forkinsocket
Oh, paleeezzzeee. I don’t like Hillary anymore than anyone else on this site, but this is the MSM trying to make news out of nothing. That’s not what she thinks and the MSM knows it. The print media is in such a death watch, they look for ANYTHING that will stir the pot. I had a lady friend just like this—she loved to pick a fight for no reason and would even make up stuff (Dan Rather-ish?) just to start an argument. Clearly, the print media knows it’s watching itself die and is trying to fabricate news.

If you think this is wrong, how many times have you heard a TV commentator start out with: "According to an (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) poll...". Trust me, if you give me what you want to prove with a poll, I can word it so you'll be happy with the results. They make their own news...how sad.

8 posted on 01/16/2008 6:13:53 AM PST by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: forkinsocket

In 1964 Hillary was a self-identified “GOLDWATER girl”...the same year that MLK was marching on DC with his I Have a Dream speech!!!! Sooooo, Hilly, were you for Barry or Martin???


9 posted on 01/16/2008 6:17:23 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion.....The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: forkinsocket
It suggests someone almost searching for things to claim injury about, donning the mantle of the noble victim in order to assuage a bruised ego.

Well, duh.

If this is news, where have you been all this time?

And what's with the "almost" crap?

10 posted on 01/16/2008 6:19:22 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: faloi
wait till Ears wins again...then comes more tears, and the minions will get back to baiting
11 posted on 01/16/2008 6:22:10 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: forkinsocket
Hillary knows she's lost the black vote to Obama in the primaries. She's taking a calculated risk that playing the race card will get her enough white votes in the south to overcome black support for Obama.

 

Since Southern Dems are the bastion of segregationism (Bill's mentor Fulbright comes to mind), it isn't surprising that Hillary's pulled out the white bed sheets and pillow cases with eye holes to reflect what she thinks will get her the nomination. Has nothing to do with what she believes and everything to do with the utter contempt she holds for the South in general and the 'little people' who vote for her.

12 posted on 01/16/2008 6:22:24 AM PST by peyton randolph (tag line taking a siesta)
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To: Ann Archy
I think what often gets lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Republican Party (Party of Lincoln) passed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill by a far wider margin than the Democraps.
13 posted on 01/16/2008 6:24:16 AM PST by SC DOC
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To: Ann Archy

Yeah, the GOP in the 1960s mostly rolled over and played dead for the Democrats, but Goldwater actually voted against the Civil Rights Act and spoke against it as a violation of the Constitution. He supported the ban on government discrimination, but could not support the bill’s provisions banning private citizens from discriminating. He regarded them as unconstitutional and far beyond the scope of any 14th Amendment enforcement authority possessed by Congress.


14 posted on 01/16/2008 6:25:05 AM PST by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: SC DOC

Maybe Hillary shoud just go on with Bill Moyers and let him retell some of LBJ’s ni**er jokes that they used to yuk it up over.


15 posted on 01/16/2008 6:29:58 AM PST by digger48 (http://prorev.com/legacy.htm)
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To: SC DOC

That’s because there were hardly any Republicans from the South in those days. The South was represented by a large block of conservative Democrats. Outside the South, the Democrats voted as an almost monolithic block for the Civil Rights Act. The few votes outside the South against the CRA were from strict constitutionalist conservatives such as Senator Goldwater of Arizona and Congressman Ashbrook of Ohio.

Most congressional Republicans in the sixties were bystanders who just went along with whatever the Democrats were pushing, which is what they had mostly been since FDR.


16 posted on 01/16/2008 6:32:42 AM PST by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: puroresu

If it wasn’t for the intervention of MLK, Nichelle Nichols would have left Star Trek after the first season.


17 posted on 01/16/2008 6:35:16 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: puroresu

TYPO: “The few votes outside the South...” should be “The few Republican votes outside the South...”


18 posted on 01/16/2008 6:35:41 AM PST by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: massgopguy

I thought you were joking, but I googled it and you’re right! I never knew that!

Well, I’m glad she stayed. I like her character,


19 posted on 01/16/2008 6:40:30 AM PST by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: puroresu

I just saw your profile. Awesome movies. My favorites from your list are Yojimbo, Ran, Audition, & Seven Samurai. Just watched Lady Snowblood for the 3rd time the other night.


20 posted on 01/16/2008 6:40:40 AM PST by forkinsocket
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