King worked against such thinking and he did so following the path Gandhi had followed to end British oppression in India.  King was committed to several things.  First he wanted equal treatment for blacks.  He wanted the end of black and white counters and water fountains.  He wanted the end of black seating at the back of the bus.  He wanted a "colorblind society" so that everyone was "judged by the content of their character" rather than the "color of their skin."

And King was clear about how to achieve such a color blind society.  The civil rights movement would be successful not through terrorism and violence but through non-violent civil disobedience.  King, like Gandhi, believed accepting the consequences of his actions.  As a result he willingly spent more than a few nights in jail.  That’s character.

Many have since attacked King on many fronts.  Some have claimed he was an adulterer.  Others claim he was a crook.  King is in good company as many of America’s greatest historical leaders have also been thusly attacked.  Jefferson has been attacked for owning slaves.  Washington has been attacked both for owning slaves and for alleged adultery.  In each case the goal has been the same.  That is to marginalize the arguments and goals of the one being attacked posthumously.

Whether the attacks come from the left against Washington and Jefferson or from the right against King, such attacks are misguided and wrong.  While alive any leader is fair game for criticism and even after death it is fair to look at the facts of a leader’s life.  But using such examination in an attempt to negate particular arguments is simply fallacious.  It is the logical fallacy of the ad hominem attack.  It is mean spirited and betrays an inability on the part of the attacker to defend his or her position on its merits.

I don’t know what kind of man King was personally.  I was a child when he was gunned down.  But I know that his goals were good goals.  A colorblind society was and is a good ideal.  And much progress has been made in the last 40 years.  Blacks are not relegated to special counters, bathrooms and water fountains.  Blacks are able to achieve anything white’s can achieve, something hardly possible in Kings day.  But all is not well in race relations.  Alas King’s goals have been hijacked. 

While there are very many in the black community still working to fulfill King’s dream, many others actively work against it.  Instead of working for a colorblind society, they work for a color based society.  Instead of the content of one’s character, these people seek to have all manner of decisions based mailing or solely on the color of one’s skin.

People like Jesse Jackson and Georgia Congressman John Lewis have built entire careers on the back of Martin Luther King.  While giving lip services to King’s goals, such men have worked against their fulfillment because any successes undermine their own legitimacy.  Indeed, if race ever becomes irrelevant they will be out of work entirely because all they know how to do is be victims.

I still have hope that America will grow past all this.  But I fear that it will not happen until all those who were part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s have passed away.  Until those who still remember how they were treated are gone, there may not be full healing.  And that’s really too bad because they, like all our elders, have much wisdom to offer all of us.  Unfortunately, for many, that wisdom is buried beneath too many layers of resentment and self imposed victimhood.

I agree wholeheartedly with Martin Luther King’s dream.  I too dream of a color blind society where all men and women are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  For character is what matters.  But I fear I will not see it in my lifetime because to many are vested in victimhood.

Conservatives like me have stood by the President in spite of some pretty awful stuff. Take No Child Left Behind or his signing of Campaign Finance Reform or the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. In spite of these many things that were hardly conservative, we’ve stood by our President.

Now, when both Republicans and Democrats have a big problem with Comprehensive Immigration Reform, is the President willing to be loyal to those who have consistently supported him? Not on your life. He doesn’t even allow that our’s could be principled opposition. Instead, the President, McCain, Graham, et.al., characterize us as xenophobes and bigots.

I scratch my head every day wondering why the President and others in the Republican Party are so determined to jam this through no matter how much opposition there is. I can understand that the Republican Party does not want to be seen as anti-Hispanic. But in the end the President and his cadre are doing two things that are extremely harmful to the future prospects of the party.

First, they are jamming a wedge into the party. Some have characterized it as tearing the party apart and that may be an accurate description. There is a war within the Republican Party today and it is being waged primarily by President Bush and his accomplices. They are at war with the rank and file of the party and that does not bode well the Republican prospects in ’08.

Second, it is virtually indisputable that the vast majority of current illegals that ultimately become voting citizens will be Democrat voters. Clearly Ted Kennedy and the Democrat Party understand this. That’s why they’re willing to stand up to the unions on this issue. It takes something that big for the Democrat Party to stand up to unions.

The bottom line is, Republicans are screwed for a generation or more if this travesty of a piece of legislation makes it into law. Why then is the President doing it? Why is he willing to demagogue this issue? Why does he feel justified in calling those of us who oppose this xenophobes and bigots when he knows full well that isn’t true?

The only thing I can figure is the President is working on his legacy. He is as much a lame duck President as any ever was. His popularity is in the tank and it’s likely to go lower still with no rebound in sight unless there is a dramatic turnaround in Iraq. But if he can ram this down our throats he will be the President that dealt with the immigration problem. That’s what he’s counting on. The President wants his legacy and he’s willing to sell us out to get it! To hell with loyalty to the party or his supporters at the polls. His legacy takes precedence over loyalty. So tell me, why should anyone hold any loyalty to him?

I’ve never believed that Bush was a conservative. During his 2000 run I was not impressed and did not voter for him in the primary. But he got the nomination and I voted for him in the general election. Again in 2004 I voted for him just like millions of conservatives all across America who held their noses and checked off his name. We got some good for it. We got some good justices on the Supreme Court and we got tax cuts. But there is little else to show for our support.

I am finished being loyal to President Bush or any other Republican who puts his own interests ahead of his constituents. Lindsey Graham certainly falls into that category. Let this be a warning to Republican officials and candidates. We conservatives are not willing to be your lapdogs any longer. If you think I’m some lone malcontent, think again. There are many more just like me who will not continue to vote for you if you are unwilling to take a stand for conservative principles. We want to see a victory in ’08. We don’t want to see Hilary in the White House. But we will not be lemmings. If you expect loyalty from us you’d better be prepared to be loyal to us!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So Graham believes that those of us who oppose illegal immigration are bigots? While I’m sure there are those who simply do not like Hispanics, the vast majority of American’s who oppose illegal immigration do so not on the basis of race; they oppose it on the basis of American sovereignty. They do so on the basis of national security. They do so because illegal aliens are decimating our country.

It has nothing to do with race. I personally welcome immigrants from most anywhere who enter this country legally and follow the prescribed path to obtaining US citizenship. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is 12-20 million people who come here illegally and continue to break our laws. I’d oppose that no matter what race those people are.

Senator Graham understands all this. He knows full well that we are not racists or bigots. He is simply demagoguing this issue in order to shut us up or marginalize us. Well it won’t work Senator Graham. We will not be silenced. We will not shut up. And I promise that you will have your work cut out for you if you think you will retain your seat in the Senate after the ’08 election. I and others like me will work tirelessly to defeat you because you have no interest in what’s right for America. You are only interested in promoting yourself at the expense of America.

Name for me one other junior Senator with less than one term under his belt who gets 50% of the face time that Senator Graham gets. It is not simply coincidence and it certainly isn’t that he’s so smart and appealing. It is only because Senator Graham does whatever it takes to get attention. As the saying goes, if his grandmother gets between him and a TV camera, she better be darned quick because he will surely knock her to the ground running for that camera.

Hat Tip ALa at Blonde Sagacity