Early in his legendary “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. assessed the unhappy situation of black Americans, a century after their emancipation. It is the darkest passage in a speech blazing with radiant imagery and uplifting messages of hope:
One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
The better part of five decades has passed since that speech was delivered, the Civil Rights Act was signed, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was engineered. Sadly, Dr. King’s diagnosis could be pronounced again today, with only a few minor changes.
Most of the social and economic indicators have been getting worse, year after year, despite a vast amount of money and energy poured into the black community by liberal programs. Perhaps “despite” is not the right word… for much of black America’s plight is caused by the Big Government programs intended to help them.
Blacks suffer much collateral damage from the collapse of urban America. Big cities have been wrecked by decades of liberal control. Cities like Detroit have been virtually destroyed as high taxes, stifling regulations, and public-union dominance killed businesses or drove them away.
The system of dependence and futility built around black Americans needs them to survive. It will not easily let them escape. Black children find themselves trapped in a failing public education system, which has vast amounts of money and political clout available to keep the doors chained shut. The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship voucher program for disadvantaged kids, which was shut down by the Obama Administration but may soon be re-authorized by Congress, enjoys 74% support from the community. That didn’t stop Obama from killing it without any of his customary dithering or fanfare.
Black Americans have the misfortune to be one of the largest political collectives in the American electorate. The Democrat Party depends on collecting 85% or more of a substantial black turnout for its political survival. In order to keep these voters motivated and properly bundled, black leaders and white liberals sell a narrative of hopelessness.
No deviation from liberal orthodoxy is allowed – the Left slanders no one as viciously as a black conservative. The clients of liberalism are reduced to making increasingly angry demands for diminishing increases in a bankrupt quest for “social justice.” Unacceptable results are protected by making alternative solutions unthinkable. The result is a vicious cycle of political addiction. Liberalism is the new crack.
Read more here
One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
The better part of five decades has passed since that speech was delivered, the Civil Rights Act was signed, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was engineered. Sadly, Dr. King’s diagnosis could be pronounced again today, with only a few minor changes.
Most of the social and economic indicators have been getting worse, year after year, despite a vast amount of money and energy poured into the black community by liberal programs. Perhaps “despite” is not the right word… for much of black America’s plight is caused by the Big Government programs intended to help them.
Blacks suffer much collateral damage from the collapse of urban America. Big cities have been wrecked by decades of liberal control. Cities like Detroit have been virtually destroyed as high taxes, stifling regulations, and public-union dominance killed businesses or drove them away.
The system of dependence and futility built around black Americans needs them to survive. It will not easily let them escape. Black children find themselves trapped in a failing public education system, which has vast amounts of money and political clout available to keep the doors chained shut. The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship voucher program for disadvantaged kids, which was shut down by the Obama Administration but may soon be re-authorized by Congress, enjoys 74% support from the community. That didn’t stop Obama from killing it without any of his customary dithering or fanfare.
Black Americans have the misfortune to be one of the largest political collectives in the American electorate. The Democrat Party depends on collecting 85% or more of a substantial black turnout for its political survival. In order to keep these voters motivated and properly bundled, black leaders and white liberals sell a narrative of hopelessness.
No deviation from liberal orthodoxy is allowed – the Left slanders no one as viciously as a black conservative. The clients of liberalism are reduced to making increasingly angry demands for diminishing increases in a bankrupt quest for “social justice.” Unacceptable results are protected by making alternative solutions unthinkable. The result is a vicious cycle of political addiction. Liberalism is the new crack.
Read more here
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