Yet even if the point were conceded that MLK was a communist, you’d still have a man who was remarkably important for the stand he took against racism and institutional discrimination and for the way he rallied americans behind the cause of desegregation. We are talking about a true American hero.
So, a “true American hero” is one who dedicated his life to destroying the right to freedom of association? Forced desegregation is far more evil than voluntary segregation; while MLK may have only opposed forced segregation, it’s quite clear that the primary result of his cause has been the precise opposite of what it was supposed to achieve.
This may have been unintended, but it was absolutely predictable. And the chief accomplishments King’s campaign against “racism and institutional discrimination” have been to tear down the Bill of Rights and destroy fundamental American liberties while sentencing black Americans to a society full of men in jail and women dependent upon government largesse.
MLK was undeniably important, for much the same reason that Vladimir Putin is TIME’s 2007 Man of the Year. One can only imagine that one day John McCain will be celebrated as a member of the same heroic American pantheon to which MLK belongs, given McCain’s dedicated war against the right to free speech.