If one really wants to split hairs over the last Democratic debate, one could say Hillary did not play the race card. “All” she did was dismiss Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights efforts and give the credit to President Lyndon B. Johnson because he signed the legislation into law. “It took a president to get the job done,” or words to that effect. She didn’t say King was a black man; she just credited Johnson with the achievement.
So, was she playing the race card? Either way, she unquestionably was denegrating MLK’s civil rights efforts. It’s unimaginable that anyone could have heard her statement and interpreted it any other way.
Reports today say Hillary and Barack Obama have agreed to put this issue aside. It may not stay buried very long. Tonight’s debate should be interesting, especially since it will allow the candidates to ask questions of each other.
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maybe she was just noting that one man did not a civil rights cause make. He was a central figure, but it took a lot of people to get civil rights legislation. The beatification of Martin Luther King is a story that should be started “once upon a time…”
and I am not denigrating his efforts. I’m a parent of public school children who has to consistently fight to get the school system to teach more about civil rights than just Martin Luther King was the man
There is the rub. I have never seen any of these debates.