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Celebrating MLK Day in a Divided America
Same as it ever was.
This year, news coverage of the MLK Jr. Day holiday proved even more widely varied and incendiary than in previous years.
From musings on “Why So Few MLK Day Sales?” (Thomas Buckley, Substack: “Does the Holiday’s Somber Tone Limit the Message?”) to Vice President Kamala Harris declaring that Republicans — presumably all 80 million or so of them — pose a “profound threat to freedom in America.”
No hyperbole there, as Harris assures us: Only half the population out to get the other half.
“Americans’ party preferences were evenly divided in 2022, with 45% of U.S. adults identifying as Republican or saying they were Republican-leaning independents, and 44% identifying as Democrats or saying they were Democratic-leaning independents,” according to Gallup. “The last time preferences were this closely divided was in 2011, with Democrats holding at least a three-percentage-point advantage in each year of the past decade.”
From one side of the political spectrum, it was “Leftists Hate MLK Because They Care More About Color Of Skin Than Content Of Character” (Kendall Qualls, The Federalist). On the other side, it was “Trump’s unholy America to collide with MLK” (Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer.)