And if these teabaggers were all alive in 1963 where do you think they would be?

[bluestateguy]

Politically, that is.

First of all, I will submit that yes, the Southern teabaggers would be Democrats in the mold of George Wallace, Orval Faubus and Ross Barnett. They and all the other teabaggers would be the first to scream "tyranny!" at the mere mention of a federal civil rights act, and how the mean old government in Washington was taking away our freedoms (the freedom of a restaurant owner to refuse service to blacks, for ex.) and trampling upon the rights of the states. And that the mean old federal government has no business in supervising elections because those Salt of the Earth local officials are so much better suited to decide who is allowed to vote and who isn't.

They, as their racist predecessors did, would cast their states rights, anti-federal government language in the tradition of the Founders, the Constitution and Mom and Apple Pie.

I also have no doubt that they would echo the common language of the civil rights opponents in calling Dr. King and the whole civil rights movement a great big Communist plot being masterminded by the Kremlin. This too was actually a common critique of the movement back in those days. On the other hand, I'm also certain that they would cheer on the kind of COINTELPRO crap that the big old federal government was deploying upon anti-Vietnam War protesters and civil rights activists throughout the 1960's.

[eleny]

1. Holding the hose like these guys or fighting for their turn at it...

[DLine]

11. Without a doubt!

Exactly what i would have posted.

[murielm99]

2. Ronald Reagan went to his grave thinking that MLK

was a communist. Ronnie was very opposed to making MLK day a federal holiday. I remember very clearly that he had no problem saying so at a press conference. Scum.

[davidinalameda]

3. since a good number of them are 50 and older

I'd say they were alive in 1963

:shrug:

[calico1]

8. I was alive in 1963.

I was 5....and totally clueless about what was going on politically in the world.

What I remember very vaguely about 1963 is JFK's funeral. I do not remember anything about him being President except for some very vague recollections of Caroline and her pony "Macaroni." Some talk about that.

When the funeral was being televised I was with a neighbor kid who was about 6 months older than me. We were sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching what we thought was a parade.....and wondering why all the grownups were in the kitchen talking a lot and crying.

The only thing I always remember clearly is the horses and the drums beating. My neighbor would get up from time to time and change channels to see if he could get Tom and Jerry or the Flinstones. But all there was on TV was this "parade."

;-)

[davidinalameda]

15. I wasn't politically aware until I was maybe 9

I remember the night Jimmy Carter won

[Jade Fox]

4. Conservative routinely claim credit for the very things they opposed.....

when they were new ideas 30-50 years ago.

Every time I hear Conservatives talk about woman's rights I want to puke, because I'm old enough to remember the scorn heaped on Feminists 40 years ago by conservatives when the movement was new.

Conservatives let others take the risks, make the changes, and pay the price, then claim the credit.

[ck4829]

7. You probably don't even have to go back 40 years

How many of them were nodding in approval when Jerry Falwell said that feminists and other groups helped cause 9/11?

Being a conservative is easy; you don't have to explain the lapses in logic, the hypocrisy, the compartmentalization of morals and judgments, etc.

[chelsea0011]

5. Fighting against civil rights screaming, "I want my country back!"

[EFerrari]

6. They'd be bombing churches and killing little girls.

And you bet civil rights leaders with called Communists. Nothing has changed in that respect.

[KG]

9. ...

[Swamp Rat]

10. At KKK rallies developing and discussing the future Southern Strategy

[shraby]

12. If they were alive in 1770, there would be no United States...

the King's rule would have been okay with them.

[madrchsod]

13. they were around back them too....

i ran into my share of these people. back then they did`t get much play because the left-anti war movement was the three networks focus.today they have fox and the rest of the media making them way more important than they really are.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. These people are frauds

Beck has used the images of MLK, Rosa Parks and other icons of the civil rights movement to pimp his gathering in promo videos. But it is all quite disingenuous. Beck, like his audience, really doesn’t “get” the whole MLK thing. Beck’s people are a very white, very conservative crowd who mostly think King was “way overrated” to use a fantasy sports term. Deep down they are probably annoyed he gets a holiday named after him (and one you actually get a day off for, not like Arbor day!) and don’t see why his picture often appears alongside those of Washington and Jefferson in public schools. The desegregation movement wasn’t their fight, and they don’t understand why America, REAL America is forced to recognize someone who apparently, if you let a real hardcore conservative jibber about him long enough, might very well have been a communist and a womanizer (After all, All-American patriot and cross dressing head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover had him investigated, along with everyone else at the time!). Ultimately, these folks think, why should a bunch of people who complained a lot about America, the America they often wistfully wachs about “wanting back” while complaining about Obama, be so honored?
Beck’s rally is partially mocking MLK’s defining moment, and also attempting to actually make some sort of connection to it at the same time. Call it the “wake up, right-wing white people” speech. Oh, the tragedy of the working poor possibly receiving health care from the federal government. Witness the horror of the top 2% of earners in this nation losing the Bush tax cuts next year. The unmitigated gall of activist judges to strike down discriminatory voter measures and laws that effectively suspend the 4th Amendment. Tyranny, I tell you! We must rise up against them!