Boxer: Wrong (As Usual) on MLK

US Senator Barbara Boxer

On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) published the following press release (in italics). Like many liberals in Washington, she exploited the holiday in customary fashion, blaming the criminal justice system for the failings of broken families enabled by an overgrown welfare state. Just like media talking heads, she distorted the legal and judicial outcomes of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, making race rather than political culture the source of criminal pathologies in American society.

On January 19th, the American people will honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., offering us an opportunity to reflect on Dr. King's tireless efforts to make America a land of freedom and opportunity for all people.  For information about MLK Day events in your area, please click here.

Freedom and opportunity are crucial assets in a prosperous society. So why doers President Obama want to make it harder for people to be free and enjoy opportunity? The Declaration of Independence announced these basic rights long ago, and Dr. King appealed to them in his "I Have a Dream Speech" in 1963. When will Senator Boxer and her Democratic counterparts respect those values and actually listen to and practice what Dr. King preached?

It is only fitting that we honor Dr. King's birthday by working to improve the lives of others.  Throughout our nation, people will serve their communities by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and offering a guiding hand to at-risk youth.  For information on how to volunteer, please visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service website at http://mlkday.gov/.


Senator Boxer suggests that we help feed the hungry. Why did the Democratic US Senate make it so difficult for young people to get a job, an for older Americans to keep their jobs? Or to make more money working? Why did she support the Un-Affordable Care Act, which ruined the forty-hour work week, and discouraged hiring and private sector expansion?

Dr. King once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."  Our country has come a long way since Dr. King spoke those words, but the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner remind us that our work is far from done.

The death of Eric Garner was indeed tragic, but it was not a result of racial  animus. The overregulation of cigarette sales, plus over zealous enforcement of the cigarette tax. No one can breathe in New York City, with all the suffocating rules, regulations, and nanny state prevention measures. As for Michael Brown, the real tragedy is that wide swaths of Americans have bought the notion that a racist criminal justice system, rather than a racist welfare state, has enabled poverty and social disharmony in our country.

Far too many Americans have lost trust in our criminal justice system, which undermines our communities and our society as a whole.  That is why I wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder thanking him for his leadership and urging him to ensure that we have a justice system that treats everyone equally under the law. We cannot, we must not stop fighting until every American can count on equal justice under the law.  (To read my letters to the Attorney General, click here.)

That is how we will honor Dr. King's legacy and build a stronger America.

For the first statement in this paragraph, Senator Boxer should have been impeached. How dare she malign the stellar efforts of local law enforcement. This country has indeed come a long way, with Americans of all backgrounds serving in many capacities. No longer do able men and women seek appointment to hire office strictly based on the color of their skin, but rather they seek to be evaluated and appreciated based on their content of their character and the contour of the experience.

Does Senator Boxer really believes that the criminal justice system is undermining our communities and making society as a whole unstable? Or does she mean that the lack of trust has created this undermining element? Either her sloppy rhetoric must be corrected, or her sloppy thinking must be held accountable.

Last of all, what does Senator Boxer hope that Attorney General Eric Holder can accomplish? He is one of the chief instigators of racial animus in this country. As a deputy federal attorney, he had suggested brainwashing young black people to support gun control. Thankfully, those immoral suggestions never amounted to anything.

Martin Luther King Jr. (New York Telegram)

If the Senator and her cohorts (and colleagues) really want to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they should start by recognizing that this country has indeed come a long way, but that unrepentant liberalism is the only reason why this country still has a long way to go.