Here's the 9 current Republicans who voted against MLK day

Berniewood Hogan

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:mjpls:These scumbags are still in power.

:mjpls:And Democrats are still reaching across the aisle to them.

Four current Republican senators voted against the holiday in 1983: Richard Shelby of Alabama, John McCain of Arizona, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Orrin Hatch of Utah.


Two current GOP House members, Hal Rogers of Kentucky and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, also voted against the holiday.

President Ronald Reagan signed the law only after it passed both houses by veto-proof majorities. Even then, he said at a press conference that he would have preferred a “day of recognition” rather than a holiday, “but since they seem bent on making it a national holiday,” he would sign it.

Reagan was also forced to apologize to King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, for remarking at that same press conference that “we’ll know in about 35 years” whether King was a communist sympathizer.


Three other Republicans cast votes against state MLK holidays before entering Congress. Rep. John Culberson of Texas and Sen. Jonny Isakson of Georgia each voted against MLK holidays as state legislators. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana — who once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage” and whose life was saved by a black woman during last year’s congressional mass shooting — voted against it twice.

Of those Republicans who voted against the King holiday, several took to Twitter on Monday to shamelessly co-opt the day they once opposed, while others simply remained silent.

Here are the nine current GOP members of Congress who voted against MLK Day
 

hashmander

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as they should have with that anti-free market rabble-rouser.

3A52DEBE00000578-3931268-image-a-30_1479017171965.jpg
 

tru_m.a.c

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When Arizona lost the Super Bowl because the state didn’t recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day
The big game was moved to Los Angeles because state voters refused to honor MLK Day as paid holiday

On March 19, 1991, NFL owners voted to remove the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix after Arizona voters failed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid holiday.

The NFL originally awarded the game to the Arizona Cardinals and owner Bill Bidwill on March 13, 1990. Before the state vote on the King holiday in November 1990, Bidwill expressed confidence that the legislation would pass.

“I believe the political situation in Phoenix has changed dramatically,” Bidwill told The Associated Press.

Two yes/no referendums on MLK Day were on the ballot, and both were defeated. The league had been upfront about what would happen if the paid holiday was not enacted.

“We should remove the game from political controversy and avoid being made a target,” then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue told the Chicago Tribune. “So long as it is in Arizona and the alleged controversy is unresolved, people will reach out and use us as a target.

“We’re not infallible. It’s a complicated situation. I don’t think we did very much wrong. The problem existed long before we arrived on the scene.”

Then-President Ronald Reagan signed the bill that established the first national holiday in honor of King in 1986, and then-Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt followed suit.

Babbitt’s successor, Gov. Evan Mecham, rescinded that decision in 1987, explaining that the governor didn’t have the authority to decide by himself on a new paid state holiday.

At the time, only 3 percent of Arizona’s population was black, but most of the players in the NFL were African-American.

King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, musicians Stevie Wonder, Public Enemy and U2, and writer Harlan Ellison led a charge for events and talent to boycott the state, and in 1988, Mecham was impeached. A year later, the state legislature approved the holiday, but Arizona’s constitution required a popular vote.

Even though the league was aware of the political climate in the state, the owners voted 16-12 to give Phoenix the game in kindness to Bidwill and his family, who had been in the league for more than 50 years.

Norman Braman, then-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and chairman of the site selection committee, was open about having the game relocated if the holiday wasn’t approved.

“I think it’s tragic for the people who worked so hard to get the game there,” Braman told The Washington Post. “But I think it would be an affront to our public and our players if the game was played there.”

Los Angeles, which had hosted the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1987 Super Bowl, was awarded the Super Bowl with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, as the host venue. It was estimated that the Phoenix-area economy missed out on nearly $200 million to $250 million in revenue.

“I know we can support this important game and provide the amenities necessary for a gala on the scale of the 1984 Olympic Games,” Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley told The Associated Press. “In addition, the 1993 Super Bowl will provide an economic bonanza to the Southern California region as it embarks on the preparations for this incomparable event.”

While the league was able to resolve the issue during that instance, Arizona was on tap to host the Super Bowl in 1996 as a compromise between Tagliabue and then-Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. It was important to the commissioner that the league pay close attention to the civil rights issue and respond accordingly.

In 1992, the holiday was again placed on the ballot, and with 62 percent approval, Arizona recognized MLK Day, and the 1996 Super Bowl was played at Sun Devil Stadium.
When Arizona lost the Super Bowl because the state didn’t recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day
 

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King was not a partisan and never endorsed any political candidate. In a 1958 interview, King said “I don’t think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses … And I’m not inextricably bound to either party.”

King did, however, weigh in on the Republican party during his lifetime. In Chapter 23 of his autobiography, King writes this about the 1964 Republican National Convention:

"The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism. All people of goodwill viewed with alarm and concern the frenzied wedding at the Cow Palace of the KKK with the radical right. The “best man” at this ceremony was a senator whose voting record, philosophy, and program were anathema to all the hard-won achievements of the past decade.

Senator Goldwater had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated. On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy."

King barnstormed the country on behalf on Johnson in 1964, “maintaining only a thin veneer of nonpartisanship,” according to biographer Nick Kotz. King called Johnson’s win a “great victory for the forces of progress and a defeat for the forces of retrogress.”

Here is what King had to say about Ronald Reagan, the hero of modern Republicans:

"When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor can become a leading war hawk candidate for the Presidency, only the irrationalities induced by a war psychosis can explain such a melancholy turn of events."

No, Martin Luther King Jr. was not a Republican — but here’s what he had to say about them
 
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