…between Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama ?

Martin Luther King believed in his heritage—as an American.

He believed that every person born in America inherited the full rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States. He spent his career and often risked physical abuse fighting for that single goal.

Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up in an America which taught every child to cherish our Founding Fathers, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our heritage. So there was little irony that Dr. King arose as a black leader who celebrated America.

After black Americans sacrificed and died alongside white Americans during the Second World War, and when soon after the economy expanded so rapidly offering black Americans economic opportunities which had been unimaginable to their parents, they demanded that alongside those opportunities, they now be guaranteed the rights to vote and to participate fully as Americans—not as second class or inferior Americans.

King arose as a catalyst for the cause of political and social freedom. During many marches, speeches, and even during his time in jail, he wrote of the duty of Americans to accept blacks as full Americans, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and promised in the Constitution.

In his most famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, King spoke of his children playing side by side with white Americans, without any condemnation or malice.

Although he did not live to see the result of his work, King succeeded. Black Americans are lauded in entertainment, sports, and business. Most of our biggest celebrities over the last 35 years have been  black: from Michael Jackson, Oprah, and Michael Jordan to Robert L. Johnson, the Williams Sisters and Puff Daddy, up to Beyoncé, JayZ, Samuel L. Jackson, and Barack and Michelle Obama. They are lauded for their successes, and children across the nation look up to them.
So why is Dr. King different from President Obama?

You can go in to almost any public school across America and see a life-sized-mural of a grinning President Obama with arms folded standing in front of an American flag with a smaller picture of Martin Luther King, Jr in one corner and Frederick Douglass in the other corner.

But the difference between Obama and King is crystal clear: Dr. King believed in America. He rarely gave a speech or interview without expressing his reverence for the Constitution and the urgency of fulfilling its promise to all Americans.

Dr. King used his faith in God and faith in the goodness of Americans to expand opportunities for a suppressed minority. Obama did the opposite.

President Obama has spent his career voicing disdain for the Constitution and insulting Americans. He spent the last eight years ignoring or leap-frogging clear constitutional law and precedent to force his vision of a transformed society onto a shocked America.

Obama regularly claimed the mantle of Martin Luther King, Jr.

But only one man loved America.

— the Beltway Bandit