How do you feel about this banner that was recently placed in South Carolina?

http://www.trustedpartner.com/images/library/000143/NBRA%20Orangeburg%202b%20web.jpg Time to open our eyes people. See the website on the banner for more details. McCain 08. You do know his niece endorses McCain, right?

Public Comments

1. IT'S TRUE... He was a Republican. He hated the left-wing Democrats who wanted Affirmative Action.
2. i question the validity of that statement.
3. i think they should display it in all 50 (not 57) states!
4. I LOVE IT! MLK's activist neice is against Obama, and said her uncle would have been too!
5. I really don't see the relevance. Political views are a lot different than they were in Mr. Kings time. I don't feel the point they are trying to make has any significance.
6. I don't think that is appropriate. It's as if they are saying that because MLK was a Republican, then he would support McCain. It is not right to use him as a voice for McCain. I don't think this race is predominantly about Republican versus Democrat. I think it is more along the lines of policy and where each candidate plans to take this country.
7. I keep reading on Yahoo! Answers that all black people support Obama because all black people vote on the basis of race and not ideology. Doesn't the existence of dissenting blacks disprove the assumptions repeatedly articulated by Obama haters on this forum?
8. It's meaningless. MLK shadow will not influence one black person to ever vote Republican. Besides it's misleading; you say, he voted for Nixon in 60, Johnson in 64, it would have been Bobby in 68 but he and martin were killed before the election.
9. Thanks, I didn't know that!
10. It's a known fact. that he was a Republican MLK was a bout a whole different agenda, than Mr Obama. wanting. Think about it.
11. i did not know mlk was a republican.some one should tell his family,because they usually back democrats.
12. I've never understood why so many liberals refuse to speak of this.
13. So what is your point? The only Republican president in his adult life was Eisenhower. I used to be a Republican too, but it's not the same party anymore.
14. Its a severe oversimplification of the situation. Yes, MLK was a Republican. Incidentally, he also considered the Democrat JFK an ally. He praised the Democrat Lyndon Banes Johnson for signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Early on in our Nation's history the Democrats favored maintaining slavery. Democrats always represent the poorer classes (because their philosophy includes providing safety nets for the people--poor are the more likely ones to need them), and in that time the pro-Slavery South was the one most likely to need a government safety net. So the Democrats took on their issues, and among those was maintaining slavery. After the Civil War, black people got the right to vote but they were often intimidated into not voting. They had very little say overall in public office. Then came their ability to join the army in WW1, and the Air Force in WW2. When they came back, others again tried to intimidate them down. But this time, they knew it was their right to have a say in the government they protected. This is when the Civil Rights Movement started; in secret in the 40's and 50's, and in earnest in the 60's with the arrival of MLK and Malcolm X and other Civil Rights Leaders. This time around, things were changing. Democrats were again focusing on the issues of poorer people, but this time that included the black race. When black people really looked, they saw that Democrats did provide much of what they were going to need at the time. So they switched to Democrat voting. Some stayed with Republicans, which did still help black people as well; though they were losing their focus on black people in favor of business. Nowadays neither party is racist. While they each have some racists among their ranks; their political philosophies no longer include holding down the black race. It would be political suicide to do so anyway; they would lose black voters, as well as white voters who no longer value racism and want to put it into the past and leave it there. So yes, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. He may or may not have been one today; many of his values are now covered by the Democrats, but not all of them. But either way, its no longer accurate to say he was all Republican and therefore black people absolutely should be as well. Black people, along with every other race, should look at the issues and the stances of the candidates and make their choice that way--not on who was once a Republican and who was a Democrat.
15. Republican propaganda. Who cares if MLK was a republican 50 years ago? Look what the republicans are doing now, and open YOUR eyes!
16. I fail to see how this has any bearing on who should be the next President. Some of you who can't wait to let us know that King was a Republican are the same ones who praise McCain for voting against the MLK holiday.
17. Good banner! Funny how the blacks have deserted MLK for a pop star and a do nothing.
18. the president in office when the great depression hit was republican too so whats your point??
19. The claim that MLK was a Republican is based on supposition. I will grant that a reasonable argument can be made that he would have affiliated with the Republican Party over the Democratic Party in the late Fifties and early Sixties. However, no one has produced any statement from Doctor King, nor anything like a voter registation card, to prove that he actually identified as or ever registered Republican. Second, anyone who knows recent American history realizes that the two parties swtiched roles on racial issues during the Sixties, beginning with the Kennedys and LBJ's support of the civil rights bill, and culminating with Nixon's "Southern Strategy", which was basically "run on white people's fear of blacks". Thus, while MLK might have been a Republican at one time, there is no way he would have stayed with the party. Third, MLK was pro-union (when he was assassinated, he was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike ), a borderline pacifist, and was often called a socialist or even a communist by his detractors. Hr would be TOTALLY unwelcome in today's Republican Party.
20. Well, to be fair things must be taken into perspective. The party that a presidential candidate belongs to doesn't necessarily determine their entire political philosophy. There are conservative democrats, liberal republicans etc. etc. Also, the way a politician has voted in the past may be a compromise with the other political party and NOT a result of their highest held beliefs. Please realize people that a label of "Democrat" or "Republican" does not determine the entire person. If you are a student, then do you only believe and act as a stereotypical student does. If you are a businessman then are you a ruthless and heartless money grubber? Of course not! A label does not determine who you, me or any other famous figure really is. We have our own ideas, feelings etc and must operate in an environment that continually requires adaptation. Even the simple relationship of a couple requires compromise and sacrifice. Imagine what the congresspersons have to deal with!