50 Years On, MLK's "Dream" Hobbled by "Progressives" Whose Good Intentions Have Engendered a "Nightmare of Dependence"

Listening to all the Democrats yesterday natter on (and on) about how the government hasn't done nearly enough to help fulfill Martin Luther King's dream, I couldn't help but think: where are the black Republicans? Where is, say, Dr. Ben Carson? Where's Thomas Sowell? Where is Allen West?

We know where they were. At work. Getting on with it. Refusing to join the victimist chorus of carpers, kvetchers and cavilers.

Where's Allen West? Here he is, delivering a message that no Democrat ever could or would:

Dr. King postulated that, "the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." 

There can be no doubt that we have highly successful blacks in all walks of life, but when we examine the state of America's inner cities we must all be appalled; shall I say Detroit? 

We have fought to break the chains of physical bondage, but today the chains of economic bondage are even worse. This is not about social justice but about ensuring that the economic opportunities of America can resurrect small business entrepreneurship in the black community. Our economic, tax, and regulatory policies must promote free market growth, investment, innovation and ingenuity to enable self-reliance. 

We need to promote the growth of our small community banks in order to provide the capital for those in our inner cities with an idea in their heads and determination in their hearts. The Reagan administration proposed such an initiative – urban economic empowerment zones. 

Dr. King stated that, "America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds." Today, the government is issuing electronic benefits transfer cards and even recruiting for enrollment. The government is issuing free cell phones. This is not the dream King wanted, the nightmare of dependence...

Exactly. But you'll never hear Oprah or Obama or Al Sharpton or Bill Clinton any other "progressive" utter that truth. No, their "cure" for the problem is more--much more--of the specific actions which propagated the nightmare.