The Black Republican

Kim du Toit had a lovely idea to oppose McCain-Feingold with some good old-fashioned civil disobedience this year.

Here’s my promise: If a conservative organization wants to run a political ad criticizing any Congressman up for re-election during that 60-day window, I’ll let them run one on this website, for free, right up until Election Day.

I would go even a little further. There would be sweet justice in using practices espoused by Martin Luther King and updated for the 21st century to oppose this despicable measure, which threatens to prevent good men like Michael Steele, Lynn Swann, and Ken Blackwell from gaining office.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.

One has to wonder If the good Dr. King had lived long enough to see one of the "Jewish brothers" who marched with him subjected to treatment like this, if he would have wasted any time denouncing the vile imagery. I wonder if he would have rejoiced to see a black Congresswoman challenged and turned out of office by another black man. And I would hope that he would have led us all in defending our First Amendment rights in opposition to the unconstitutional muzzling attempted by McCain-Feingold.

I heartily encourage Project 21, the NBRA, and all black conservative candidates to use the services of The Black Republican as they see fit during the coming election season. We will not sit out this election, but we very much intend to sit in for it.

Dean