Pence Is No MLK Acolyte
Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on April 4, 2018.
“…What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?”— Martin Luther King, 1968
Earlier today, Mike Pence took to Twitter in order to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the civil rights leader’s slaying, tweeting, “50 years ago today, Dr. King’s life was tragically cut short — but that did not stop his immortal words, his courageous example and his faith from inspiring generations of Americans. Today we honor the man and the Dream. #MLK50.”
While my more cynical self would have chalked this up to simple PR, I have to admit that Pence was in the habit of claiming to idolize King long before he boarded the Trump Train. That being said, Pence probably did it because he wanted to.
While King advocated for universal basic income and worked on the Poor People’s Campaign, Pence, like many far-right politicians, successfully married culture war issues with a pro-corporate/anti-worker agenda, successfully manipulating his working-class supporters into voting against their own economic interests.
His record as governor of Indiana proves that Pence has little regard for the poor. While he reluctantly allowed Medicaid expansion in his state under Obamacare, he signed legislation that kicked about 65,000 needy people off the food stamp rolls, stating that his actions would “ennoble” them. His double barrelled assault on Planned Parenthood not only made it more difficult for thousands of low-income Indiana women to access birth control, pap smears, and mammograms but indirectly caused an HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana, the poorest county in Indiana.
He didn’t show much compassion for the less fortunate during his twelve years in Congress, either. He voted against increasing funding to the Section 8 program, against increasing the minimum wage, and against issuing college tuition grants to college students who lived in areas where most lived below poverty line.
Like many so-called conservative white people of his generation, Pence reveres Martin Luther King so much simply because he is dead. As Mignon McLaughlin once said, “every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” Because dead troublemakers don’t agitate for reform, ask hard questions, call out hypocrisy, or make demands, it is easy to admire their work without giving any real thought to it.
Mike Pence is a lot of things but his actions make it clear that he hasn’t actually studied Martin Luther King’s words. And claiming to be an admirer of King only draws more attention to Mike Pence’s many hypocrisies.
