conservative compassion

A little late to post, but as I was listening to some MLK speeches that were played on student radio yesterday, I was reminded that despite his current universal canonization he was a political leader as well as a civil rights leader, and took some pretty strong "leftist" views, from opposition to the Vietnam war to active agitation for labor rights (he was supporting a garbage workers' strike when he was assassinated in Memphis).

Like duh, dude. But that's why it's galling to me when contemporary conservatives appropriate him. I mean, weren't they screaming that Rev. King was a dirty commie not so long ago? Weren't they the ones yelling about states' rights being more important than human beings? Who was supporting apartheid until its collapse? Liberals?

I have my problems with leftists. They can hold naive dualistic views, sometimes also leading them to support dictators for ideological reasons. But dammit, like they say in Latin America, the heart is on the left. If you care about human beings suffering, you act, maybe through naive government intervention or inefficient labor unions, rather than saying that tax cuts and the free market will cure all ills. Conservatives can be useful as a counterweight sometimes, but damn, they never missed an opportunity to oppose morally imperative changes.

Dr. King was a conservative, in the same land where Iraq is a shiny happy place, and global warming is caused by liberals hating America.