Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is lauded near-universally by politicians every year, but there are still three members serving in the U.S. Congress who voted against the King holiday — 2 at the federal level and 1 as a state legislator.
Then-President Ronald Reagan reluctantly signed the federal Martin Luther King holiday into law in November of 1983 after the U.S. Senate passed the bill by a 78-22 margin, while the House of Representatives had voted in favor of it by a margin of 338-90. That’s over 78 percent of those who voted, well above the two-thirds needed to override a veto.
The current members of Congress who joined Sen. Jesse Helms in voting against the holiday are all Republicans, although one was a Democrat at the time and later switched parties. They are: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY).
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is the only other member to have voted against a King holiday, in 1999 and 2004, but at the state level.
As tempting as it is to view these votes as relics of a past that America has evolved well past, and could never happen these days, a new poll sheds some doubt on that proposition. The latest The Economist/YouGov poll shows that even fewer Republican voters support the King holiday today than did in 1983.
Asked “Do you think that Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a Federal Holiday?”, only 39 percent of Republicans said “yes,” MLK Day should be a federal holiday, with the remaining 61 percent either against it (36%) or not sure (23%).
Overall, 55 percent of respondents said “yes,” Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a Federal Holiday, with 24 percent responding “no” and another 21 percent saying they were “not sure.”
That’s less Republican support than an October, 1983 poll that found 48 percent of Republicans at the time favored establishing the law. Forty-two percent of Republicans were opposed, while 10 percent were “not sure.”
I wonder how many folks who think Dr. King's birthday shouldn't be a national holiday actually work on that Monday instead of taking it off.
Then-President Ronald Reagan reluctantly signed the federal Martin Luther King holiday into law in November of 1983 after the U.S. Senate passed the bill by a 78-22 margin, while the House of Representatives had voted in favor of it by a margin of 338-90. That’s over 78 percent of those who voted, well above the two-thirds needed to override a veto.
The current members of Congress who joined Sen. Jesse Helms in voting against the holiday are all Republicans, although one was a Democrat at the time and later switched parties. They are: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY).
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is the only other member to have voted against a King holiday, in 1999 and 2004, but at the state level.
As tempting as it is to view these votes as relics of a past that America has evolved well past, and could never happen these days, a new poll sheds some doubt on that proposition. The latest The Economist/YouGov poll shows that even fewer Republican voters support the King holiday today than did in 1983.
Asked “Do you think that Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a Federal Holiday?”, only 39 percent of Republicans said “yes,” MLK Day should be a federal holiday, with the remaining 61 percent either against it (36%) or not sure (23%).
Overall, 55 percent of respondents said “yes,” Martin Luther King’s birthday should be a Federal Holiday, with 24 percent responding “no” and another 21 percent saying they were “not sure.”
That’s less Republican support than an October, 1983 poll that found 48 percent of Republicans at the time favored establishing the law. Forty-two percent of Republicans were opposed, while 10 percent were “not sure.”
MSN
www.msn.com
I wonder how many folks who think Dr. King's birthday shouldn't be a national holiday actually work on that Monday instead of taking it off.
