Fox News celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. day in its own unique and ironic way. The article “Ronald Reagan – More of a Friend to Blacks than Obama?” by Michael Reagan (president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation), claims that Ronald Reagan did more for blacks than Barack Obama. But the article does it using crude sniping, especially its conclusion:

Today, as our nation honor’s [sic] Dr. King, less than a month before the hundredth birthday of Ronald Reagan, it’s fitting to note that Ronald Reagan did more to improve the lives of African-Americans than any other president since Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that America’s first black president has made life worse for us all—and especially for black Americans. History does not judge presidents by the color of their skin, but by the content of their policies.

So are we to forget about the Ronald Reagan who aligned himself with the apartheid government of South Africa? Or the Reagan administration which famously classified ketchup as a vegetable so they could cut funding for low-income school lunches? Or the Reagan who opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (calling it “bad legislation”), and fought to restore federal tax exemptions to schools like Bob Jones University who discriminated against blacks? The Reagan who pandered for racist votes? My family was personally affected, when as governor of California he cut funding for the Head Start school that my mother ran, which studies had shown actually saved the state money by keeping disadvantaged kids in school.

So how does Michael Reagan support his argument that his father was a friend to blacks? Yup, you guessed it, using stories that show that some of his father’s best friends were blacks. sigh