January 12, 2024 11:59 AM UTC

MLK Resolution Passes With Everybody BUT Rep. Scott Bottoms

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• by: Colorado Pols

On this Friday before the federal holiday Monday commemorating civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Colorado House passed its customary resolution honoring Dr. King with lots of specification on both sides. In previous years, this resolution has witnessed more than its share of controversy, from the “sponsorship boycott” last year in which no Republican House members signed on to the resolution, to supremely forgettable speeches like former Rep. Lori Saine’s bizarre belief that as many white people were lynched as African-Americans during the Reconstruction era. This year the speeches were by all accounts more tame, and a few Republicans actually even signed on as cosponsors.

Instead, the 2024 MLK resolution was marred by the lone protest vote against honoring Dr. King’s legacy from GOP Rep. Scott “There Is No” Bottoms, acting out the contrarian role of his HD-15 predecessors in office Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams and Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt as the guy who will say the thing far-right Republicans all want to say but out of lingering desire for self-preservation shy away from. No need to take our word for it, here is Bottoms’ explanation for being the only “no” vote in the Colorado House on HJR24-1004:

[T]here are major statements in the resolution that I strongly disagree with, because in the quotes that I’m reading and will continue reading, they they are the exact opposite of what Doctor Martin Luther King said himself. Not what I’m saying, but what he said. He said in his I Have a Dream speech, said I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And there are statements in this resolution that go strongly against his words right there, and it is not okay for me.

I have a dream as a white grandfather of biracial grandchildren, that we could live in a country someday where we’re not judged by the color of our skin, and where people make the assumption ahead of time what your ideology is and what your your prejudices are, are not according to the color of your skin. You cannot you cannot assess that by someone’s skin color. And we are regressing as a country. And this resolution is confirming that that we are regressing within this…

This led us to read through the text of this year’s MLK resolution to identify which specific parts “are the exact opposite of what Dr. Martin Luther King said himself,” and we confess we were unable to do so. We did find some lines in the resolution that might make Rep. Bottoms uncomfortable, like the part about how “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” But that happens to be a verbatim quote of Dr. King. If Rep. Bottoms decides to clarify what his specific issue with the language of the resolution was that prevented him from voting yes along with every other Republican in the House minority, even Bottoms’ usual partner in ignominy Rep. Ken “Skin” DeGraff[t], we’ll be happy to update.

But we don’t expect it. De facto House leader Bottoms never stops talking, but he doesn’t apologize or explain.