Allen West Keeps Ties Intact to National Conservatives

Former Congressman Allen West is trying to keep his ties to the conservative movement intact despite being turned out by the voters last year. West has opened the door to a political comeback in 2016.

Earlier this week, West spoke at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. On Tuesday, he headed to Europe to take part in National Reviews annual summer cruise. West offered his thoughts on how his role showed how conservatives supported civil rights.

I was invited to be a guest speaker with a premier assembly of conservative thinkers, West posted on Facebook. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to know that a young black man born and raised in his same neighborhood rose based upon character. It is this equality of opportunity that is great about America ... not President Obama's phony rhetoric of inequality which is no more than equality of outcomes -- social egalitarianism. Where in this world is it possible for someone like me to have come from whence I did and now be heading to Europe with my family to speak on a conservative cruise? I would hope William F. Buckley Jr. and Dr. King are smiling above as the embodiment of conservatism and the civil rights movement has come to fruition. The nature of conservatism is that it sees no color. The nature of liberal progressivism is that color is all it sees.

Actually, Buckley had conflicting thoughts on King and the civil rights movement. In 1957, Buckley penned pieces in National Review arguing Southern whites needed to prevail against the civil rights movement but Buckley eventually changed on the matter and became a vocal supporter of honoring King with a federal holiday.