Oddbean

@b05df304 The quotes you bring up show he disliked both parties, I’m arguing that this is not the same as centrism – otherwise a hardline communist would count as a centrist, since they also heavily dislike both US parties. And again, neither US party supported or supports democratic socialism, and neither of them supported or supports MLK’s views on solving racism. So he couldn’t have just picked views from between the parties, since they were both to the right of him. You could say he was a moderate if you also admitted that both US parties are on the right, but I’m pretty sure that is not your position (although it is mine). Also, you are confusing democratic socialism with social democracy. Not your fault, the names are terrible (and while looking this up I learned there is also socialist democracy which is another different thing… great naming). Only the second is the social-welfare capitalism you mention, and MLK supported the first. You seem to have a definition of “centrist” that either covers anyone who ever thought about their political opinions rather than just joining a team, or is about being between the two US parties – these definitions are clearly incompatible, so which one is it? Or are you using an even different one? For the sources you could’ve really spent a little more time and you would have found them, e.g. about endorsing Kennedy. You might also be interested that while he never ended up endorsing a Democrat, he explicitly spoke out against Republicans, look for “Republican candidate” here for the quote.