Oddbean

@b05df304 Finally back to the topic. You haven’t answered my questions directly (this would be helpful for the future) but since you write Any time he has been asked to side with a party or a part of the political spectrum he never has… I assume that means you disagree with MLK being a democratic socialist. So for quotes you can have a whole collection here, but you can also check the sources of the Wikipedia page for MLK. The latter also contains quotes where he clearly states he at least mostly voted for Democrats (and he was even planning to endorse one, only a political assassination stopped him), and no indication whatsoever that he ever voted for a Republican – imo that’s much less interesting than his actual political views, but also disproves the other part of your statement about not siding with any of the parties.

@62f94e11 So first lets lead in with another quote showing his centrism: “The Negro has been betrayed by both the Republican and the Democratic party. The Democrats have betrayed him by capitulating to the whims and caprices of the Southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed him by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of reactionary right wing northern Republicans.” – MLK I assume that means you disagree with MLK being a democratic socialist You seem to misunderstand centrists.. They can and will pick views on one side of the fence or another.. gut they will not espouse it as an ideologically pure idea, they will try to temper it and bring it to a modified more central manifestation. I am about as centrist as you get, but I have views on both sides of the spectrum, usually strongly, and always modifiy those views to address the nuance rather than use a sledge hammer, bringing them closer to the center. For example sure, I beleive in free guns, but i also beleive in tax paid resources, like giving everyone a free gun paid for by taxes… cant get more centrist than that! (I am half-joking of course)… But to get back to MLK, yes he leaned more social-welfare capitalism (what we really mean when we say democratic socialism) than pure capitalism. In fact he even made clear that while he liked the idea of social-welfare the pure system of socialism would need to be modified in some way in order to be of use to us. Here is the quote: “If we are going to achieve a real equality, the U.S. will have to adopt a modified form of Socialism.” – MLK So yea as always he leaned one way, but never to the ideaologically pure end of the spectrum where the extremes exist, he lives well within the moderates and close to the center. The latter also contains quotes where he clearly states he at least mostly voted for Democrats (and he was even planning to endorse one, only a political assassination stopped him), and no indication whatsoever that he ever voted for a Republican That sounds like a compelling argument. Sadly when i followed the cited sources so i could read and gather an opinion I couldnt find anything linked I could follow. More research needed.

@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.

@62f94e11 Yes your right i did mix those up.. while i was familiar witht he difference i do often mix them up accidentally due to the bad naming. Yes I agree being against the two parties doesnt neccesarly make you centrist, only when other quotes are lacking it is suggestive of that. Assuming the quotes on wikipedia can be verified (so far I havent been able to) then I agree his statements would be suggestive of a left lean. My definition of centrist appears fine and normal, I just lacked some information about MLK.