Reply #396: Your definition of activism and King's definition would be miles apart.

[girl gone mad]

King was for confronting the status quo head on, right now.

He would not have wasted two years compromising with the far right on health reform, requesting studies on DADT, standing by while hucksters pillaged the public purse, expanding illegitimate wars that enriched deeply corrupt contractors, etc.

The white moderates King references were in most ways the doppelgangers of today's incrementalists. They advised patience and pragmatism while pushing King to work within the system rather than to defy it. They were the ones who would have said "it's only been two years, what are you complaining about?" Fortunately for us all, he didn't listen to the action liberals of his day. He said human rights can't wait, peace can't wait, justice delayed is justice denied. He had no patience for those who told him political power and public credibility were more important than his personal pony.