When I hear weak and tepid calls for unity, I’m reminded of these words by Martin Luther King Jr. and also this letter which was a resounding critique of white moderates.

“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be?” 1/5

Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. 2/5
We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality,and thus fell below their environment. 3/5
The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Letters from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963). 4/5
There can be no unity with white supremacists, nazis, and others who raided the Capitol

But citizens of good faith across diverse political/religious affiliations can find courage to seek a more beautiful way-become extremists for love.Truth tellers. Healers. Justice makers 5/5
Someone just DM’d to ask me if I believe fundamentally that GOP supporters are racist.

I’m suggesting no such thing. For years, I’ve heard GOP friends and family claim both Abraham Lincoln and MLK jr to their party with great pride. And they should.
In a moment of national crisis, we will know who belongs to the “party of Lincoln”/ “party of MLK jr” and who is guided by these enduring truths, have been formed by it and aspire to bear its fruit in the public square by those appealing to it/living by it out loud w/ intention
That’s meant to be an invitation to remember Lincoln’s words

“that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom[8]—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.[6][9]”
The single greatest fear/ threat to an ideology of White Supremacy are as it turns out the is beautiful promise and expansive reach of democracy which lifts and liberates, and while not perfect has as its noble aim “government of the people, by the people, for the people...”
If someone receives these words as an offense as a rebuke or as a stinging indictment or really anything other than a call to love inclusive broad diverse coalition upon which a true unity can be built—well, that’s that individuals to wrestle with and to ask the question “why?”
My suggestion is that their issue is not with me, or my choice to quote and appeal to the greatest moral and spiritual leaders of any particular political persuasion and to quote them in their appropriate context...

their issue is with the broader premise of democracy itself.

More from Government

This is a good piece on fissures within the GOP but I think it mischaracterizes the Trump presidency as “populist” & repeats a story about how conservatives & the GOP expelled the far-right in the mid-1960s that is actually far more complicated. /1

I don’t think the sharp opposition between “hard-edge populism” & “conservative orthodoxy” holds. Many of the Trump administration’s achievements were boilerplate conservatism. Its own website trumpets things like “massive deregulation,” tax cuts, etc. /2

https://t.co/N97v85Bb79


The claim that Buckley and “key GOP politicians banded together to marginalize anti-Communist extremism and conspiracy-mongering” of the JBS has been widely repeated lately but the history is more complicated. /3


This tweet by @ThePlumLineGS citing a paper by @sam_rosenfeld and @daschloz on the "porous" boundary between conservatives, the GOP and the far-right is relevant in this context.


This is a separate point but I find it interesting that Gaetz, like Roy Moore did In his failed Senate campaign, disses McConnell. What are their actual policy differences? MM supported taking health care away from millions, a tax cut for the rich, conservative judges, etc. /5

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