Martin Luther King, Jr. versus William F. Buckley, Jr., by @DavidOAtkins

Martin Luther King, Jr. versus William F. Buckley, Jr.

by David Atkins

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice.”

William F. Buckley, Jr.:

[National Review, and by extension the conservative movement] stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

King (paraphrasing Theodore Parker) left out a key element: that the arc of the universe does bend, but only because of the concerted and often martyred efforts of liberals like himself to make it bend toward justice despite being hampered at every turn by the Buckleys of the world demanding that the arc slow down and remain more unjust for a little bit longer.

Why anyone would want to take Buckley's side of this question is baffling.


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