MLK said the same thing over 50 years ago in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” His remarks were true long before that and they have continued to be true.

A moderate position (including incremental change) is almost always a conservative position (in the strictest sense of “conservative”: to conserve things as they are; to maintain the status quo; to reject change).

Take civil rights. You are either for fixing a discriminatory system or you are against fixing it. Saying that you want to fix it in the future is the same as wanting to maintain discrimination. King pointed out that the white moderates were just as racist as segregationists like Bull Connor, but the segregationists were more honest.

You can have adequate health insurance for everyone or you can have adequate health insurance for only some people.

You can have a public school system that provides equal opportunity for all students or you can have a public school system that maintains systemic racial and economic discrimination.

You can do something to reduce violence by mass murderers or you can do nothing.

You think equally qualified people should earn the same salary regardless of gender, or you don’t.

Now the steps necessary to bring about change may be (for any particular individual’s taste) too fast or too slow or just right.

But we’ll never get to those steps if we continue to seek cover under the guise of moderation.