The final volume of Taylor Branch's magisterial biography shows how Martin Luther King Jr. reached out to his enemies. His example should shame the shrill partisans on both sides of our poisonous cultural divide

Did anyone find this at all ironic when they got to the third page? Yes, all those 'shrill partisans', but they all happen to be on the other side of the divide.

Good work, this year we may set the world record for envoking King's name to be political advantegous. When King's nephews spoke in Philadelphia in support of bush and when Hillary compared the house of Representatives to a plantation on MLK day, and now this. Let's put more words in the mouth of the dead person for our personal gain!

"Against the current certainty on the right and the left that the other side is beneath contempt, not worth talking to -- an attitude that leaves no possibility for real change and reduces democracy to majority tyranny, no matter who is in power -- we have King's belief in the ability of people and their country to overcome the worst in themselves."

Let's be very clear here, Charles.

It is the right wing who has shut down dialogue, the right wing that is currently purging government of independent and moral voices.

It is the right wing that pandered, and continues to pander, to the basest elements of race hatred and racism in society -- not to mention a host of other issues that King himself fought: sexism, homophobia --

To pretend that this is some kind of "equal opportunity" debasement, that the left is as guilty as the right in failing the black community, is either a base slander, or a terrific kind of intellectual laziness.

Either way, it is not a characteristic that one finds in Branch or King.

I suggest, if you want to comment about the current political climate, you go deeper than a few "facts" cherrypicked from cable TV. Perhaps you are aware of the vast moral gulf between the left and right today, and think it is conciliatory to pretend it doesn't exist.

King didn't get his work done by papering over the truth.

This is one of the better articles I've read in a while especially in that it does not blame either side (with the exception of the Gonzales bit near the end). What so few people seem to realize, is that the "other side" is hardly worse than "our side" and don't seem to see that the right sees us in the same way that so many see them. Essentially the left and the right are doing the exact same thing to each other, and passing judgment on those who disagree with them. For once people should consider why the other side thinks the way they do; believes what they do. You can't blame Bush for seeing in black and white, and then talk about how evil the Republican party is.

Many on both sides will only see the most militant adherents to a certain idea: for instance, the left sees bible thumping evangelicals and the right sees peace activists saying "F--- America," then believes that these fringe groups are representative of that group. Until you start to understand why people think the way they do you can't judge them; they may be looking at the issue from a perspective you had not thought of. The simplistic simplistic Bush hating I see here all to often, is making things worse, not better.

I must also take Mr. Taylor to task for casting the current national situation as somehow being the equal responsibility of both right and left. It is not the left or center that have abandoned the very notions of what counts as legitimate government, but rather a theocratic, amoral right-wing that seeks unitary executive power, unilateral and eternal pre-emptive war, and American empire as a desirable outcome.

The problem in America is not too little civility but too much; historically speaking, secession or civil war are the only proportional responses to the right's march towards native fascism. Until the so-called "opposition" Democrats realize this, they are nothing more than enabling collaborators.

Democrats should 'reach out'... hey, it's fun to be Charlie Brown while the Republicans play Lucy holding the football. Maybe we can all wear a giant neon 'kick me again' sign while we do this outreach. Sorry ... count me out. The lying murderous scum running this country should be called lying murderous scum.

As long as you place responsibility for the world you live in, whether your own household or your workplace or the country or the world at large onto someone else, you've ceded your power and ability to do a damned thing to change the situation.

The huge reason the right rules today is that its opposition is infantile. It's the best explanation for how an inept, ineffectual and corrupt group rule us today. We've abandoned putting our own butts out on the line for the safety of b'ing and moaning on the internet. We'd rather sit in our high chairs and whine that our diaper needs changing instead of doing the dirty work ourselves.

To say it again -- WE are responsible for the way things are, not the d-ckweed in the whitehouse, whose never taken responsibility for a damned thing in his life. Unfortunately, we have the leader we deserve.

Taylor is dead on target in this piece. Salon is poorer having lost him as a regular contributor.

Mr. Taylor has written an excellent review.

However.

Mr. Taylor's exceptional prose serves to undermine his own argument.

While it is reasonable to want the American Right and Left to enter into some sort of meaningful exchange, it's crucial to remember that Dr. King's strength was a direct result of his absolute command of the English language and its rhetorical traditions.

I can't think of any politician or political activist alive today who seems to care about language or rhetoric. Our present politicians and political activists seem incapable of explaining their own ideas in a lucid fashion even to people who sympathize with their views.

It's instructive to listen to Nixon's off-the-cuff remarks during the Watergate era and compare his cogent, if not particularly beautiful, command of English with the incoherent dithering of the liberal and conservative nitwits in Washington who appear on TV nowadays.

Of course Right and Left aren't "talking" with each other. They're barely literate and aren't particularly troubled by their ignorance.