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ME, A POLITICAL EXTREMIST? No way! I alone inhabit the sane middle.A more serious inquiry into what constitutes political extremism can be found at the Swampland where Joe Klein gives us two lists of characteristics for such extremism, one for the right and one for the left. But they both end with this:
--regularly uses harsh, vulgar, intolerant language to attack [the opposition]I wonder if Joe got interested in this topic because of the faggot comment by Ann Coulter and the initial reluctance of the traditional media to take her to task on that? Or is it the foul language that the liberal/progressive bloggers are accused of that caused these two posts?In fact, the extreme (and even less extreme) right and the extreme (well, almost not at all extreme) left use language quite differently. The right hardly ever uses naughty words, even when advocating genocide or the lynching of judges or journalists. The left, on the other hand, tends to express its anger in a dirtier but ultimately less threatening manner. Now which do you think is worse?It would be lovely if everybody wrote in as civilized manner as I do (notice my curved pinky as I gently raise the translucent china cup of bergamot tea to my sweetly smiling lips?). But if this cannot be arranged (and it might not be feasible right now, though with time and better political debates a change might come about), I prefer the vocabulary of the left to the threats of the right.The anger of the left is not irrational as the conservative meme-machine keeps telling us. It is anger caused by the patriotic march to a pre-emptive war on manufactured evidence, anger caused by much of the media adopting a cheerleader stand to this march, and anger at the recent explosion of right-wing rhetoric at various cable television shows and at the opinion pages of many newspapers without any apparent attempt to open up the debate to even quite moderately liberal voices, not to mention the real extremists of the left. Or so many on the left and even in the center feel, I believe.Which reminds me that it is quite possible to be angry and a moderate, especially when the country veers towards one political extremism.--J. Goodrich
