There was probably a time, during my days of hardcore political blogging, that this “supremely” epic collapse of the most disgusting elements of the right wing would’ve have amused me and given me some sick pleasure. But those days are long gone. It just depresses me now. I just can’t believe, anytime I really stop and think about it, that this asinine level of political discourse isn’t dramatically harmful to our fabric.
God, why do I read Rush and Newt quotes on Friday nights when I should be shotgunning beers and listening to Springsteen with the kid?
Precisely. That’s why I spend little time here at Polizeros focusing on what extremists on the right are saying. Lots of liberal blogs do a fine job of that anyway, but basically, I don’t care. Hard right extremists are marginalizing themselves more and more everyday, which is a good thing, although their increasing rage and irrationality over no longer having a White House that runs interference for them isn’t.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” –Robert F. Kennedy
Extremists of any stripe– Left, Right, or Other– are counterproductive to peaceful problem solving.
Ignore the extremists at your own peril.
They can’t be ignored– but they also can’t be worked with. They are the fly in the ointment, so to speak.
In Sri Lanka, it was the JVP and the extremist monks who tried to block all moves for peace (and were too often successful). The only solution we came up with was to remain conscious that there very few real extremists, the rest are followers who believe the rhetoric. Convert the convertible, and marginalize the few hardcores.
This is no easy task when the extremists have plenty of press access (or, as in Sri Lanka, when they literally control the media through intimidation). In fact the ONLY way I can see of accomplishing it is through intensive grassroots efforts that bypass the media. That’s how the extremists got their power, and that’s the only way moderates can get it back.