The Extremism Ploy

Suppose you wanted to radically remake America.  Suppose you intended to undermine our democratic institutions and replace them with a centralized autocracy.  How would you go about it?  What would you do to convince ordinary citizens that this was in their interest?

Further suppose that a major political party opposed to your agenda.  Add to this the fact that most Americans are moderate.  They do not like radical practices.  How would you get a majority of these folks to ignore your own extremism?

Liberals have, in fact, found several ways to achieve this end.  Thus, for years they sought to discredit conservatives by labeling them “extremists.”  The idea was to frighten ordinary citizens into believing those protecting their heritage were actually wild-eyed revolutionaries.

It didn’t matter what conservatives supported.  Whatever it was, was portrayed as alarming.  Did they want to roll back ObamaCare?  Why this would leave millions of people dying an agonizing death on our streets.  Did they wish to send criminal aliens back home?  This would surely break up families and leave children wailing in misery.

The latest iterations of the extremism charge have, of course, been hurled at president Donald Trump.  With his shock of yellow tinted hair and podium gesticulations, he is a Hollywood casting director’s dream of what a political hooligan might look like.

And so not only do we hear him accused of extremism directly.  We also hear it said that he wants to dismantle the First Amendment.  He is obviously against free speech and freedom of the press.  Given that he is a racist, sexist lout, the only way he can get to torture the weak and helpless is by removing their constitutional protections.

This attack strategy is of ancient vintage.  The original progressives used it against the robber barons.  Franklin Roosevelt trotted it out against business leaders.  Barry Goldwater was accused of wanting to start a nuclear war.  Ronald Reagan evidently hoped to do the same.

Now it is Trump’s turn to get the wild man treatment.  Somehow it is extreme to tell a federal judge that he made a mistake in blocking a presidential order.  Obama railed against many Supreme Court decisions, but Trump cannot be allowed to describe a liberal magistrate as a “so-called” judge.  That is an intemperate strike on the separation of powers.

Nor can Trump accuse journalists of dishonesty.  When he calls them out for months of fake news, this is obviously an assault on the press itself.  By now everybody with half a brain knows the mainstream media are deeply biased, but their minions still pose as aggrieved innocents.

As for sending criminal aliens home, what could be more vicious?  Closing our borders is anti-democratic.  It is an outrageous attempt to deny the third world under class the benefits of American largesse.  Nice countries build bridges, not walls.

The extremism poly is therefore one more liberal con-job.  It has been repeated so often, from so many mouths, that it has begun to sound like a self-evident truth.  In reality, it turns the facts on their head.  It is liberals who are the extremists.  It is they who want to undo the constitution and substitute a benign despotism for our democratic institutions.

Getting rid of private medicine and placing it under federal control; that was extreme.  Enticing millions of Americans onto the dole; that was extreme.  Reducing public schools to dumbed down propaganda vehicles; that was extreme.  Regulating mud puddles on family farms; that was extreme.

Freedom, as they say, is not free.  It has to be defended with our blood and treasure.  But is also has to be defended against deception and manipulation.  The extremism ploy is just one more way to persuade us to let down our guard.  It must thus be seen for what it is and rejected out of hand. 

Goldwater said that extremism in defense of freedom is no vice.  But neither is it extremism.  It is common sense.  The American Dream was once decried as a menace to civilized society.  We Americans ought not be complicit in propagating this canard.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University