Painting Moderates as Extremists
"Fear and dull disposition, lukewarmness and sloth, are not seldom wont to cloak themselves under the affected name of Moderation." - John Milton 1642."The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability." - Paul Valery, 1957.
DESPITE the malcontents on the Left and the Right, the country is fundamentally stable, sated, and visibly smiling. While there are legitimate and important grievances and problems and some diversions from the path of ease, when viewed on a global and historical scale, there is an ubiquitous contentment and comfort since the end of the Depression and World War II and particularly since the early 1980's. There will always be need for reform and change, but most wish only to nudge the status quo. While contentment may nurture a superficiality and shallowness, in such an environment, extremism is the ultimate pejorative.
In 1964 while running for president, Barry Goldwater proclaimed that, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." He promptly lost all but a handful of states to President Lyndon Johnson.
If a political opponent can be effectively painted with the label extremist, the debate is essentially lost. This explains the vigor with which partisans endeavor to isolate adversaries at one end of the political spectrum or the other. The anti-war movement in the 1960's might have been more effective earlier if not for the university bombings and a deep and profound anti-American antipathy on the part of some that isolated anti-War activists.
In 1994, fresh from the collapse of his health care initiative and loss of the House of Representatives for the first time in a generation, President Clinton was desperate for a way out of his political troubles. On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh handed Clinton an opportunity he was politically astute enough to grab. After it was clear that an anti-federal government fanatic was responsible for the Oklahoma Bombing, it became easy for Clinton to associate Republicans with McVeigh and extremism. What made this association easy was a sympathetic press.
The press pestered Newt Gingrich and other Republicans with questions as to whether their revolutionary rhetoric and efforts to decrease the size and intrusiveness of the federal government contributed to a climate that induced McVeigh to bomb a federal building, killing scores. Of course, arguing about the size and scope of government is not an invitation to violence. Nonetheless, the press planted the not so subtle idea that reducing the size of government is the province of anti-American extremists and overweight scraggily bearded militias. The Oklahoma Bombing marked a turn in Clinton's political fortunes.
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