The political spectrum runs the gamut from crazy-on-the-left to crazy-on-the-right, but most of us are somewhere between those extremes. Most human qualities are distributed on something resembling a bell curve, fat in the middle and tapering to points at each side. Political views are no exception: most of us, Republican or Democrat, left or right, conservative or liberal, are closer to the middle than to either end.
It’s easy to buy into a caricature of the great American divide, an exaggerated portrayal that casts one or both sides as extremists who subscribe to the views of the tiny little fringe down at either end of the opinion curve. This is hardly surprising: whether you’re selling advertising (the press, Hollywood), trying to claim the virtuous high ground (Hollywood, politicians), or trying to push your preferred policy (politicians, advocates), it’s useful to portray your opponent as an idiot or a monster — in short, as an extremist.
Pick your topic. Abortion? One extreme would ban it completely; another would allow it right up to the moment of birth — or, possibly, just a little bit longer. The environment? One extreme wants to outlaw private transportation and impose astronomical energy costs on the nation; another would… well, I’m not exactly sure what an environmental extremist on the other end looks like, but I’m sure there are a few of them out there.
On immigration, one extreme wants to expel every illegal alien from the country and stop immigration entirely; the other wants to abolish ICE and throw open the borders. The economy? At one extreme, people call for outright socialism, a centrally planned and managed economy, and the de facto abolition of markets; at another extreme, radical anarcho-capitalists want to get rid of government and laws, keeping only the free market.
Sex? One extreme maintains that all men are rapists and all sex is rape; another, that women should have legal rights inferior to those of men. Race? One extreme says that America is systematically targeting black people for destruction, and that blacks and whites should each have their own nation; another extreme says that non-whites are inferior to whites — and that blacks and whites should each have their own nation. (Sometimes supposedly opposite extremes resemble each other more than one might expect.)
Etc., etc.
The vast majority of us are reasonably sane, and reject the extremes. We aren’t caricatures. We’re normal people living normal lives, seeking sensible compromises, getting along with people who don’t agree with us about some things but who are, nonetheless, still decent and sensible people. Most of us don’t know many people at the extremes, though we hear about them all the time on television and in social media. This is true whether we tend to think of ourselves as right or left, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.
But here’s an odd thing. It’s hard to find respected voices on the right calling for crazy things. People on the right don’t like craziness, even when it’s coming from their own side. But it’s fairly easy to find respected voices on the left calling for things that sound nutty to most of us: abortion-until-birth (NY, Virginia, Vermont, etc.), black/white separatism (Black Lives Matter, Nation of Islam), socialism (Bernie, Acasio-Cortez, etc.), radical environmentalism, radical views about sexuality and identity, open borders, etc.
I won’t deny that there are crazy people on the right. But folks on the right try to keep them tucked away, out of sight. We don’t want to hear from them any more than the left does, and we sure don’t want them thinking they represent us. Because they don’t.
I don’t know why my friends on the left put up with the prominent extremists who claim to represent them. Partly I suspect it’s because our culture tilts left, and so left-wing extremism doesn’t stand out quite as much as right-wing extremism does: we’re all a little bit accustomed to nutty leftists. But partly, I’m pretty sure, it’s because leftist extremism is just more exciting, just feels better. Socialism sounds cool, never mind that it makes people poor and corrupt and mean and hungry. It sounds kind of romantic, in spite of its dismal record in the real world. And any claim of victimhood is going to be appealing, because we all respond to injustice, real and imagined.
So I guess it’s understandable why people who lean left tolerate prominent crazy people speaking on their behalf. But it’s a mistake: almost no one wants to live in the world the extremists would create. It would be good for all of us if their supporters would let the extremists know that crazy isn’t on the menu, and that they have to dial it back. Otherwise, there’s a good chance that the nuttiest people are going to be calling the tunes for the rest of us.