We seem to be living in a time of extremes. Not just “extreme sports” and “extreme makeovers” and even toothpaste that claims to give you “extreme clean.” But in a time when opinions, options and actions have all become extreme.
Four years ago we had a presidential election that was split, almost 50/50. While the popular vote was half a million votes apart (with the loser becoming president), that’s still a tiny percentage difference between these two groups. Traditionally elections are not this close. And the same pattern has been repeating in elections around the world.
This year the highest grossing movie is a right-wing revisionist history about the Passion of Christ, while the best selling book, the DaVinci Code, is a polar opposite revisionist history. Both are wildly popular yet their messages are diametrically opposed.
What’s going on?
The universe is constantly trying to remain in balance. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
There are always extreme fringe factions—a small minority with the strongest opinions, and usually the most closed minds. Whether on the left or right, they are all radicals in their own way. They all think the system isn’t just broken, it needs replacement.
In the past, most people were near the center—they could lean to the right or left, depending on the circumstances.
But now the fringe factions are center stage. The smallest, loudest, most closed-minded groups have taken power. It started on the “right” with the so-called conservatives who are about as conservative as Karl Marx.
While the radical right loves to use the word “liberal” as if it was a four-letter-word, they are rampantly liberal in terms of the changes they are making to the very core of American Democracy. They are not just challenging, but dismantling over 200 years of Democracy. They aren’t merely liberal with democracy, they are libertine.
In reality, the “extreme right wing” are total radicals who don’t believe democracy works. They are working towards a fascist dictatorship model. Even current members of the administration publicly says (and this is a quote from the White House), “Democracy moves too slowly.”
And so, for the universe to counter this growing force, the extreme left-wing, traditionally known as “radicals” is now having to take on the role of conservatives. These so-called radicals are fighting for such radical ideas as freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, personal freedom and fiscal responsibility.
The current “left-wing radicals” are, in fact, fighting for the exact same things as our founding fathers. In their own time, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin—they were all radicals, proponents of freedom and representation.
The agenda of the right-wing is radical. This, then, forces the left-ring to react in a radical way to try to stop them—with a conservative goal of preserving democracy and freedom.
While these two “radical” groups are still comparatively small, as their pull grows stronger, it exerts force on the majority of people in the center--pulling them out of the center and towards the edges. It becomes more difficult to sway left or right, when each extreme is so convinced of their point and so closed to the other opinion that there is no room for compromise.
Franklin once said that compromise was the heart of democracy
One of Franklin’s biggest contributions to the convention was his sense of compromise. If delegates decided to be unwavering on every important issue, the constitution could never have been formed. It is only through the compromises of all parties involved that the system of government which has thrived for over 200 years came into being. Franklin compared compromise to a skilled carpenter when he brought up this illustration:
“When a broad table is to be made and the edges of planks do not fit, the artist takes a little from both, and makes a good joint. In like manner here both sides must part with some of their demands, in order that they may join in some accommodating proposition” (Bowen 130).
Yet the radical right has continually set a “no-compromises” tone on every thing they do. It’s their agenda or else. IT doesn’t matter if the issue is large or small, because they are in the majority in the house, senate and control the white house, they allow for no representation from the left.
This puts everything out of balance, and it staggered on this way for several years, until the left finally realized that trying to compromise with the right left them with nothing but compromises, that the right was never giving them even a crust, and that conservative government was starving to death.
And so, with stronger forces at the polls, the center, which can normally adjust to the times, feels more pressure to move away from the center, to the fringes. Once again this puts things even more off balance, and as the radical right moves away from democracy, the conservative-left must counter balance by fighting harder for democracy.
But this polarization is dangerous. It leaves less and less room for debate and compromise. It makes every issue contentious. It forces people to “take sides” politically, rather than based on issues. And, in the end, it closes more minds, which only serves to prolong this vicious cycle.
All this can only end when the side that’s pulling the hardest, in this case the radical right, admits that there are other opinions, other solutions—basically other people in the world besides themselves. When they let up, the equal and opposite reaction is that the left can let up.
You say, “Why doesn’t the left just let up, and then the right will?” The answer is because the left is only pulling so hard as a reaction to the right. If the left lets up, the right, which continues its “no compromise” position, will pull things tragically off-balance.
The right started it, and they will finish it, one way or another. Either they will ease up and allow for compromise, or they will pull harder and eventually break the system in half. It’s called Civil War and we’ve already seen one in this country. Given the close-minded, logic-defying, “no compromises,” “it’s our way or else” fervor of the right, we might just yet see another.
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