6 year old boy stabbed to death in Illinois because he was Muslim? Extremism.
Hamas? Extremism.
Why can’t we get a Speaker for the House? Extremism.
1/6, COVID run amuck, many mass shootings and the far too frequent “we can’t do anything about that?”
Extremism.
Most of us alive today weren’t alive for one Goldwater moment that so defines why it’s ironic today. I was. The quote echoes down through history, proving just how wrong Barry was. Jimmy Jones and his “People’s Temple” pursued “liberty” when they left for what would become Jonestown. 1/6-ers beat some cops to death pursuing what they considered “liberty.” Clinic bombers and shooters pursued “liberty” for “babies.” Vietnam was an exercise in increasing extremism because our leaders thought, like the French, they could shoot, bomb, agent orange, napalm the Cong and regulars into submission. Of course they certainly were as bad or worse. The French thought mass decapitations would pacify the country.
It’s pretty clear that extremism, in the long run, rarely if ever pacifies. But it certainly gives birth to more extremism and oppressive states. It’s obvious pre-revolution the leaders in Russia were extreme, the response gave birth to worse extremism.
I’m sure members of Hamas think they are pursuing “liberty.”
Barry’s quote is so easy to flip and show historically that extremism is WORSE than just a “vice.”
…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!”
Nothing excuses Hamas, but they do not exist in an extremism vacuum. You’re not an anti-Semite if you point out Netanyahu is NOT Israel, that Net is all stick, no carrot, that corruption is part of the problem, that the assassination of Sadat was proof some want no moderation, no peace. And that’s not just extremists like Hamas.
But getting back to Netanyahu; in his great article, Malcolm Nance, nails it when it come to Net’s leadership…
”Unfortunately, Gaza resembles little more than a 2 million-person open-air prison and people in these conditions literally have nothing to lose. If the army enters Gaza they may put up a level of resistance that will leave Israelis wondering when it will all end… Israel’s sharp veering to the right, backing settlers to seize Palestinian lands extralegally, and indiscriminate killing of thousands of civilians every time there is an uprising have hardened anyone in the Palestinian community…”
Please read for full context.
You don’t want to fund Ukraine’s desire to be free? I get it, though we DEEPLY disagree. But Israel? Without a speaker say bye bye to most of our help there too. And both conflicts are about freedom from extremism: freedom for peace loving Israelis, peace loving Palestinians, peace loving Ukrainians, millions on almost all sides who want freedom, not just for themselves.
But returning home, when it comes to our own efforts to help freedom loving people, you need a speaker for these things. We don’t have a speaker because extremists have turned the House into an unfunny, tragic clown car show crash.
Extremism, no matter what side of any political equation, leads to not just horrific group actions, but horrific actions by individuals. In the case of the boy in Illinois, not only was he stabbed 26 times, but his mother was stabbed by the landlords over the Hama/Israel situation. Extremism leads to shooting up Republican baseball games. Extremism is the hammer to the head of not just Paul Pelosi, but the nation, and too many leaders encourage such. Such chaos serves the evil purposes of the worst leaders, whether from the Russian Revolution, to Hitler’s putsch, to 1/6.
I have seen this my whole life. Extremism tends to lead, not to liberty, but to a loss of liberty, to fascism, to what some dare call “Communism,” to more oppression. Reaction to the extreme treaty at the end of WWI logically led to WWII, the the horrors of Hitler. The extremists who took up the mantras of Marx led to the horrors of Stalin and Lenin, no actual Marxism. Not that a true Marxist state is even possible. Extremism is the hammer to the head of freedom, leads to plots to murder husbands and public servants, threats to election workers…
Extremism is rarely if ever “in pursuit of liberty.” Historically extremism tends to put liberty in front of a firing squad, at the end of a noose, is hacked up like a butchered cow, nailed to a cross.
Yes, compromise has brought forth some really bad results, but it is no match for “extremism in the pursuit of liberty.” And it’s addictive, the worst kind of “vice,” because those who define liberty almost always define it as just for themselves.
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“Inspection” is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 50 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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