by Lowman S. Henry | July 18, 2022

A favorite – and often effective – tactic utilized by the American Left is to give names to things that that make them appear to be something other than what they in fact are, a sort of political Jedi mind trick.  For example, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) resulted in increased insurance costs and restricted consumer choice; the American Rescue Plan designed to blunt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has instead visited upon the nation record inflation.

The mid-term General Election cycle has begun and once again the Left has settled on misdirection as its core strategy.  This time the tactic is being used to describe every mainstream policy position as “extreme.”  The Left comes by this honestly in that it has been captured by the most radical of its adherents who truly believe that mainstream is extreme. Across the land any candidate who does not worship at the altar of AOC and Bernie Sanders is being labeled extreme.

What exactly does the Left view as extreme? Might you, yourself be an extremist? With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy let me provide a few examples:

You might be an extremist if . . . you understand that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles which remain dominant, but fully respect the rights of others to worship as they please . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you believe that killing in the womb a baby human being with a heartbeat is wrong . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you think government at all levels should spend within the means of the taxpayers who fund it . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you welcome legal immigrants and refugees from other nations, but want our country to have secure borders . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you think the harvesting of our nation’s natural energy resources is preferable to being dependent on oil from unstable foreign regimes . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you support your local police and reject the “defund the police” movement that has led to a surge in violent crime in our nation’s cities . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you think the electorate should be comprised of live citizens voting once . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . regulations are a necessity for the smooth functioning of the economy, but over-regulation by non-elected bureaucrats stifles innovation and job creation . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you care about a clean environment, but understand the climate is constantly changing and that is being used to justify a massive expansion of government intervention into the economy . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you want the core causes of gun violence, such as mental health, to be addressed rather than restricting the rights of responsible gun owners . . .

You might be an extremist if . . . you call mothers, well, mothers and not “birthing persons.”

You might be an extremist if . . . you think people should be able to express non-woke opinions without being “cancelled” . . .

If you identified with one or more of these views take away the “if” and the Left will consider you to be an extremist. If you are a candidate for public office and you support any of these policy positions, then you will be labeled in every legacy media report as a “far Right” candidate.

Why is this?

All of these are center-right, eminently reasonable views on current issues.  But the Left has moved so far Left that the center is now considered to be extreme.  The Left is totally intolerant of any departure from the views it deems to be politically correct, so anyone doing so must be labeled an extremist.

Further, the far-Left policies of the Biden Administration have been an unmitigated disaster. From the embarrassing surrender in Afghanistan, to a 40-year high inflation rate, to the destruction of the nation’s energy independence resulting in record high gasoline prices, America is paying a steep price for its current experiment in Democratic socialism.

Recent polls find over 80% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.  When it is your policies that put us on that wrong track you have no defense, so the default tactic is name calling.

Name calling: the last refuge of extremism.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal and Lincoln Radio Journal.  His e-mail address is [email protected])

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