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Look, I've got nothing against moderates.
Probably, if I took a good look in the mirror -- that is, looked at my ACTIONS as opposed to my BELIEFS - I'm probably more of a moderate than I want to admit.
I still think of myself - proudly so - as a radical: the long-haired, fire-eyed anti-war Vietnam veteran of my youth, fighting for truth and justice, banging my head incessantly - and generally fruitlessly - against the establishment brick wall, questioning authority, espousing revolution, a genuine, uncompromising, romantic idealist. That's who I see in my mind's eye.
The "mirror" tells a different story. Middle-aged, pot-bellied, father of two pre-teens, apartment in the city, house in the country, debt up to my eyeballs, classic middle-class.
The problem is, now I GOT something - somewhat less, perhaps, than some others my age, because I spent a large part of my youth sort of pretending that GETTING things wasn't important to me -- but now I got `em, and damn, like anybody else, I wanna keep `em! And wanting to keep the things you got - however few they might be - tends to make moderates out of radicals.
See, thar's the rub, the problem with moderates. Deep down, they don't want change, because change could threaten the accumulations of their lives, and since their lives are defined by their accumulations, the very essence of their being is threatened by change.
So moderates tend to vassal politically back and forth between left and right, looking for "leaders", that is, someone who will protect them and the things they have acquired. Moderates are ultimately defined by their slavish devotion to the status quo, and will consider and accept "change" only so far as they can be convinced that change will bolster the existence of the status quo.
That's where the radicals come in. Left to their own devices, moderates would prefer to sit there and do nothing. Moderates are comfortable; they have their "things", life is good. A moderate thinks, "I am comfortable, why should I change?" It is the job of the radical to make the moderate uncomfortable, because that is the only way to get the moderate to consider change.
Look at what the neocon radicals have done. They took the events of 9/11, fashioned a whole mythology of fear and external threat, and got a great mass of mewling moderates to accept - that is, not vigorously challenge - a fundamental change in the vision, values, and policies of their government. The right wing radicals made them uncomfortable - the terrarists are threatening "our way of life" - so the rule of law, constitutional protections, right to privacy, habeas corpus, checks and balances all go out the window. The totalitarian radical will always say, "In order to give you security, we must take away your freedom." The moderate will almost always respond to the right wing radical, "Take my freedom, give me security, and let me keep my things."
The right lets their radicals yell - LOUDLY. The left tries to silence its radicals. The right understands you need radicals to move the moderates. The left thinks that radicals alienate the moderates. Yeah, on occasion, we (see, I still identify myself as a radical) do alienate moderates. My response? Tough shit, they deserve it. Did I alienate anyone with that? Good. It's my job as a radical to alienate, to make uncomfortable, to challenge the status quo. I don't even have to be right. I merely need to make the moderates THINK about change, something they will seldom do on their own.
Radical leftists fulfill another role, also. We can make the proposals of the liberal leftists look appealing to the moderates. We spout revolution; they offer reform. Their proposals for "change" look "moderate" when compared to ours. Some of the great pieces of social legislation of which the Democratic Party is justifiably proud started out as the revolutionary ideas of the radical left that were "reformed" down by the liberal left, and ultimately accepted by the moderates.
My message in all this? Do not silence your radicals. Do not be ashamed of them. Welcome them to the discourse, engage them in constructive debate, listen to their challenges, and challenge their assumptions. That is what democracy is fuckin all about.
This country has been - and will be - the better for it.
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