Good Morning.
In a recent article in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks discusses the new radical left that is populated mainly by people under the age of thirty-five. We're not talking your average liberals here that include older folks who are worried about the environment, the tactics being employed down at the southern border, and programs near and dear to them like Social Security and Medicare. Boomer liberals, for example, think that people still get ahead through hard work and talent and that the basic structures of society are in relatively good shape. The young militants are convinced that every aspect of life in America is crummy and should be destroyed and reinvented. Compassion isn't part of their arsenal for change; being indignant is the way to react when something offends them and pretty much everything offends them. They're ready to pull books, even the classics, out of circulation if there's a word or two they deem to be politically incorrect, i.e. Mark Twain is a creep. Movies and television shows produced decades ago should be outlawed because a woman is pictured frying up some chicken for her husband or the family has a person of color polishing the silver. Anything the young rad left finds even slightly objectionable needs to be obliterated for all eternity.
On the flip side of the coin we have the angry right, but these people tend to be over the age of sixty and don't want anything to change, including the demographics of the country. They are white nationalists who want the wall come hell or high water and gun laws that allow virtually anybody to purchase any form of weapon for any reason. Some of them are tax protestors, all of them are intent on eliminating every kind of environmental regulation, and all of them believe the press really is the enemy of the people. They don't give a rip about political correctness, and if they're religious, they judge harshly and often. The younger members of the ultra-right, some of them anyway, are more open to cultural diversity, but are rabid capitalists like their parents and grandparents. Their counterparts on the left, in contrast, believe that those who are successful had to have achieved their wealth by victimizing everyone around them.
Both the radical left and the radical right claim moral superiority even though both treat anyone who doesn't agree with them badly. They regard the people who make up what is considered the political center as weak and worthless. It's not okay to be pro-life and for Obamacare. It's not okay to be for a tough national defense but against the idea of shooting someone trying to enter the country illegally. It's not acceptable to support gay marriage and go to church. The radicals think the moderates are a bunch of spineless idiots, but the thing of it is, the mods aren't going to wreck the country with their extremism. They're not about to become violent and start throwing punches or worse when someone says something that raises an eyebrow or drops a jaw. They read Little House on the Prairie and Huckleberry Finn and weren't permanently damaged. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen isn't a reason for women to march in the streets. They'd give an arm and a leg to get tickets to Hamilton. They're reasonable Republicans, Democrats, and Independents and they can actually have dinner together once in awhile.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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