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The cult of balance tips right

Paul Krugman continues his righteous jihad against centrism in today’s column, but I have a bone to pick. He says:

The cult of balance has played an important role in bringing us to the edge of disaster. For when reporting on political disputes always implies that both sides are to blame, there is no penalty for extremism. Voters won’t punish you for outrageous behavior if all they ever hear is that both sides are at fault.

I think Krugman would agree that there is a penalty for extremism, only it’s not applied in a balanced fashion, particularly by the cultists to whom he refers. Were this sort of obstruction to come from the left, the cult of balance would melt away. The left would certainly pay a price for extremism, for it pays a price today for demanding adherence to the status quo (which, when you think about it, should be the definition of centrism). For after all, on any issue with a discernible right-left dichotomy (and today, even acknowledgment of scientific truth is subject to a left-right dispute), the cult of balance requires that the left slide toward the middle. When the right makes demands, the cult requires that the middle slide toward the right, thereby establishing a new middle, to which the cultists immediately adjust and anoint the new normal, until the next round of demands.

We now have an unprecedented situation, unless, perhaps, the South made similar demands prior to the Civil War. The Republican party has put a gun to the nation’s head and demanded that we change the constitution or it will pull the trigger. It is well nigh impossible to overstate the outrageousness of this demand. Next week, it will have been digested by the cultists, who will start demanding that Democrats show some flexibility and meet the Republicans half way. So, Krugman is right that right wing extremism goes unpenalized, but don’t for a minute think the left gets a similar free pass.

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