...is too far? The 95% tax rate the Beatles sang about in Taxman is an example of going too far left. The extremism we have seen in the last 5-10 years has been entirely to the right. The events of 1/6/21 are tantamount to driving so far on the right shoulder that we are in danger of going off the road. The recent conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in our sky reminded us of the importance of perspective. The two planets appeared to merge in our view while being hundreds of millions of miles apart. My point is that if you are Donald Trump you can get away with calling 78 year-old Joe Biden, steeped in a half-century of mainstream American politics, a socialist. Everyone is a socialist from Trump's perspective. The Right has always been present in our politics, but their current iteration started, in the memory of most of us, with Reagan who was able to do what Goldwater could not - provide a sugar-coating to policy positions which culminated in the overt racism and fascism of the last 4 years. Like the frog in the pot of water brought slowly to a boil, Americans came to accept more and more onerous policies in ever increasing numbers till we got to the point where 70 million of us voted to give Trump a second term. Depending on your perspective you can give the credit for his defeat to the increasing awareness among disparate groups of minorities or to Mike Pence's refusal to aquiesce in Trump's demand that he not certify Biden's election or any number of other factors including dumb luck. The fact remains that in a second term Trump would have had no restraints whatsoever and we would have gone off the road. That there were over 150 Representatives and Senators willing to overturn the presidential election result is a sobering thought. On the one hand it tells us how close our brush with fate was. On the other, it shows the political heft a minority of the electorate wields in our system.
So what are we to do? The answer depends on who we are. Democrats will have to choose between pursuing the agenda that gave Biden the win (not just in the Electoral College) along with majorities in the House and Senate (however small) and trying to find "common ground" with Republicans. Republicans must decide if they are going take their traditional position on law & order, fiscal conservatism, national security etc. seriously or continue to kow-tow to the radical elements among their ranks. Straddling that fence is not acceptable in my opinion. Independents (middle-of-the-roaders) must continue to doggedly insist on staying in our lane and avoiding the folly of straying too far in either direction.