There Never Have Been Any Moderates

Just the uncommitted.

The angels (pursuing a blank banner) who refused to side with God or Satan — so abhorrent to Dante Alighieri that they couldn’t get into Heaven or Hell

They were thrown out of heaven that it be not tainted
But the depths of hell refused to receive them
Lest their presence incite the contempt of those there.
— Dante, “Inferno” Canto 3, tr. Vincent Di Stefano.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelations 3:16, KJV

Munr Kazmir’s recent Medium post “Biden and Bloomberg On Boris Johnson Victory” (discussing whether politicians should pursue a direction that moderate voters would consider too extreme) got me thinking.

Recently a boatload of pundits and candidates have been claiming that the extreme left of the the Democratic Party may be sabotaging the Democrats’ chance of winning a 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.

“Shouldn’t we seek the support of moderates rather than extremist liberals?” these pundits argue. But here’s the problem: there are no moderates.

I don’t mean what other pundits are proclaiming, i.e. that we’re living in an unusually fractious era, in which there is no middle ground because everyone has been driven to the extreme left or right.

I grew up politically in the 60’s (Hey Boomers!). On major issues, like civil rights or the war in Vietnam or gender equality, there…