For left-wing purists, moderates — not conservatives — are the true enemy

New York Post ^ | July 18, 2020 | Kevin D. Williamson

[nickcarraway]

Opinion writer Bari Weiss got chased out of The New York Times for her political views — not because she’s an uncompromising conservative, but because she is a moderate.

In our team-sports era of politics as tribal warfare, we’re expected to be all-in for one side or the other. Figures such as Weiss or slightly nonconforming public figures such as author J. K. Rowling (a liberal feminist who expresses some reservations about transgender orthodoxy) or Goya CEO Robert Unanue (whose firm is being boycotted because he said something nice about Donald Trump) are a problem for the cheap moralists and fanatics because they complicate the narrative, forcing partisans to face up to the fact that not every critic of transgender ideology is a right-wing evangelical bigot from Oklahoma and that some Trump supporters are Spanish-American businessmen with deep ties to the Latino community.

We say that we cherish moderates and independents and prefer them to mindless partisans, but, in reality, we punish them. Why? When it comes to our own preferences, we prefer vehemence to moderation and loyalty to independence. We are all Barry Goldwater now, insisting that moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.

[RipSawyer]

May 28 of 2021 will be the 59th anniversary of my swearing in to the United States Navy. I was a draft dodger, I joined the Navy to make certain I would not be drafted into the Army. I remember well the line “all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC”. We have a huge oversupply of both now but the foreign would be no problem were it not for the domestic, at least in my opinion.

[rktman]

8/9/1967 was my report date to RTC Great Lakes. Too bad we didn’t realize at the time the biggest threat would be ENEMIES DOMESTIC. Thanks for your service.