More recently, "extremism" has been associated with notions that American society has fringes -- a highly questionable assumption. In the current sense, there is a "mainstream" of majority consensus and "fringes" which seek to attack this center. Richard Hofstadter's classic essay, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, employed a very different meaning. As Hofstaedter used the term, "estremist" referred to social conduct which rejected civility and relied on force and intimidation to persuade. This is very different from the meaning which makes a judgement about beliefs rather than behavior.

Many people now use this term in an unthinking and uncritical way. This is yet another example of what George Orwell bemoaned as letting stale phrases do the thinking in political discourse. His essay, Politics and the English Language, contains much good -- and largely unheeded -- advice on how clear language and fresh images improve one's ability to think and persuade.

In a truely free society, there will be room for any number of viewpoints, beliefs, and opinions. This is the underlying meaning of the First Amendment. The unfortunate tendency to label a minority opinion as "fringe" and the views of a plurality as "legitimate" is rarely examined for the implication that minorities cannot hold legitimate opinions.

The truth and error are not separated by counting noses, but must be wrestled with in honest and open discourse. The tendency of lesser men to seek to persuade with force, when they cannot carry their position with reason has been remarked in literature since Plato's Republic. The use of force for persuasion is the basest of all political forms. If a society allows itself to be ruled by violent minorities, it has already surrendered its claim to be civilized.

One reason that groups like Citizens for Liberty, the Washington State Militia, and Coaliton for Land Use Education (CLUE) have gained such sway in Whatcom County is that many people have chosen to dismiss them, rather than confront them. This is the course of moral cowardice and the current turmoil which we are reaping is a just fruit of these failures.

Rather than dismiss these people as "extremists" and allow them to bring themselves and others to harm, their errors must be confronted -- firmly, fairly and forthrightly.