Extremism on the Right or Left?

The right is still the minority of the people and they are trying to get more power by going further to the right, surpassing the Libratarians that they booted out of the party as being too radical in the 1960's. The left is more to the center (center left) and the right is frustrated that they cannot compete. z

A lot of positions on the right seem to allow for a kind of moralistic absolutism - people who believe with total certainty that their opponent is evil. Take abortion for example - pro-choice just isn't something that people can get worked up enough about to kill someone, while if you believe that abortion is murder, well that is. Another is the size of government, a person on the right who believes that government is tyrannically increasing its scope is probably more likely to use force than someone who believes that the government doesn't provide enough services.

Similar differences could be found for gun control, religion, immigration, etc. Of course there are issues where the left's stances are more likely to lead to violence - think of what gets called "eco-terrorism," but overall total moral certainty seems to be more a feature of the right than the left. I think there are probably a lot of other factors too, but this may play a role.

It only seems that way. Extremist on both sides are wrong.

"Palin officials confirmed a report by ABC News that Palin has received an unprecedented number of death threats since Saturday's shootings and has been in conversations with security officials about the matter. They declined to provide further details."

They're on both sides, the right just gets more attention. It's a ridiculous Bill Maher mentality to think only the Republicans are loons and Liberals are all common sense.

lol. I have to agree with you on that one. I think its because CONS know their US history, and for better or worse, revolt more often in a "traditional" manner...

Btw, the leftist RATM followers are pretty bad too...

Unabomber lefter, Discovery channel hostage taker , Lefter they are out there

The right-wing extremism gets more attention. The fact that they actually have good reason for it is irrelevant.

Because that's what the media is reporting, and Democrats mostly controlled government until recently.

Left wing extremists are pacified when Republicans are out of power.

Wait for it, the rabid right is going to tell you.

Trust me, we lefties have our fair share too.

Righties can just scream a lot louder than we can.