A basic principle of politics: extremists suck up all the air and crowd out legitimate voices and real solutions. The political challenge of the broader society is to prevent extremism from becoming the last resort. The broader American society has failed to prevent that, and in this establishment Democrats are as culpable as the Republicans. The Republicans have served the 1%; the Democrats have served the 20%. That leaves the remaining 80% without political power and thus vulnerable to extremism and demagoguery. Demagogues don’t care about the legitimate reasons for anger in the 80%; they are just very adept at exploiting it for their own purposes. That’s why nothing changes once the extremists take over.
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