The Far Right And The

Our Politics Are Being Hijacked By A Comparatively Small Number Of People Who Seek To Dominate The Debate By Screaming The Loudest. They See The World As An Urgent Struggle Between True Believers And Nonbelievers. They Attempt To Impose Strict Litmus Tests And Insist On Conformity. They Demonize Dissent And Consider All Political Opponents Their Enemies. Fear Is Their Favourite Tactic As They Try To Divide And Conquer

I'm An Independent. I'm A Centrist. A New Generation Is Arriving That Has Grown Up With A Multiplicity Of Choice In Every Aspect Of Their Lives, And Yet Politics Is The Last Place That They Are Told That They Should Be Satisfied With A Choice Between Brand A And Brand B. It Doesn't Fit The Way They Think. It Doesn't Fit The Way They Live.

We Cannot Hope To Change Human Nature. There Will Always Be Cranks And Conspiracy Theorists Among Us. But We Can Try To Improve Things - We Don't Have To Accept The Debasement Of Civil Discourse Or Civic Decline. We Can Take Steps To Ensure That The Lunatic Fringe Remains On The Fringe And Stops Bleeding Into The Base And Then Poisoning The Mainstream

One Tell-tale Sign Of A Wingnut: They Always Confuse Partisanship With Patriotism.

But In His Farewell Address, George Washington Made It Clear That He Perceived No Greater Threat To The American Experiment Than A Partisan Demagogue Who 'agitates The Community With Ill-founded Jealousies And False Alarms, Kindles The Animosity Of One Part Against The Other'