Jewish Journal Editor-in-Chief submits that three extremist initiators and initiatives have been dragged to defeat.
The people and the measures were not extreme. The notion that they are — that is the extreme view.
Arizona's immigration law is a necessary attempt by one state to reign in the rampant illegal immigration that is harming the states, a problem which the federal government is supposed to handle, but consistently refuses to do so.
Ohio's attempt to curb the power of the public unions would have ended the supreme extremism of rewarding public employees with increasing handouts of taxpayer money during an industrial downturn and economic recession, both of which have curbed economic development and innovation in the Rust Belt.
As for recognizing the personhood of a fetus, no self-respecting biologist or medical doctor would dispute that life begins at conception, whether inside or outside of the womb. Mississippi's move to protect that life is not extreme at all, but a reasonable political move flowing from the received opinion of many academics.
Extremism is not a political agenda in itself. Just because local political groups have struggled to force a grip on power in the Middle East does not rule out the growing possibility that Islamist forces are gathering strength to wage a series of military coups, akin to the power grabs that brought previous strongmen like Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak to power decades ago.
The naivete of academics renders their polemics of moderation laughable, if not inscrutable. Their unwillingness to recognize the unforeseen forces of culture and character all trend beyond the calculation of current prognosticators.
Let us not forget that even the United States' CIA did not foresee the forced resignation of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, whose flight from power instigated the Arab Spring. Therefore, we should not be too smug in the superficial appraisal that extremist elements of the Middle East have been adequately neutralized.