It was an article in The Nation written in January of 2024. I wrote a first draft of this article that week but didn't publsh it until recently. Many of the comments I've seen are from other articles from the Nation and Daily Kos, the -progressive newsletter that is supportive of Democrats but takes a toxic tone towards the mainstream media whenever someone like David Brooks or George Will writes a column.

I don't blame you if you don't believe. But I am grateful to didn't start screaming obscenities at me and call me a MAGA extremist. Someone who had been following my columns for two years and who I considered a friend started reading my columns in which I gently suggested about the extreme left's frequently offensive and often bigoted tones. He did so in regard to a historical piece I wrote in which I pointed out the Democratc Party has spent the last half-century moving away froma fifty stage strategy to embrace the urban big state vote, something that began with JFK's 1960s run.

Apparently he read this as a statement that I was MAGA extremist no matter hoiw many times I told them that I was registered Democrat, something I'd never told anyone else. I thought I had blocked him but apparently when he read this very column he accused me of even worse terms, calling me basically a racist and saying point blank being a moderate - which I am - was the equivalent of being a MAGA extremist. I had to block him yesterday something I did not wish to do.

I've made it repeatedly clear that I believe in progressive values but I've read so many columns on this site over the last two years basically, mostly from leftists, that does take totalitarian and elitist tone. Every time I even gently try to point the similarities, I am at best ignored or at worst, called names and a monster. Events in the last year - particularly in regard to the pro-Palestinian protests - have convinced me the extreme left is just a mirror version of the extreme right. The comments sections on so many articles here along prove this point on a daily basis.

Anway thank you for being civil even if you disagree with me or don't believe me. I've spent so much time trying to win the middle ground that I am frequently reminded that to both sides being in the middle is worse than being the political opposite of what they believe in. I've tried to argue for objectivity in my articles even though I admit that I don't believe true objectivity if something a human being can do. But it does hurt when that is considered hate speech itself. and frankly, many people in this site take it that way